 
My Window to the World

By Alexander Lew

Copyright 2019 Alexander Lew

Cover Design/Graphic

By Alexander Lew

Photographs

All photographs and illustrations, copyright Alexander Lew

All Rights Reserved

Smashwords Edition License Notes:

This free ebook may be copied, distributed, reposted, reprinted and shared, provided it appears in its entirety without alteration, and the reader is not charged to access it.

Disclaimer: The author wrote this book based on his own personal experience. The publisher and author accept no responsibility for any loss, inconvenience, or injury sustained by anyone as a result of information in this book.

Dedicated to:

My family

For all the places you've taken me and all the experiences you have given me so that I may learn.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: Indonesia (Jakarta, Bali, Lombok, Lembang, Belitung)

Chapter 2: Peru (Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu)

Chapter 3: Japan (Tokyo, Hakone, Hokkaido (Hakodate), Shirakawa-go, Kyushu (Hakata, Nagasaki), Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Nara, Kyoto)

Chapter 4: Mediterranean: Italy (Rome, Vatican, Palermo/Sicily, Genoa), Malta (Valletta), Spain (Barcelona), France (Marseille)

Chapter 5: Korea (Seoul, Mt. Seorak, Nami Island, DMZ), Singapore, Thailand (Phuket, James Bond Island, Bangkok)

Chapter 6: Florida (Orlando), Cayman Islands (Stingray City), Jamaica (Dunn's River Falls), Haiti (Labadee)
Prologue

My name is Alexander Lew. I am a teenager living in the United States. The first time I travelled overseas was when I was just a couple months old. I had never seen a plane nor knew that a world outside of my neighborhood even existed. But little did I know, that adventure would be the first of many. Each time we embarked on a new journey, I knew a wide variety of exciting experiences would follow, and thus, always brought a notebook. As far back as I can remember (possibly even before learning to write in school), I've always recorded my travels, whether it be in the form of pictures or paragraphs. Over time, I began to realize that these trips were not commonplace among my peers. Most of my friends (and even some adults) I learned had never stepped foot in an airplane, let alone venture out of the country. In shocking contrast, however, here I was, attempting to describe the various landmarks of six continents of the world and over thirty states in the U.S. that I've been to. I wanted to describe amazing wonders and highlights of other countries. I wanted to explain their drastically different standards and culture. I wanted them to know what it felt like to hold a stingray in the Cayman islands, to climb to the Sun Gate in Machu Picchu, to take a bullet train in Japan. But, I could never find the words. The memories overwhelmed me. So, I began to pour more and more of my experiences, thoughts, feelings into my notebooks. And this, the book in your hands, is one of the results. I've come to appreciate the gift of traveling, as it has opened my eyes to the world, but I realize, most are not so fortunate. As such, I have condensed the other-worldly experiences of six of my trips into this book for those who are unable, for those who are unaware, for those who want to, at the very least, catch a glimpse into the more foreign— yet nonetheless fascinating —parts of the world we live in.

Chapter 1

Indonesia (Jakarta, Bali, Lombok, Lembang, Belitung)

Sometimes vacation plans don't turn out to be what you think they will. Luckily, that doesn't happen to my family, or at least until this trip. This time, we went to Indonesia, for the third, no, fourth time. It's an island nation consists of more than 13,000 islands between Singapore and Australia. I initially believed that it was going to go like all the other times I went: according to plan, but this trip turned out to be quite the ride.

Finally, after countless travel plans, we departed from our house to the airport at a reasonable time— 12:00 PM. Usually, we leave at some absurd hour, like at midnight, or 3:00 AM. But this time, things were really looking up. We arrived at the airport via a shuttle, one of the two ways we usually start the trip— driving and parking being the first. I was in a pretty good mood because going to Indonesia, based on past experience, yielded a very relaxing time; also, summer vacation had just begun.

Now LAX has always had beefed up security, but this time, you could barely even check-in with all the extra safety measures in place. We didn't go to the international terminal, but rather the domestic one because the flight was co-shared with a U.S. carrier. That was nice because the international terminal, although very luxurious, kind of intimidated me at the entrance.

The time that we arrived at the gate was pretty standard too, with the normal two (or more) hours until we were to actually board the plane. In the meantime, we had a few things that we could entertain ourselves with (and by we, I mean myself): 1) we had brought a tablet as a gift for one of my mom's relatives in Indonesia (that I could, of course, play) 2) there were several book stores where I could stare and read interesting literature and 3) I could chat with my aunt from San Francisco, who joined us in the airport. Obviously, with two hours of spare time, I resorted to doing all three.

When we got our seats on the plane, I have to say, the cabin was VERY impressive— it didn't have a separate floor for toilets, but it did have nice seats, windows, and (best of all) an up-to-date personal entertainment system. Now, the only thing that I'd like to point out about this plane were the windows. They were really cool, and you could change how bright/dim the view was by pressing a button, instead of putting down a blind. The downside of this, however, was that several times during the flight, the PILOTS could take control of your blind, and you'd be stuck at full brightness while you wanted to sleep.

Let's just skip the next ten or so hours worth of movies and games to arrive at Tokyo, Japan. We had to transfer within less than an hour to get to our next gate at the airport. A couple of obstacles, though, stood in our way. For one, everyone had to go through security AGAIN, so we had to re-empty our water bottles. Also, because the airports were GIANT, it took a long time to get from one end of the airport to another— even with conveyor belts/moving walkways.

In the end, we got to the tram stop for our gate. As the minutes rolled by, we started freaking out about why the tram didn't come. When I say "freaking out" I mean trying to stay awake, and not sleeping. Jet-lag came close to knocking us out cold. After some time, the doors finally opened and we all boarded the tram onto another flight headed for Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia (apparently, the tram stop _was_ the gate). This flight was similar to the first, but only took about six hours. Still, I had to stay somewhat awake during the flight to combat any possible jet-lag.

Again, fast forward a couple of hours, and we were in Jakarta. It was early evening when we exited the terminal to find— nobody! We began to panic because one of my mom's siblings was supposed to pick us up, but they kept changing: first my aunt, then my uncle, then my other aunt.... Luckily, my dad moved up and down the terminal to find my mom's brother. He helped load all of our things into the car before we melted— because, you know, being at the equator, Jakarta is very HOT and HUMID.

There are a LOT of differences between the U.S. and Indonesia. For instance, based on what I observed, many of the streets were quite crooked and tiny. So, getting around was very difficult. Another example was that it seemed like half of all the buildings were 'tin shacks'— quite literally shacks made of tin. But, there were also some truly amazing skyscrapers in certain places that left even I in awe. It just depended on where you looked.

We arrived at the house after an hour of driving, and, walking in the door, I saw my cousin watching TV. We hadn't met for two years, which isn't a very long time, but still. I, of course, immediately went to bed. After all, we'd just traveled halfway around the globe.

The next day we went to MONAS (National Monument) which reminded me of the Washington monument—it looked like a giant torch sitting on a base with a golden flame on top. It is the landmark of the capital city, Jakarta.

The entrance to the monument was kind of weird. In order to enter, we (And by 'we', I mean myself, mom, dad, my aunt (from San Francisco), my other aunt, and my other cousin) had to go across the street, underground through a tunnel, up into the plaza, and into the gated region of the plaza. We checked downstairs first, and there was the national history of Indonesia. I couldn't make out much of it because it was in Indonesian, but I could tell that the country had been colonized many times in its history. After making it around the entire underground, we headed up towards the torch, and waited in line to take an elevator to the top. After a long wait, and trembling leg muscles, we got to the front— I was filled with excitement. We rode the elevator towards the top, and got to see all the amazing sights around Jakarta. All around looked metropolitan yet very clean.

After eating lunch, we headed back towards the house to relax and to reapply insect repellent. Did I mention that there were A LOT of hungry bugs and mosquitoes just waiting to get a taste of fresh American blood? So, just to be safe, we didn't just spray ourselves with the insect repellent, but also brought heavy clothing (very difficult in hot weather) and these insect "repellent bands". I'm not quite sure if they worked though, because I still got a couple of bites over the course of the trip.

Later, we went to dinner at a fancy restaurant, and pretty much all the relatives that I could think of (and more) came. There were my mom's brothers and sisters, their children, my grandmother's brothers and sisters, their children and grandchildren, and so on and so forth. In fact, the whole reason we came to Indonesia was to celebrate my grandma's birthday. When we revealed that the party was for her, she was incredibly surprised, thinking that the party was for someone else. Her face lit up as a birthday cake came and I could tell that she was overjoyed. Then, the various dishes came. However, I wasn't really accustomed to traditional Indonesian food; the spiciness and heat of it all really threw me off. I later found out that the spicy food actually kept mosquitoes away, which could've been really useful during my trip. After eating, we all sang Happy Birthday to my grandmother for turning eighty years old! There was cake, and the whole package with karaoke and pictures. In returning, we watched a movie in the car. I had no idea that my uncle could sing karaoke on his "karaoke machine", which really was something.

The next day we all drove to a church located inside of a mall, pretty much like every other decent store we'd seen. The mall was "only" five stories tall and was at least two times larger than our local mall in the U.S., which by Indonesian standards was "small". We headed up to the top floor and got into our seats.

I didn't understand a word of the preaching. I kept bugging my mom asking what the priest was talking about, but I could tell she was having a hard time juggling the two languages. After the sermon, we met the priest, who apparently had a power to heal the sick. I was told that at one point he was even able to resurrect the dead. There were a lot of people lining up outside his office wanting to meet him. Luckily, after a sizable wait, we got our chance.

It was about noon at this point, and due to jet-lag, I had a pretty big headache. We ate at one of my relative's restaurants (Literally the entire side of my mom's family tree showed up there). The restaurant's specialty was Belitung noodle (Belitung is a tiny island in Indonesia). It was one of the best noodle soups I ever had with tons of real crab meat (not the artificial kind) and big fish cakes. We went back to the house. I was VERY tired and aching by this point; I slept from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM and all the way to 8:00 AM, almost straight— but that's just how jet-lag works. After this tiring episode, I had minimal jet-lag for the rest of the trip.

Our next destination was Bali, and the inevitable: waiting. Remember the tablet I brought from the U.S. to entertain myself with? That thing was long gone by this point because we had to give it to my mom's relative as a gift. But luckily, I could use one of my relative's gadgets to relieve the pain of waiting. Jakarta's airport featured a lot of traditional architecture, but by this point, it was kind of run down. However, I heard lately that it has changed for the better.

As usual, I just looked inside bookstore after bookstore to pass the time and maybe obtained a bit of knowledge while I was at it. The only problem I noticed in Indonesia was that every book in the bookstore, and I mean EVERY book, was covered in plastic wrap so that one could only see the cover and back. This was really unfortunate because in the U.S., the local bookstore was basically a library. Now we actually had to pay if we wanted to even peek at those novels or magazines. The good news was that since the dollar bill is significantly stronger than the Indonesian Rupiah, currency-wise, most things appeared to cost 25% less than in the U.S. The rate of dollars to Rupiah was $1 = 13,000 Rupiah.

After everyone (fourteen in total, I think), boarded the plane, we all got ready to depart towards Bali. I could remember that just five or so years ago, a three or more hour waiting time was EXPECTED, but now, the planes actually arrived on time!

After arriving in Bali, the hotel staff, who picked us up, were surprised at how many people we had, but somehow managed to squeeze us all into two vans. In case I haven't emphasized this enough, I'm going to reiterate on the fact that the combination of lower prices and my uncle's fanciness led to some pretty crazy accommodations. And by that, I mean they were very good accommodations.

When we pulled up to the villa, I was immediately surprised at how nice it was, just like all the other times I'd traveled with my relatives in Indonesia. But just in case my vague description doesn't satisfy, here's what it included: a two-story villa with four bedrooms/bathrooms, one huge living room (with DVDs, cable TV), a kitchen, fish pond, private swimming pool, and a bathtub filled with rose petals! After settling down, we all played in the pool; even though I didn't think of myself as a very good swimmer, I have to say, in comparison to my relatives, I was pretty good.

The following morning, we had our breakfast served to us, cooked and all, in our own hotel room! I had eggs and sausage, a breakfast that would be considered normal in the U.S. I found that all my Indonesian relatives seemed to have a craving for other types of food (something to do with spicy chicken and rice). After eating a good breakfast, we went to the luscious "Botanical Gardens". I could imagine the towering trees and bright green grass lining the entire park. I assumed those were some of benefits of a humid environment.

Shortly after arriving in the park, we spotted a very interesting amusement park with zip lines. Those hanging wires and ladders turned out to be a nice climbing exhibit that we could play and hang on.

Although it cost a bit, I was actually really excited to get into the treetops.

We first had to go through a tutorial course explaining safety and the hinges on our belt. It wasn't too difficult, except for the times when I had to try and pull my hook out of my belt, which wasn't too fun because it was REALLY large and heavy.

Soon after finishing the tutorial, my two cousins and I went to the easiest course first. It was, as expected, a cakewalk.

Because I was in the middle, I had to wait for my relatives to get across first, and they took their sweet time. By the time it was my turn, it felt like an hour. It was one obstacle after another with lots of ropes, bridges, and everything that I loved to do in the trees.

After a few more courses of having to slow down my pace with my cousins, I decided to go first. I didn't think that I would be much faster than the people behind me, but man, they were really left behind by the time I reached the fourth obstacle. After about a few more, I lost sight of them. Even after waiting behind a group for about ten minutes, they still didn't even come close to where I was because I was so far ahead. Nearing the top of the difficulty pyramid, some pretty serious strength and guts were needed. For one, the last course that I did involved a twenty-foot free fall on a "vine" or rope, to grab the net on the other side. I had to jump with my harness, of course, but I was literally falling for a couple of seconds, until I grabbed the net and came to my senses.

At one point, I even saw my other cousin having to be pulled down from the tree tops because she got stuck in one of the obstacles. I always wondered how they would get someone down because all the trees were ten or more feet in the air, but now I know that they used a sort of pulley to get them down. I finally took a fifty-foot-long zip line down to the end of the second-to-last course. I was pretty tired at that point, so I stopped there and we went to get some lunch at Batur lake.

It was a nice restaurant overlooking a grand lake. Nearing the end of the day, we went to a cliff that my parents said that I went to when I was eighteen months old. The locals call this place Tanah Lot. It's a cliff with a temple on top and a cave at the bottom with sacred snakes in it. During low tide, people could cross the cliff to reach the temple. Lots of people (including married couples wearing wedding gowns) took spectacular pictures there. We pulled up to the cliff, but my relatives wouldn't leave until sunset! The sun was very high above the horizon, but I guess in Indonesia sunset meant when the sun disappeared under the clouds, which pretty much raised the horizon by two or so hours.

Unfortunately, after we made our way down to the beach near the cliff's side, I fell into a pothole, full of water. It was really uncomfortable walking from then on. At one point, we even saw a crab that was running at what appeared to be fifty miles an hour around my cousin's legs before making its way to the water. It was late, I was cold, and when we finally got back to the van, we had no idea where my grandma went. Of course, that added at least another thirty minutes onto the stop.

Finally, after arriving back at the villa, our villa chef prepared seafood BBQ at the poolside for us. We had crabs, lobsters, clams, fish, and shrimp. It was, as one would suspect, very scrumptious. Then, I went back to the room to take a shower, but there, I encountered the only thing wrong with the villa: there was no water pressure. That meant that all I had was a tiny trickle of water coming down from a calcified spout. That may have been OK, if the AC wasn't just three feet away, and the bathroom wasn't so huge. In fact, the bathroom may have been about the size of the bedroom considering how cold it was inside the "shower".

The next morning, we were picked up by a minivan to go to Lembongan island. I forgot what the name of the minivan was, but it was really colorful with cute cartoon pictures painted on it, and I could tell that it was going to be a decent experience apart from the usual running around to see the sights that we usually have with my mom and dad. We got onto the small cruise ship and were immediately served coffee and pastries, which was amazing! Unfortunately, about twenty minutes into the cruise, my cousins all got SEASICK! By my cousins, I mean my younger and middle cousin because my uncle and older cousin didn't come (we would later find out that they were driving motorcycles around the city). Back at the cruise, my cousins were getting pretty nauseous, and had to "use" the restroom and some barf bags. However, after going on so many cruises and such, I believe that I was pretty much immune to that sort of thing.

We finally arrived at a pontoon/floatation device near the shore. I found it to be interesting because it literally had a water slide built into it. The end of the slide was about six feet above the actual ocean water, though, which kind of terrified me. I opted not to subject my body to that type of impact. During the not-seasick minutes of the cruise, my cousins and I planned what we were going to do. I had already suggested going on the banana boat first, and that was what we did.

When we first revved up, I was a bit worried because all three of us were minors, and the boat was going pretty fast, so I was about ninety-percent sure that one of us wasn't going to make it. Luckily, I was in front, so if my grip ever failed I'd have a few people to land on. Surprisingly, we survived not one, but two rounds of the banana boat. Soon after, our parents left for snorkeling. But, they returned a lot sooner than I thought. Apparently, they were attacked by lots of small jellyfish. The resort staff promptly sprayed them with vinegar. I guess vinegar is used to heal or neutralize the jellyfish sting. My mom said that at first, she thought she saw small plastic bags in water while snorkeling and ignored them. But, she encountered more and more such that by the time she realized what they _actually_ were, it was too late.

In the meantime, my cousin and I headed off towards the center of the amusements: the pool. I was really excited because pools were significantly more enjoyable than the open ocean and they were much cleaner, less salty, cooler, and generally better-maintained than the wilderness of the ocean. We tried playing volleyball, but the ball was literally like a rock when I hit it, so I usually ended up hurting my knuckles and hands whenever I tried to get it over the net. Soon after trying my hand at the torment of volleyball and swimming, we (me and my cousin) immediately departed for the canoes. I could canoe wherever I wanted, but I stayed inside the boundaries (just in case). I really liked it, but soon I got bored and went to try out some paddle boarding. I just have to say that I'm not very good at standing up and paddle boarding because I almost fell more than once, and I was satisfied with sitting down while my cousin did the actual paddling. It was all fun canoeing/paddle boarding until we went to get lunch.

After exiting, my younger cousin got her foot stuck under a canoe, and it RIPPED a toenail off! I wasn't too aware of what happened, but I could tell it hurt. But it wasn't the first time something related to nails has happened to her. I'm not even sure if it's coincidental anymore. All I know is that she didn't re-enter the water for the rest of the day. The food at the place was actually fairly good with spring rolls, skewers of food, and fried rice, all of which were neat, flavor-wise.

Then, the worst thing in the world occurred:

"Nooooooowwwwwww ccchhhhaaaannnnggeeee yyyooouuuuurrr cccllllooottttthhhheeeeeesss," said mom.

It was horrific. I could never really manage; I mean I could, but I really hated doing that—especially because I was in a swimsuit and I had to rest my dry clothes on a wet area. Also, the world's worst ocean liner was all over me: SAND. Sand is my worst nightmare when changing and showering off, because 1) it is REALLY sticky, 2) it is really uncomfortable and 3) I just can't get that terrible substance off of me! After countless attempts of pain and torment to change my clothes, I came up with a semi-dry outfit. Then, we got to the island tour just in time.

There was nothing much to see other than maybe a few seaweed farms. We got back quickly to take a boat to the pontoon.

After a short boat ride we landed on the pontoon to enter the "semi-submersible". I thought it was a submarine, but it was "SEMI-submersible", so only half the "submarine" actually went under the water; we could see little to no fish. Or that was what half the people said, because the people on the OTHER side got to see all the fish while we were busy looking at the slightest glimmer of a "rock"! By the time we got back, it was really late, and we got back onto the cruise. This time, we got onto the second deck of the cruise instead of staying inside, and that actually helped with the sea sickness (or at least it seemed to help). There was even a band that played/sang songs and took song requests! It was pretty interesting listening to the Indonesian musicians sing American songs. We then got back to the villa and relaxed.

Our next stop was Besakih temple, which was somewhat interesting. This temple is known as the "Mother temple" in Bali. It is located right at the base of the mighty Mount Agung.

In order to get in the temple, we first had to wear a "sarong", which is some kind of cloth wrapped around our waist. This is true for each of the holy sites we went to in Bali. While in Bali, you'll oftentimes see some of the statues wrapped in a black and white chest-pattern sarong, which symbolizes good versus evil on earth. The religion in Bali is Hindu, so there are lots of temples and offerings of flowers everywhere, i.e. on the street, in front of houses, in the temple. You need to be careful while walking because you don't want to step on the offerings on the ground. Also, women having their monthly period can't enter the temple because it's seen as "dirty". People in Bali believe in reincarnation, meaning rebirth as a different being after death. Therefore, they try to be good while they are still alive, hoping that they won't be reincarnated as an animal, such as a dog, in their next life.

There were about three big temples that I saw there, all with a pretty neat view. The guide at Besakih temple told us that it always rained at 3:00 PM, which was exactly when we visited. But, this time it didn't, possibly due to my aunty's powerful prayer (she is incredibly religious), which I'm pretty thankful for. I didn't need to get soaked more than once. Finally, after departing the temple, we drove to a beach; we didn't actually go swimming there, though, because of the strange-looking water. So, we got back in the van, and drove for another 2+ hours to arrive at yet another beach (yes, another one). I really wasn't in the mood for anymore beaches, so I didn't swim. The place didn't even have electricity, so soon after, we got back into the van and drove back.

We still had to eat a proper meal, so we went to a pretty fancy restaurant and ate there. It had a weird setup, with not much back support in the chairs, but the food was OK. After finishing, I learned that our hotel's van only catered up to about 8:00 or 9:00 PM, and so, it couldn't pick us up. To this disastrous revelation (in my opinion), my uncle said "no problem" and promptly looked up some directions on his phone. I wholesomely objected to blindly following the what the phone said. But, we started walking along the path anyway. I was pretty terrified as we shifted through several dark and tiny alleys. After all, it was really late at night and I was in a foreign country. However, my family took those odds and just turned on all of their phones' flashlights, which actually lit things up a bit. After a lot of walking, we finally made it to the hotel. It was VERY late, and we were extremely tired. Of course, as soon as I could, I fell fast asleep.

The next morning, my mom's relatives, and my family (and aunt) had to split up. I later found out that they wouldn't come with us to the next place we were visiting, Lombok island. That was a shame and we parted ways at the airport. It was a short flight to Lombok (located next to Bali island). Unlike Bali, Lombok was very quiet, with less traffic and less tourists. We then went to the hotel at Mataram (capital of Lombok), which wasn't ANYTHING like the villa we had just left in Bali. It was to say the least, different. I couldn't help but notice the style and decoration of the hotel. For one, the hotel seemed to be modern, but with a retro touch. It had several paintings/posters on the wall of famous people from like the 70s or so. It had all the essentials of a regular hotel room (like a shower, bed, and TV), and our room had a nice view of mount Agung in a distance (although the mountain was actually in Bali island, we could still see it!).

The hotel also had internet access, and breakfast (standard). We booked two rooms with a connecting door because my aunt was there. Still, we had to get dinner, so we went to a traditional restaurant to have some traditional food; one of the famous dishes in Lombok is "taliwang" chicken. It was delicious, but the chicken was so small and skinny! To be honest, it's probably better that way— it's organic. In Indonesia people seemed to love eating fried, skinny, small chicken with rice and hot chili sauce.

The next day, we went downstairs for breakfast. I began to get food from the buffet. They served mostly Indonesian breakfast with food like fried noodles, stir fried vegetables, and prawn chips. It was kind of strange to eat this kind of food for breakfast, but I kind of liked the porridge. Also, they had a sort of broth where you put vermicelli and some chicken meat in yourself, which was also really cool. There was, in addition, a "secret" item that wasn't presented at the buffet. I guess it really wasn't a secret because many people knew what it was: eggs. There weren't any eggs, but all we had to do was ask and they served us eggs. They were pretty typical eggs, though, so I really didn't care too much for them.

The tour guide then took us to the South Sea Pearl Farm.

At the farm, my parents took forever deciding on what to buy. Earlier on the way to this pearl farm, we bought presumably "fake" pearls for 10% of the value of what real ones would've cost. We learned at the farm that the ones that we got were freshwater pearls, and that one could produce forty pearls per clam in a year, but one oceanic/real pearl could only be produced in one clam about once every five years. A real South Sea pearl can cost hundreds of dollars depending on the size and shape of it. The bigger and rounder the pearl is, the more expensive. Apparently, Lombok is famous for its pearls. There are so many different colors, from pink to brown, which I have never seen before.

After another drive, we reached the last leg of our tour: the waterfalls. It was about lunch time, so we ate at a nearby restaurant on the hill. Since I didn't see any interesting food (and I needed some quick energy), the traditional restaurant had something else: Spaghetti. Soon after finishing, we started walking on the road towards the waterfall. At some point, we cut off from the main road and started walking along the thick bushes, which was really creepy because I had no idea what might be down near my feet. To add to the tension, just a few steps to the left, there was a huge shortcut to the waterfall. In fact, it was so short, that one would cover 200+ feet in under a second (if you know what I mean). It was also pretty dangerous, so we kept to the right. Now, on the right, there was a giant aqueduct for water which went directly to the city, and that was what we followed as we walked along the cliff. It may have been my senses tricking me, but as we walked, I felt like we were descending, but that couldn't be true, because then the water would be flowing upstream!

I always looked down to see where I was going, and since the ground always looked the same, I felt like I was walking on a treadmill. I really didn't need anymore of a workout than what I already had over the course of this trip. After a long hour or more of walking, we got to a bridge. The guide told us that it was made by the Dutch after they colonized Indonesia. The water actually ran through the bridge, and it was about 30+ feet above ground, which was kind of scary. It didn't help that the bridge had metal grates so that you could look directly down and that the stairs were like one foot tall per step. I mean, my feet can be flexible, but those steps were definitely NOT standard!

After climbing down even more with the water still beside us, we reached the river. The trail literally ended right there. I was confused at first, but then I realized that we were going to have to actually _cross_ the river ourselves. The water was ULTRA cold, but shallow, so we made it across the river. Still, there was no path, so we had to zigzag across the river a couple more times to finally get to our destination. The waterfall was huge, and the water pouring from it actually created a giant mist cloud that almost clogged the camera. By the time the waterfall came into sight, it looked like a tornado, and I could hardly see it without squinting.

Then came the difficult part: we were to BACK INTO the waterfall, which appeared to have the force of the meteorite that wiped-out the dinosaurs. As I backed into the mist, I could tell that if I didn't come back, I would be missed. The waterfall was surrounded by rocks so that I was basically standing in a gorge as the water rained down behind me. It just got colder and colder as I went back because the water stirred a LOT of wind. We walked extremely slowly because it was very slippery. The sharp rocks at my toes didn't really help either. After about fifteen minutes, we decided to step away from the waterfall.

That was when the (almost) unthinkable happened: I slipped on a rock and fell! It REALLY hurt. So much that words can't describe, so I'll just skip the throbbing, burning, aching pains of the immediate aftermath. After settling down, our guide offered to carry me. I thought he was out of his mind for second because he didn't seem to be incredibly strong, but one minute later, he picked me up and we crossed the river like I was his lunch bag or something. He pretty much saved me. I came to the realization several times during the hike back up that I fell at the FARTHEST place possible from help/our car. Luckily, the throbbing subsided after about thirty minutes. We then took a visit to the smaller waterfall, which, of course, I did not partake in. I just recorded them all underneath the smaller waterfall. By the time we got back into the car, it was late afternoon, and we started driving to dinner.

As I got medicated on my leg, I realized that since this was during Muslim fasting season, our guide must not have eaten in over 10+ hours, and was STILL able to carry me to safety, which was really impressive. I truly couldn't thank him enough.

Two hours later, we arrived at our dinner location: A seafood restaurant. There were fish, squid, lobsters on the window display. We browsed, ordered things from the window display, and got a table. They priced the seafood based on weight, which led to a rather expensive bill. After reading the menu, we realized that we could've ordered from the set menu, saved about 50%, AND gotten the same food and MORE! That was pretty unfortunate, but when the food did finally come, and we ate, all that didn't matter: the food was delicious. The saltiness and savoriness of the crab and lobster were absolutely stunning, especially because they were incredibly fresh. We were supposed to go to Pink beach the next day. But, the journey was cancelled due to bad weather. They would take us to Gili islands instead, at the other side of the island, for snorkeling.

After waking up the next day, we ate breakfast, and prepared to go snorkeling. I was excited not because of snorkeling (even though that was still pretty cool), but because this was the last day of the trip in Lombok— I would soon be back with my cousins in Jakarta! EVERY SINGLE CAR RIDE in this trip seemed to take forever, but this one must've been the longest because we got LOST. The guide didn't seem familiar with our destination. Believe it or not, we had to go around the same hill not once, but _twice_ before he finally got his bearings. When we reached our boat launching destination, we got ready, but after a while, nothing happened. The boat was not ready, but the captain had to run to the gas station and grab a few bottles of oil! We also realized that there were NO lifejackets on the boat— we usually get them if we go snorkeling.

Even so, we got going anyway and after a short boat ride, we arrived at the snorkeling area. This time I learnt how to SUCCESSFULLY snorkel! I snorkeled before but wasn't too good at it as the water always got in, but now I knew better. There were many fish, coral, starfish and (surprise!) JELLYFISH! At first, I thought my lungs were snapping or something (which is worse), but then I realized that the stings (like very painful electric shocks) were everywhere! I could endure it though, and every time I saw something that looked like a tiny grain of trash or plastic, I steered clear, because it was almost certainly a recipe for disaster!

Some of the more interesting creatures I saw were multi-colored and in a variety of shapes from spheres to disks. It was almost noon and soon after we left for a deserted island to eat a bit of lunch.

It was actually pretty good, and I relaxed on the lawn chairs. The only problem is that in Indonesia, there are a lot of insects, so every now and then, a giant (and when I say giant, I mean it) ANT would crawl up and I'd have to deal with it. Later on, the sun was covered up by the clouds. That made me quite chilly, but, hey, at least I wouldn't get as bad of a sunburn. After a few hours, the guide asked some of the locals to find a few edible shells that I could cook and eat. They found so many, and digging in the sand, they gave them all to me! We cracked one open, and I was told that I could eat one RAW. After a bit of hesitation, I did, and it tasted a whole lot like salt water. Thirty or so minutes later, we went to another island and saw a FULL GROWN TURTLE pop its head out of the water. It was really cool, and I was glad we witnessed it!

We then went back to the mainland and drove back. The following day, we flew back to Jakarta. On the way to the airport, we visited Sukarara village, where you could see traditional weaving. I attempted to weave something, and did, but not before my back felt like it was going to split open (I wasn't particularly strong). In the back of the shop was the actual village: it was filled with vegetation. I could see natives all around weaving. We got a chance to try on a traditional costume and pose for pictures in front of the traditional Lombok house. We also stopped by a big souvenir shop, where my mom bought some traditional wooden plates/bowls decorated with abalone shells and some handcrafted jewelry.

After resting and relaxing for a day in Jakarta, we went to Lembang, which is located in the mountains a few hours drive away. It was a couple of days before Muslim New Year, which meant that most of the people in Jakarta went back to their villages. That also meant that traffic going out of Jakarta was VERY bad (the city was practically vacating itself). Most of the people in Indonesia are Muslims. The rest are a mixture of different religions, such as Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, etc. Since the majority are Muslims, there are mosques everywhere; they need to pray five times a day!

On the way to Lembang, we once again watched another movie in the car, which really helped to pass the time, and we arrived at our villa. It was really neat, with two floors, several bedrooms, a private swimming pool, kitchen, BBQ, roof garden, greenhouse, fish to feed, and two living rooms complete with— _shudder_ —karaoke machines. Every room, of course, had a bathroom, TV, and more, but only our room had a view looking out onto the lawn, and a toilet with a sprayer (not that I'd actually use it). However, many other people typically DID use a sprayer, and when some toilet sprayers didn't work, they decided to just come into our room instead. Naturally, ALL of our relatives came to the villa, which was pretty nice, but also very different from what I was used to. In fact, I think there were even MORE people than in the last villa in Bali. I also found it really neat that the villa had a pond in which you could feed the fish, which were of many different shades of orange and white.

I went to swim in the pool, even though it was drizzling, and played with my cousins. To be honest, the pool was quite freezing, and the so-called "Jacuzzi" next to it was about as warm as a refrigerator. Luckily, there was a shower outside with pretty hot water, so that kept me going while my cousins tried to warm up on "heated" Jacuzzi water. I then continued my recreational experiences by taking a bath. The soap/shampoo that they supplied was very plentiful, and it smelled amazing as well. The cleansers would last us until the end of the trip. Unfortunately, taking a shower in the restroom caused it to "flood" (because there was neither a shower pan nor curtain), which got everything wet. So, we couldn't really get to the toilet without stepping into a lake of water. Either way, I got dressed for bed and began to relax by watching some cable TV (A luxury that I wish I had at home in the U.S.). Of course, everything was in Indonesian, but I still found a couple of channels in English. I soon went to bed and fell asleep. Unfortunately, every morning we were woken up at around 4:00 AM by the Muslim prayers at a nearby mosque. They were very loud. I learned that powerful loudspeakers were commonly used in mosques. Apparently, they were used for the call to prayer.

The next morning, we all got into two cars to leave for "White Crater", a sulfur lake. The drive, this time, was about FOUR hours! So, we watched two more movies in the car, and arrived at the lake. As soon as I stepped out, I could already smell something was wrong. By wrong, I mean it smelled like rotten eggs. The lake looked like a bog or something, and was completely covered in mist/fog. It gave a spooky feeling to it. The visit was actually pretty quick considering that it was a four-hour drive. We snapped a couple of dramatic pictures and were on our way.

We finally ran out of movies on the way back. Getting back to the villa, we found that there were even MORE relatives that had arrived since we got here. Everyone went to play in the pool, but I opted not to get hypothermia in the freezing rain. Unfortunately, this was our last day, and the next morning, we had to leave.

After arriving in Jakarta, we looked in malls for a whole day— just malls! I loved to go to malls there. They were all so HUGE, beautiful, modern and with plenty of food courts. Throughout my travels, I noticed that the malls in Asia were always crowded. They had everything: Wi-Fi, air conditioning, good shops, and more! In fact, I spent hours on just one bookstore! It was interesting, but I couldn't really read too much of it because 1) it was in Indonesian and 2) the books were always covered in plastic wrap!

The next day, we went to "Miniature Park". I thought that this was going to be an amusement park with rides and stuff like that. However, after an hour drive, I found out that it was a collection of miniature versions of traditional houses in Indonesia's twenty-seven provinces.

Although it's called miniature park, the traditional houses are large enough to get in. In fact, they're about the size of a normal house (so I don't know why they call it "miniature" park). The rest of the day, I spent time relaxing at the house. Also, we finished the last (second to last because I watched the last one first— if that makes sense) movie of the series.

At night, my uncle's wife (or yet another auntie), gave me a special type of massage/ointment, which I really enjoyed. Basically, one would just put a few drops of oil onto another person, and rub them, which was really relaxing. To add to the vibe of the relaxing atmosphere, her room literally had a switch that would turn the lights dim AND (get this) start playing relaxing music in the background. It was literally MADE for this sort of thing, which I felt was pretty enjoyable. This was the last day that I would see my cousins before departing for Belitung Island.

We flew to Belitung Island in a tiny airplane (because it was a pretty short distance) and arrived on time. It was extremely hot and humid, and my mom warned me of the mass amounts of flies, insects, and mosquitoes going around the island. So far, we didn't have very many bug bites, and wanted to keep it that way. We were driven to our hotel. On the way, we stopped at an abandoned tin mine. By the way, the island is known for its tin industry.

The abandoned mining area had created a lake with beautiful blue water surrounded by white sand. I heard the intensity of the blue color was a product of the mining industry. We didn't stay long there and went back onto the road. At first, I thought that we were going to a supermarket because there was a market right in front of where we parked. Then, since everyone was unloading, I knew the hotel would be nearby, but I saw no hotel. Finally, I looked up, and saw that the hotel was actually on the third floor of this small building!

All the buildings I'd seen seemed to appear very run down because of weathering, but I'm sure that some of them were pretty new. On the first floor sat the market with all of the essentials (cup of noodles, shoes, and candy). Then, on the second floor, there was an ARCADE, with several interesting games. We didn't bother to look at that because we had to go up to the third floor with all of our heavy baggage and no elevators were in sight. As we made our way to the receptionist's desk, I spotted a sign. It read:

"A whole new way to get upstairs and downstairs: Elevator coming soon".

I was pretty sure that was a joke because 1) construction hadn't started and 2) we saw a photo of the lobby a few months ago with the sign still there. We were then guided to our rooms. My parents asked for a connecting door with my aunt, but just because the rooms were in chronological order didn't mean that they were next to each other. So initially, we were placed on opposite sides. Of course, we got THAT fixed, and finally settled into our room.

The first thing I noticed was how empty the room was. For one, there were no paintings, safe deposits, shampoo, or soap. The second thing I noticed was that the bathroom appeared to have NO DRAIN. Upon further inspection, however, I realized that the water had to go AROUND the toilet and all the way to the edge of the door to finally get into a drain. To make things worse, the tiny water heater could only heat up so much water, so there was hardly any hot water. I then turned on the TV to see if I could watch any of the shows. Indeed I could, but not in any language that I knew. I was pretty sure they were in Mandarin or something, but some of the shows were so expressive that you didn't need to cross the language barrier to understand them. For the rest of the stay in Belitung, I just watched a Chinese cartoon station.

By the time we set up, it was afternoon, but we could still go out and do stuff. So, we went to "Tanjung Tinggi" beach, which was the beach that I went to a couple of years ago.

It didn't change very much; the water was clear and big boulders were still everywhere. I had a lot of fun playing in the water. I really enjoyed climbing onto the rocks, but I knew that the luxuries of the water would soon be trampled by the need to change clothes, which I had a strong aversion to.

We later went to eat dinner at a Chinese restaurant. At this point, I wasn't really hungry, and decided that I would just eat one plate of food. This place was filled with tour groups, and we were the only ones who were independent. My dad asked for a beer, but they said they only had water— yet as we looked around, we could see twelve packs of beer, soda, and more in the refrigerator. So, my dad asked for that, and they were somewhat surprised, but fulfilled the order. Little did I know, but this would be the last night that I'd live insect bite free.

So far, everything had gone according to plan, my injuries not included, but when I woke up, I felt the agony of what I feared the most. I had spotted the giant bulbs of three, no four or so bug bites!!! I also obtained a blister on my finger, or so I _thought_. Still, the day went on, and I didn't pay too much attention to it other than in the morning. Once again, skipping the driving time, we arrived at the beach to snorkel by a taxi. We rented a boat for a day and went island hopping. The first stop was "Sand Island". I think they must've put a lot of time and effort into THAT name. It described the island well. It was all sand, but filled with starfish. I picked one up and was careful that it didn't touch the blister on my finger because it was becoming pretty inflamed. The island was so low to the ground that at high tide, it disappeared! That was why we went there first thing in the morning before it disappeared later. After taking a short stop at that island, we hurried to the snorkeling location. This time, the guide brought bread and crackers. We saw so many types of fish that describing them all would be impossible. There were also plenty of interesting coral formations, and of course: jellyfish! There weren't that many though, and plenty of neat fish were seen. We kept trying to stay ahead of the one hundred boats behind us, so we moved onto the next island: Lengkuas.

By this point, my finger couldn't really bend, and I was applying ointment to my bug bites regularly. The island had a large lighthouse, and we walked to it, but there was this person who caught my attention. He was taking a photo of the island with a drone! He had a case, camera, and everything; he certainly was prepared. We then started towards the lighthouse, which was near to the shore (obviously). Before entering, everyone had to clean their shoes of sand with a sponge, which I gladly did because my water shoes were filled with all sorts of debris.

We then took a climb up the lighthouse, which had 20+ floors. Every floor that we went up, it got hotter and hotter, and the space that we could walk on shrank. The steps were also pretty steep, which wasn't surprising considering the fact that we were walking up a lighthouse. At some points we saw a few people taking pictures out the windows, and people were trying to come down. Unfortunately, the construction of the lighthouse had it so that if a person was really slow, they would hog the staircase; there was only one way up and down— other than the shortcut off the edge.

Finally, after a long walk, we reached the "top". The area had a small door where one would be able to exit towards the outside and walk. There was only a flimsy handlebar that would keep us from falling 200+ feet. There were also a few holes the size of pipes that were in the walking area, so those were particularly unnerving. From the top, I could see the expanse of the ocean and even some of the other islands! After heading back inside, we decided to go to the VERY TOP, which housed the light of the lighthouse; all we needed to do was climb four steps. The place was roped off, but we went up there anyway. The view from up there was even more spectacular. You could see big and small boulders scattered around the beautiful turquoise water miles around. We couldn't stay long to enjoy because everything was very, very HOT. Soon after, we went down the steps of sweat.

The next place we went to was off the tour because my parents requested a second snorkeling spot. In this place, imagining myself a professional snorkeler, I jumped in... and scratched my heel. I looked into the water and saw something that greatly disturbed me. Not jellyfish, nor sharks, but SEA URCHINS!!! I freaked out and immediately lurched out of the water thinking that I was stung by a sea urchin, my WORST nightmare (at this point). It turns out I just scraped some coral (we think). I sat-out from snorkeling for the rest of the trip. After that incident we still went to yet a few more islands, but I decided to stay put because I really wasn't in the mood to take a step out of the boat.

Finally, we went to a pontoon that housed lobsters, crabs, and more. It was basically a floating farm with a lot of connected tubes. We could even see a few of the crustaceans. The pathways were a bit narrow and the problem was that one wrong step or big wave would send us swimming with lobsters and their sharp claws.

The next day was Muslim New Year, and almost all shops and stores were closed. The hotel owner helped us find someone who would drive us to my granduncle's village, and he did, but the driver was inexperienced and looked up the directions on her phone. I knew this wasn't going to end well, especially in a place this remote. Sure enough, it led us to more tin mining fields— we almost sailed through a lake in order to reach our destination! Nevertheless, the driver insisted on going in that direction, even though she would have gotten us stuck in the mud. So, we asked our driver to turn around and get back to the road.

At that point, we had to ask for directions (the old-fashioned way). My granduncle apparently was pretty well known around the village because when we mentioned his name, the locals knew right away where he lived. We finally arrived, but there were hardly any people around to greet us. We learned from one of my mom's relatives, who stayed behind, that everyone was on vacation. Remember the blister on my finger I mentioned earlier? I noticed at this point that a scratch mark started forming near my finger which "crawled" all the way up to my wrist. I, of course, took medication for allergies, but nothing happened. I didn't think it was cause for too much fuss anyway (I was wrong).

It was getting worse, as it was pretty red and I could hardly feel any circulation. At lunch, we went to a fisherman to see what he thought it was. "After all, he's probably seen it before because he lives here,'' said my mom. The fisherman then said that it was caused by some sort of Sea Caterpillar, which was dangerous if untreated. He "prescribed" that I dab my finger in sticky flour to get the hairs out. Except, the blister wasn't popping, and I could see no hairs. I guess in doctorate terms he was "referring me" because he told us to go to the local shaman. Just before we left the hut, mom's relative paid the man... in cigarettes.

We then visited the shaman to see if he could find out anything else about the finger. We told them that there was a scratch mark from the finger that was very stiff. At this point I was nearly paralyzed with fear because everyone was all the fuss about what this finger was all about. I'm pretty sure I would've been better off if I had just ignored it. Anyway, since there are tons of creepy crawlies around in the tropics, the shaman said that it was from a spider bite! Now we were confused because it was just a caterpillar and now a spider bite. He then held two black peppers, a glass of water, and started to pray. I really didn't care what he gave me because whatever made me feel better was worth taking a shot at.

We put aside the finger business for a while after that to go to a Buddhist temple. Inside, there was a big Buddha statue. People went there to pray and to ask about their fortune, future life, or the answers to their problems. My dad attempted to ask for his "loved one's" fortune.

The process was fairly complicated: One would first have to check if the gods were OK with you asking them. To do this, one would throw two little pieces of wood, and if those two woods faced up, then they could proceed with asking a question to the spirit. Then, one would shake a bunch of sticks in the canister until one stick with a number would pop out/fall out. Finally, that person (in this case my dad) would go to the person at the desk to match the number to the fortune card.

My dad's card read "The clouds are darker...". We were confused. It didn't make sense, but then we realized why. We found out that the fortunes were only for the living. Apparently, my dad asked how his deceased mother was doing. Later, we went to my other relative's house where they farmed small birds known as swiftlets, a kind of swallow. They built a building at the back of the house that mimicked natural cave environments to farm these birds. Inside the building was dark and humid. They used a tape recorder to play the noises of these birds in order to attract more birds to come, which was amazing, but also quite loud.

The bird nest is a famous delicacy in Asia and is very expensive. It can be prepared in many ways such as in savory soups, desserts with rock sugar, etc. The nests are actually built from the birds' salivary secretion rather than from twigs and sticks. Back on the road, we were really starting to get worried, as the scratch on my arm seemed to move up to my shoulder, which, as one might guess, got us in quite the frenzy. I was beginning to think that my scrape and bruise of the leg weren't as bad as this. Again, my parents looked anxiously for someone who would figure out what the heck this thing was.

However, there were no doctors around in this remote place. They were mostly in Manggar, the capital of Belitung. Luckily, our driver had a friend who was a doctor and worked on that day (others closed due to Muslim New Year). Unfortunately, the doctor said he had never seen this before. He prescribed taking allergy medicine, but we had been doing that and nothing was really happening. He also stated that any other doctor on the island would only have allergy medicine and snake antivenom.

I then came to the mind-numbing realization that first-world medical treatment was out the window. Additionally, no 911, or other emergency services, so that got me even more worried. Anyway, the doctor said that the only thing that might help would be a steroid, or giving me a direct shot of allergy medication, which I _really_ didn't want at the time. So, we left with no solution; my finger felt like dead weight.

Maybe I would've been less than spooked if it weren't for the tipping point of my frustration at night. After consulting my uncle over the phone, my mom started saying some pretty absurd things at 9:00 PM like: "We need to take you to the emergency room in the biggest hospital in Belitung" and "you need to get a shot immediately or else that scratch will spread to your heart".

One might call my mom's actions a protective measure, but I would definitely call _that_ an overreaction. We didn't go to a hospital. Instead we went back to our hotel. To be honest, I thought this trip was going to be relaxing at first, but this "trauma" had pushed my capability to feel stress.

After getting back in the hotel, we asked the hotel owner what this was (YET AGAIN). Seeing this red scratch mark on my hand and arm, the hotel owner hurried and asked the staff there to get some chili peppers. His thirteen-year-old son was there and he instantly said that his friend had it before and it was "Ampai Ampai" (the local name of small, poisonous jellyfish). They were so small that you couldn't see them with the naked eye. This boy, as old as I, seemed to know more than anyone else. We looked up the symptoms and they matched exactly. The "prescription" was (believe it or not) chili at the spot.

The hotel owner removed the stem from the chili and started rubbing it on my blister to remove the poison. It burned a bit. He then applied the rubbing wine all over the scratch marks. At least now I can say that I was bitten/stung/deformed by a caterpillar with painful needles, a spider with vicious fangs, an unknown being that causes allergies, a mysterious organism that requires hospitalization, and a painful jellyfish the size of a hair —all on my birthday (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that). Hurray. All that was on my mind when I went to sleep was if I was going to make it through the night. Obviously, because I'm writing this now, I made it through.

So, I woke up and checked the so-called "venom line" (But I just called it a scratch), and to my relief, it hadn't moved an inch from my shoulder, but moving it up and down hurt, so I considered it a sore. Interestingly enough, after this incident, the hotel front desk got inundated by phone calls from their guests asking for chili peppers to bring with them to the beach.

We then flew back to Jakarta on a tiny plane and went to see the doctor. The hospital was huge with very sophisticated systems. The service was excellent too. We were even served coffee and tea. We then went to see the dermatologist (because we need a second, no, fifth opinion). The doctor just said that it would eventually go away and it might have been venomous, but after so many days, it should be fine. No shots or anything. That's how doctors should work. You wouldn't just nuke someone with needles.

Over the next several days, I couldn't quite pinpoint what we did since it was basically a "free" week. The first free day we had, we went to an electronics mall, which was old, yet was over five stories tall. It was so big that it stretched ACROSS the main road, and even the BRIDGE had stores! "The Two Mangoes", had two buildings, and the one we went to housed a TON of electronics. This is just what I wanted to see, and when we went inside, the SOFTWARE immediately caught my eye. I saw that there were all sorts of software stacked upon shelves of shelves! We went all around the mall from day to night.

After all the time had past, I really had no idea what time it was, or how much time had passed. Before exiting, though, we saw this neat stand next to the exit that had a lot of neat gadgets like knuckles, and batons. We checked it out, and found that half of the items were disguised as tasers! I almost shocked myself after touching what appeared to be an old phone.

We went back to the house and prepared dinner. For the next week, all of our dinners were with relatives, and I really liked that. We all ate at a nearby mall where my oldest and second oldest cousins played trading card games, and we celebrated my cousin's birthday. It was kind of a joint birthday party, though, since my birthday had just passed. I got some money, which is something that people should always give on birthdays because such currency makes buying your _own_ gift possible. Unless you know someone really well, I would say that giving money is the best option for a present.

After I woke up (at noon the next day), my parents and I wanted to have activities for the day. We went to 'Fun World' at the mall where my cousins played cards. I really liked that place the last time we came, and this time, I came with my younger cousin. To my dismay, we had to share just one card for the both of us at the amusement park, but that was OK because we always played the same machine for maximum payouts.

We also tried a few rides (of which I was not a fan of), and bumper cars (these cars could give whiplash!). Now, there was this arcade machine that had huge payouts; it was the only one in the entire facility, and was the best. About every turn, the coin always seemed to fall in our favor on the rod board. In the end, I estimated that we had about 700 tickets, but after counting, we actually had 1,400+ tickets! The guy before us had at least ten bags of tickets, so it took a while for THAT to clear up. In the end, the 'cashier' for the tickets miscounted a second item that we had, and we ended up having essentially 1,700 tickets! We walked away with two glasses, two highlighters, two notebooks, and more. The next day, my uncle's wife, and all their children left for Singapore to compete in a card tournament. I just hung out the whole day until dinner again.

At dinner, my uncle took us to eat dinner at the mall. To my mom's enjoyment (and surprise), she met one of her other relatives at the mall coincidentally (or so it seemed). Over the course of the next five minutes, about twenty people had huddled around us; they were all related to us in some way, shape, or form. Since my mom had been gone for many years since she left Indonesia, they caught up for (in my opinion) half the day. I attempted to break away by going to the bathroom, and it worked because soon after finishing in the bathroom, I was able to sneak into the bookstore and check out a few of the accessories there. According to my dad, I had only five minutes to spend at that bookstore, so I had to be quick. This was pretty difficult considering that the size of the place was equivalent to twice the size of a regular department store in the U.S.

After all the talking and greeting (a long time), we went to eat dinner. I got some noodle soup, which my mom complained was too expensive because the original price used to be 26,000 Rupiah, but because of the holiday, it was now 32,000 Rupiah. I had to remind her that we were in Indonesia, and that the food was less than three dollars. Once again, afterwards, we checked out another electronics store (because I loved to see interesting gadgets) and soon went home.

During the last two days of our stay in Indonesia, we didn't do much sightseeing. Instead, I went to a neat bookstore (where everything was, once again, wrapped in plastic), and another until I went to all the bookstores within my general vicinity. I also looked for a pillow that my mom called a 'Dutch Wife'. It is actually a kind of body pillow. But, why does it have such a funny name? This is what I heard: remember Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch? Apparently during that time, the Dutch used to hug the pillow as a stand-in for their wives. I saw most people in Indonesia have it. I really wanted one because of its cylindrical shape and soft texture, so we just went around another large mall to look for it. We found several of all manners of decoration and material, and that concluded the search for said pillow.

We visited one more relative's house. Like my uncle's house where we were staying, the house was big with multiple floors. Apparently, they were built that way to avoid the flood. In recent years there have been many floods in Jakarta. Many people had to elevate the foundation of their entire house just to avoid the rising water! I have little doubt that this is due to global warming.

I was beginning to show signs of the worst possible thing that could happen on a trip: diarrhea. I just downed a few pills that mom told me to eat and hoped that everything would be alright. We had to wake up at 3:00 AM to catch our flight back to the U.S. via Tokyo. I hoped that nothing crazy would happen over the next eighteen hours.

The first plane trip to Tokyo was OK with me watching lots of movies and the typical rundown. The airport was really large, and at one point we had to walk for about ten minutes straight to get to the other side. We only had a one-hour layover, and had to go through security— **twice**! The people there stopped us for bringing tea into the terminal, so we had to chug pretty much all of our liquids down. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it WAS very tasty.

On the last eleven hours of the second plane ride I was having some bad diarrhea, which was NOT fun. I'm going to be skipping most of my unpleasant experiences in the airplane because who wants to hear that? We finally landed in LAX, and got our baggage after we passed through customs (and the like). To be honest, I had little to no idea what was going on after three weeks in Indonesia. But, as I said, it had some serious ups and downs.

Chapter 2

Peru (Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu)

It was late at night when we arrived at the parking complex. The night was thick as smoke and reeked of eeriness. Since we had to wait for our reservation to begin, my dad just parked in the nearest "parking spot", which just so happened to have a "No Parking" sign stuck to it. We sat there for ten minutes, watching the lady at the booth, who looked like she was about to call 911. After an eon of doing nothing, 9:30 arrived, and we entered the parking complex. This had become a regular thing now since we had already done this multiple times during our travels around the globe. We took the shuttle to the airport and waited until we reached the B terminal. I never knew what that meant. Because our airport was numbered, and I couldn't see any 'A' terminal, I just assumed that the international terminal was just a big letter 'B' with not significance whatsoever (other than being the second letter of the alphabet). However, now I know that terminal "B" is named after Tom Bradley, the former mayor of Los Angeles.

My groggy, tired eyes instantly rejoiced as I met the cool air of the terminal. Everything was the same... like a home away from home, except for one thing: The construction had finished. I wanted to check it out right away, but I already knew that we had to check-in our bags first, so that had to wait. Since we were three hours early, there was no line and we got to the front in no time. As my mom and dad put on the baggage tags, I saw that one person at the counter was motioning at me like he had a muscle spasm. I soon realized that we were next and had to get going. Still fumbling with the baggage tags, we pulled our luggage to the counter.

Finally, I was able to go to the remodeled section of the airport. Before the renovation, we had to go through the bottom section of the airport, which was, to say the least, a bit trashy. Almost like if you walked into an unfinished part of a shop with paint still all over the place. Now, we got to take an escalator to the top where we were able to get through security about a million times faster. Of course, the security guards were as sharp as ever (not to mention stiff) . I always wondered why the people of the TSA and law enforcement were so stalky and generally looked tired. I probably should cut them some slack, though. They are probably pretty good at finding explosives hidden in even the most unsightly places.

As I approached the security metal detector, I realized something. They were redirecting 97% (estimate) of the people toward the new machine that actually was a whole lot more intimidating. It even detected my passport (In my HAND) and I had to go through _twice_. I guess the benefit of the doubt doesn't ride with these people. Going through airport security reminded me of my teacher's way of making sure we didn't cheat: leave all your belongings outside and bring in a clear, plastic bag with your materials in it. It was a bit extreme, but if you compare airport security and anti-cheating measures, I guess they're both a pretty big deal (not to mention the other uncanny similarities).

My family is always driving me nuts with very "sympathetic" flight times. To me, my definition of "a sympathetic flight time" would be leaving during the hours that I was AWAKE because our departure time, 12:50 AM, was not going to cut it (that's almost one in the morning by the way!). The international flight terminal was a really nice place, unless you were put in the "less fortunate" part of the terminal, which had no shops, restaurants, or entertainment.

Why didn't we just go sit in the nice area? It was an exhausting walk to go back and forth: we were so far away from the main part of the terminal that we were actually on a LOWER FLOOR, which meant that we had to take a bus to the airplane. I don't care how much you try to spruce up a bus station, but that won't change a thing. It's a bus station. Crowded with people. Many people. Inside the bus, there were still people. Probably more than the bus was supposed to handle. In fact, I was surprised the bus didn't implode then and there with the heavy load it was carrying.

The hour finally came when we could get up from our broken chairs and enter the plane. Some people really hate planes because they get altitude sickness or whatever, but let me tell you this: I like planes. Why you may ask? Not so much because of the "flying" (although to be thousands of feet above the clouds _was_ quite thrilling), but because of the amazing in-flight entertainment system, which has like, a billion movies and TV shows as well as games and audio. After we settled down, I heard the people in front of us complain about their seats being near the bathroom, which didn't really bother me because that just meant I didn't need to walk very far to use the lavatory. Since it was super late, I only scratched the surface of the entertainment system before I fell asleep. Six hours later, I woke to find I only had one hours left until we landed. I was excited to still have a bit of time to watch TV in the last remaining hour.

We arrived at our sixth continent at around noon at Lima's International airport in Peru. After immigration, and a long discussion of how redundant the immigration form really was, we were let through to the baggage claim area. I always worried that one of these days, we would actually lose our baggage, but as luck would have it, we got our baggage super fast and were out into the waiting area in no time. My mom already foretold this, but the SAME people that were in front of us in the plane were with us in our tour group. About twelve other people were in our group with us. I was again, as usual, the youngest participant.

We saw a couple of people holding different tour names. We were looking for ours, and then all of the sudden my mom said "That's our tour" walking to this one person. I didn't know how she knew for sure, but I was not surprised; she was the one handling all our trips all this time.

Some facts that I learned on the way to the hotel from our guide included that Peru's currency is the "Sol" which means "sun" and the exchange rate at that time was $1=3.26 Sol. Also, people spoke Spanish and drank Pisco Sour, which is a 42% alcohol drink. The guide said that if we drank three, we would start to sing (I'm pretty sure it would do more than that).

Forty minutes later, we arrived at our hotel in the "upper class district", which was pretty nice and clean. The hotel was as small as the one in Europe, with tiny elevators and a "tall" building with seven stories. Our guide said that the top floor was the worst, which I found to be a bit worrying since we got put in room 601. It's probably better to be on the bottom because of the earthquakes or "sismos". So, they had these signs on the wall that translated to "safe place in case of earthquake", which I'm pretty sure isn't true since there was one right on the 6th floor next to the window.

We left the hotel (and my cable television) around one or two o'clock in the afternoon to "explore" the area. We decided to go left towards the market and we found it, except it wasn't at all like the markets I was used to in the U.S.; giant slabs of meat hung from hooks and produce was displayed openly, all without much lighting or ventilation. Anyway, the place around it was filled with tiny restaurants. We decided to instead find some place to eat. We settled on a "Chifa", which is the term used for Chinese restaurants in Peru. Every corner in Lima appeared to have a Chifa.

How did the name "Chifa" come about? Well, our guide said that long ago in the 19th century, lots of Chinese came to Peru to work at sugar plantations and mines and local Peruvians often heard Chinese saying "Chifa" when they met their fellow Chinese. So, they called Chinese restaurants "Chifas". "That makes sense" my mom said because "chi" in Chinese means "to eat" and "fan" means rice. It's customary for Chinese people to greet each other by saying: "Chifa ma?" It is literally translated as "have you eaten yet?" Simply the act of asking, in Chinese culture at least, is enough to show that you care about a person and their well-being. I think that's still true today, or at least that's what I often overhear whenever my mom talks to her relatives on the phone.

The Chifa restaurant we went to in Lima was nice; the food was way better than I expected it to be. For the very first time I ate Peruvian-Chinese food. It was like Chinese food with a bit of twist. They mixed the food with local ingredients, like pineapples and bananas. For less than ten dollars, we basically got three appetizers and two main courses to share! The food was also extremely delicious. As we continued back and eventually to the right side of our hotel, we saw what we were missing out on. The area on the right-hand side of our hotel's street was teeming with fancy shops, parks, and supermarkets! We literally missed out because we went the wrong way.

We went to the supermarket and bought lots of water and drinks. The liquids were extremely cumbersome, and we had to carry them through JFK park. Later, we would find out that people refer to that park as the "cat" park because of all the cats in there (at least one hundred). We also stopped at some street artists to look at their work, but didn't find anything we wanted. My mom decided to stop by there again tomorrow. For dinner, we ate at the restaurant inside the hotel which was "expensive" because it cost the same amount as in the U.S. which was about $35 in total (local food was typically much cheaper). We soon plunged into our beds... exhausted with a two-hour time difference.

I woke up to the sound of a ringing phone... for almost fifteen minutes. We quickly got dressed and ate breakfast to meet up with our tour group. Our first stop after we got on the bus was Lover's Park. It was overcast since the seasons are reversed below the equator. Even though it was cloudy, I was sure that it wouldn't rain since we were near the coast. Moreover, the guide said that it is always overcast in Lima, yet it hardly rains. Lover's Park had a nice mosaic wall and a large statue in the middle that had a couple kissing, which I found a bit disturbing.

After the picture stop at the park, we left for the ruins right in the middle of the city. When we arrived, we saw what appeared to be a sculpture of an Egyptian dog next to the pyramid-like structure. When we took a closer look, the dog got up and walked away! The entire group thought it was a statue which was quite hilarious. The steps up the temple ruins were pretty steep and once we reached the top, we had a clear view of the city as well as some other archeological sites where mummies were found.

Some time later, we drove off and entered the city square, where we took a quick five-minute picture break. There wasn't anything too remarkable about it except that its name was "The City Square". We soon left for the largest part of our tour, the main square (they have an affinity for squares— what ever happened to circles?).

We went into the cathedral first, because it was going to close in ten minutes. As an added bonus, in ten minutes, the changing of the guard would occur. As we entered the church, a mass was in progress and most of the statues of saints were barred off from the public, which, I'm pretty sure disturbs the whole saint-to-human relationship. When the mass finished, we walked outside to see the changing of the guard. It was nothing like the one in Europe and as far as I remembered, the guards didn't even change in the "changing of the guard". Could we have missed it? We also saw the main fountain in the center of the square, and, from what I was told, if you wanted to know how far anything was from Peru, you would measure from that exact location, the fountain.

The tour was over at about 1:00 PM and for lunch, our tour guide promoted a certain restaurant. Most people wanted to go there, so instead of taking us back to the hotel, we went to that restaurant. Although the guide "suggested" the restaurant, we really didn't have any choice. The good news, though, was that the restaurant had amazing food and this very, very soft bread that was probably made of clouds (especially when I tasted it with my tender and tantalizing fish with steamed vegetables). We also ordered an appetizer called "Ceviche". It was made of fresh raw fish, shrimp and mixed with lemons, limes, chili peppers, onions, cilantro, and other spices for sure. The flavors were extravagant and from the corner of my eye, I could see the tour guide collecting commission from the restaurant owner. I'm pretty sure it was for the guide's "recommendation" and bringing us here to eat, which gave the restaurant business.

With our bellies full, we walked down the street toward "cat park" and checked the paintings once again for the one my mom wanted. Of course, "the early bird gets the worm" phrase would be the most symbolic in this case because the one she wanted was gone. After that disappointment, we decided to change our money to Sols and came back for _another_ painting that mom wanted. After changing our money, we went to the street artist area to find that "surprise!", the one mom wanted was right in front of us... being _sold_ to another one of our _tour group members_. I didn't know the odds of THAT happening right in front of our faces, but my mom was quite shocked.

We didn't want to walk all that way to come up empty handed, so we searched for a nice painting that we liked and started bargaining. The original price was two hundred Sols, which the seller made apparent by typing into his calculator; we all had to keep straight faces to appear emotionless (to obtain a discount). Trust me, it's hard. We got it down to 150 and then 140, but that was where the reduction of the price ended. We really wanted to get a lower price, but he wouldn't budge, and we bought it for 140 Sols (about $45). It was a pretty nice painting if you asked me: a picture of Machu Picchu with a dramatic red background to set the mood of the painting (We would later find out that we didn't get the best price).

Of course, our day was not yet over, with a show dinner ahead and about a few hours of free time, we decided to go to the fancy shopping complex near the beach. The path was quite long, but we eventually got to the complex. We went through all the levels of the complex seeing a food court, movie theater, bowling alley, tech store, and much more. We found another one of those supermarkets and looked for Chicha Morada, a drink made from purple corn. Unfortunately, all the pouches of the stuff were GONE, and it turned out that the reason my mom and dad wanted to go there was for the powder of Chicha. We still had a fine time at the complex of stores and on the way back, got ONE pouch of Chicha.

Later that day at about 7:00 PM, we got to go to a Peruvian restaurant with our tour group. The dinner included an all you can eat buffet, one Chicha drink, and a Pisco Sour (42% alcohol, if you missed that part). I had a ton of "meal lag" (in addition to jet-lag) and so I only ate two plates of food. Much of it was pretty good, except for one thing... I couldn't drink the Pisco Sour. Instead, I got a lemonade. But when my lemonade arrived, it looked EXACTLY like a Pisco Sour, and, for the rest of the night, I only took a few sips... even though it probably was, in fact, lemonade.

At around eight o'clock, a show about the history of dancing in Peru started. We saw many dances, but the most memorable were the Alcatraz dance and the Anaconda dance. The Anaconda dance came first, which reminded me of the song "Anaconda". I'm pretty sure the Anacondas they had in their hands were fake, but you can never be too careful. The second dance was the Alcatraz, which was quite an... abstract type of dance. It was interesting to watch; they even tried to light tiny pieces of paper on the other person's behind on fire with a candle (which I'm positive is against fire codes). The dancer had to try three times and relit his candle before he picked up the other dancer. Next, out of nowhere, some people in the AUDIENCE were pushed onto the stage. I looked away, just praying not to get my butt lit on fire. Luckily, the person in front of me got chosen to try and perform the dance. Long story short: They couldn't. As a penalty, the actual dancers tried lighting the audience's dancers on fire! Luckily, they didn't, though, probably because of something to do with liability issues and losing business, in addition to the medical bills, that is.

I was groggy and tired when I went to bed that night because I knew we had to wake up early the next day and it was currently 11:00 PM. I retired to my bed accordingly.

Again, I woke to the sound of a beeping phone, for thirty minutes. Then, a knock on the door. Finally, the sound of the hotel keeper telling us to get up. It was super early in the morning (I mean "Sun's not even up morning") and I was numb. After slouching out of bed and doing my business, we went down to the lobby of the hotel to meet with our group.

We took a plane early so we could avoid "rush hour" which was from about 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM (basically all day). On the way to the airport, we heard that two other members of our tour were on a flight two hours BEFORE us which was at 2:00-3:00 AM! I wondered what they were mad about yesterday. Apparently, the later flight was already all booked up, so they needed a second flight even earlier. I was sure they'd be pretty unhappy if the later flight was half-empty. To the tour group's favor, it was quite full and by the time we arrived in Cusco, it was about eight o'clock. The couple that arrived earlier was waiting inside the travel office just outside of the airport until we showed up. Let's just say they weren't too lively. With the elevation of 11,000 feet, I was light-headed as well. Luckily, we quickly descended into the Sacred Valley, which was "only" 8,000 feet above sea level.

In the sacred valley, we traveled to the Pisac Marketplace. In the marketplace, we started off by looking around at the souvenirs the shop keepers had on display. A few things caught our eyes, including: a Peruvian flute, a mini chess set, and a few whistles. The first person we stopped at and bargained with offered a chess set. Not only was it ceramic, but it also beautifully depicted the Incas versus the Spaniards! It was also handmade, which was an added bonus. The price was twenty-five Sols. We were not sure what the going rate was, so we took another look around. The second dealer we tried to cut a deal with was for three whistles; we got them for a pretty sweet price, only after we started walking away. I guess that's the art of bargaining. To keep the momentum going, we also got a Peruvian flute from a price of fifteen to eight Sols (two dollars!). We stuffed the things we bought into our backpack and continued along the rows of shops.

Soon, we came across another shop that had another miniature chess set, except that it was bigger and more colorful. The price was the same, twenty-five Sols, and we got it down again to nineteen Sols. We bought the bigger and generally better chess set. After bargaining our fair share of gifts, we went to our meeting point inside a small restaurant on the second floor of a gift shop. I ordered a bit of pork and a big bowl of soup. By the time I finished my bowl of soup and bread, I was bloated, but I still had my main course left! I finally gobbled down down a few more bites. I could feel the food clogging up when the potatoes became super flaky, but it was too late: I **inhaled one**! I coughed like a sick donkey for a while until I could breathe again. Never have I been more traumatized by a potato than now.

Upon leaving the market, I thought we were going to the hotel until, BAM! out of the blue, it hit me: we still had to go to Ollantaytambo (Ol-lAn-tAY-taAMbo). I had trouble saying it too, so use that (possibly) handy pronunciation key for me, will you? The city of Ollantaytambo still had a few of its original foundations intact. The guide told us that the blue doors meant that the building still had its structure from the time of the Incas. But, we weren't here to see Ollantaytambo just yet; instead, we were going to see the ancient ruins on top of the city that had sweet terraces, a fine view, and a super long speech about the history of the place.

I learned that the terraces needed fertile soil and kept the ground steady. In addition, the Incas used the mountain to spot incoming soldiers, messengers, and porters as well as to observe the stars and pray to their gods. The top of the ruins were extremely high up and through an unlocked brown door, you could see how high the path could go. I decided to stay inside the area, and not venture outside of the brown door. On the way down, we saw a bunch of llamas feeding and alpacas eating; it was pretty cool to see their fluffy white coats of wool and cloud-like softness.

It was finally time to rest for the long day ahead (and to recuperate from the long day that just happened). I knew something was off the second we had to change from the large bus to the smaller mini-van. As we crossed the super rugged and narrow tributaries of road, it kind of scared me to see all those abandoned houses and surrounding neighborhoods even though this was just a 1.8 km stretch. At one point we even had to call a guy out because his "motor taxi" was blocking the way. He just pulled it (literally) out of the way. Guess they didn't really have brakes. The scenery was very unsettling. We passed through tons of broken houses and abandoned shacks, and at every turn, thought that might be our "hotel".

To our relief, after a long while, we pulled up to a tree-covered area and drove in. On the other side was an extremely pleasant surprise: our hotel was right there, with a complex of cabins. It was super clean and had a beautiful landscape. We checked in with our passports and the man there said that he needed to "validate" them; we would get our passports back at dinnertime. After a while, we wondered where he had taken our passports to, and that was when he came back, saying that he mixed up the reservations and that he would need more time. I'm sure many of the people in our group got nervous when he didn't come back right away. In the meantime, he said that we could go to the dining room and have a beer or drink. That was when we went into the dining room and we heard someone say that the drinks were free! Of course, that was a pretty large spirit-riser (literally and figuratively). After he sorted everything out, we got a room with three beds and a fine-looking bathroom. As we took a look around, we realized that we had pretty much the worst room with only a tiny amount of space while others had whole buildings to themselves. We asked the guy for a change and he gladly checked for us. In addition he brought a heater and attempted to fix the light bulb which was definitely broken when we came and I totally did NOT break it.

After a short amount of time, the room keeper came back and said we could move to a bigger room with one king bed and one twin bed. We agreed and then moved all of our stuff to the other room, which had two floors and a bathtub instead of a shower (which in my opinion is way better). The top floor of our room was the bedroom and the bottom floor was the living room with a fireplace and a kitchen. It turned out that this room that we had was the first one to be created in the area, and, I have to say, they did a pretty good job, except for a completely random opening in the floor. Since our hotel was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, we had to eat dinner inside the hotel, which, thank goodness, was included in our tour.

At dinner, the reception guy gave back our passports after "validating" them, and we had a fine dinner. Of course, since we were practically in the forest, our room barely included a clock, let alone a TV or other electronic devices. Might as well throw in a candle for lighting then! (I'm sure that was what they thought). To my relief, the reception guy was nice and said that I could watch TV in the dining room. Unfortunately, it was all in Spanish and I couldn't change the language like in Lima. I'm pretty sure my mom and dad were proud that they got me to watch Spanish television so that I could "learn the language".

Never had I ever come to appreciate the heat pouch so much in my life. Back in the hotel room, we had no heater, which made the room frigid, but what made it worse was that when we did get a heater, it was portable and only heated up the area two inches from it. Basically, we were on our own, or so I thought. At around nine o'clock, the door knocked, which I found to be just polite since the reception told us that we didn't have to lock our doors (because everyone here was "trustworthy"). When we let the room cleaner inside, she gave us three heat pouches that were incredibly warm and soft. As I fell asleep, I thought about the name of this place and fell into a warm sleep with my warm heat pad as my pillow.

Since we woke up super early the day before, we woke up pretty late today. I didn't hear the sound of ringing bells or phone beeps, but I just eventually woke up. Breakfast obviously was served inside the hotel (as most are) and it was pretty much like every other breakfast I'd eaten at a hotel: eggs and toast. After departing from the hotel, we drove to Chinchero, which, due to our hotel's location, was far away. As we entered the small village, we were hailed by flower petals. It was beautiful and was considered good luck.

In addition to that welcoming gesture, we also watched a show where we could see how the townsfolk weaved, dyed, and created magnificent clothes and fabrics from alpaca and llama wool. The show was overall quite exciting, with parasites that change the color of the dye and salt being a key ingredient in making red. We also learned that a child's urination could change the color of the dye.

"Why not adult pee?" we asked.

Their response was that a child's urine was purer than the adult's, who drank way too much beer and vodka. Everyone had a little chuckle and we continued to see how the wool was knit and cleaned (since alpacas and llamas never took showers).

After the show, we put some tips into their baskets and because the hole was as small as a fifty-cent piece, we could only slip so much tip into the basket before it got clogged and we had to shove it in. Once outside of the performance house, we got to see and buy some of their products, which included socks, scarves, and shirts, which were made from soft wool. Again, we used the power of bargaining to get a reasonable price on a hand-made sweater that was made of alpaca wool.

In the middle of the townsfolk's tiny market, we could take a picture of a llama and play a game of throwing a stone into a hole. It was fairly interesting, but I didn't want to try because the llama was in my line of fire.

Nearby, in Maras, we saw the finest salt in the world being harvested. There were hundreds of pools of salt from where we were looking and the spring water was 80% salt, which probably meant some pretty good harvests. The salt pools were right next to each other and the irrigation of those pools went everywhere, but always ended up at a pool, which was amazing, since the Incas did this at least a couple hundred years ago.

To harvest the salt, the locals first had to fill their pools with saltwater every three days during the dry season (in the wet season, the salt isn't pure). Next, they had to wait for the water to evaporate completely, and finally, we saw some people harvesting the salt from their pool with their bare hands. They then shipped the salt off to Japan or sold it at the market. We bought a couple of chocolate bars and a few small bags of salt and soon after, left.

On our way to Moray, we got stuck at a construction site that had only one side of the road open, so we had to wait for our turn. After an eternity, it was our turn to move and we saw a flipped over pick-up truck, which probably caused at least some distraction.

Upon arrival at Moray, the things that immediately caught my eye were the enormous terraces and green semi-circular gardens that extended into the ground.

We were told that the Inca tested and grew fifty different types of potatoes here; it was a sort of botanical laboratory of their time. Unfortunately, we couldn't really get inside of the terraces because of the "un-standard" steps and the giant signs that said, "No Entry". As we descended into the deeper parts of the terraces, we saw just how magnificent these terraces really were. They were as tall as I and filled with fertile soil.

To get back out of the valley wasn't so easy. There were two paths: one that went a bit curved and one that was steep and straight. I, of course, didn't deny the challenge and decided to go up the steep path with dad. After I started making my way up the path, I realized how bringing dad along was slowing my progress, even though the path was short. I made it up to the top just as my mom was coming around the curved path. My mom told me to give a bottle of water to my dad, who was still 75% of the way up the path. So, I went back to the path and down to where dad was, and then went again up the path to where our guide was meeting us. At least it was good exercise.

After leaving, we talked about how being young (like me) really increased a person's energy; basically, anyone who was my age could have just run up the path. We soon after went to eat lunch at a local restaurant that just so happened to look like another hotel, or at least a small cottage. The food, as usual, was nice, but since the bathrooms were all full, we instead got to use the bathroom in a hotel room, which looked incredibly fancy. I really wasn't hungry, and I could still feel guilt for the half plate of food I left when they took it away.

After the long drive into the lodge, I was quite tired and wanted to rest. My mom had other plans, though. She said that she would give medicine to a person in our tour group who had diarrhea. We met with the daughter of the sick person and my mom gave the medicine, hoping to help a fellow tour group member. We then went into our room and waited until six o'clock for dinner.

It was the last day there and my mom just packed as my dad slept on the bed like a log. The time came for dinner, and it was a bit earlier than yesterday because we had to wake up early the next day for Machu Picchu. At dinner, we got to see a small play performance by the hotel receptionist's dog. It was fun to see the dog play around and come inside.

Once we finished dinner, we went to our rooms and got a fire going in the living room on the bottom floor. I took a bath; it was a relaxing experience. I was quite relaxed with the warm water and peaceful atmosphere that I almost fell asleep in the tub!

By this time, super loud alarm clocks were just a normal thing; getting up was just a way of making the alarm stop, but of course, I didn't care if the alarm stopped as long as I had some shut-eye. I had to pull myself out of bed at about 6:15 AM so that we could prepare to go to Machu Picchu (the "Lost City of the Incas"), the site we'd all been waiting for.

Much to our relief, the person that had diarrhea yesterday was now eating again for breakfast and could go on the tour. After packing our things and putting them in the minivan, we were off towards Ollantaytambo, where the PeruRAIL was located. After curving through all the narrow streets and arriving in the parking lot, we entered the "station" (which had almost no roofing) and got our tickets ready. The train was going to leave in about thirty minutes, but we got on as soon as possible because the waiting room wasn't the most comfortable place to wait.

Inside the train, it was actually quite nice with leather seats and expansive tables. I heard that the train we were on was just for foreigners and that you couldn't book a ride through the train's OWN website! Luckily, the tour company took care of all of that for us. The entire train was covered in windows and we could see the change in terrain as we moved closer and closer to the mountain. It went from dry shrubs to trees and bushes, until we finally arrived at a thick jungle-like biome.

After the ninety-minute train ride, (where we had a lot of time to talk to fellow tour members,) we arrived at Machu Picchu station in Aguas Calientes at the base of the mountain. Yeah, not the mountain yet, the BASE of the thing. In order to get to the actual TOP of the mountain where all the exciting stuff was, we had to walk through the market, over the bridge and down to yet ANOTHER bus station.

The ride up the mountain was extremely curvy and twisty. I was sure that at one of those turns, we would've ended up one step over the edge, but thanks to the driver's skills, it didn't come to that.

We ended up at the top of the mountain half an hour later. The first thing I noticed was that we STILL had to go through another checkpoint to get into the ruins of Machu Picchu. The top of the mountain was filled with restaurants, shops, and a few other utilities. The toilets (of course) had an admission cost of one Sol and lockers to store things were five Sols. This time, we didn't use the bathroom; we just headed in with our group to start the tour of the ruins. We first walked around the citadel, where you could see llamas roaming around.

Around the main complex of Machu Picchu, I could see the various terraces and I was amazed that the Inca were able to construct such elaborate accommodations in such a hostile place. Moving further into the complex, we saw a courtyard with even more llamas. I felt like I was walking through a city in the sky; the area was pretty large and there were mountains all around. Some of the ruins still had intact walls, which was surprising, since the Inca had very limited mortar and resources. The walls seemed to fit together like puzzle pieces.

As I looked over the edge of the mountain, I thought about the history of the mountain: the city was apparently built in a religiously significant location; only the wealthy could ever step within its grounds. Due to its location, the mountain was rediscovered only recently. There are two main hikes in Machu Picchu: the Sun Gate, which is harder, and the Inca Bridge trail, which is easier.

People normally choose only one of them because it just takes too much time to cover both. My dad and I decided to hike up to the Sun Gate, which is one of the highest points on Machu Picchu. Thinking she would not be able to make it, my mom stayed at the base. It was quite a challenging hike because the path was uneven: it was a combination of stairs and narrow pathways. I couldn't believe that I was walking on part of the original Inca trail. At various points, we passed outlooks where we could see all the way down, which made me a bit dizzy.

Yet, I was still quite hasty making my way up with some of the tour members. After several rest stops, I came to some pretty steep stairs and quickly ascended them, taking care to grab the rails. But, as I continued, I noticed nobody was following me. I began to worry and soon went back down a bit until I met up with my group. It seemed like they took a water break. They were moderately surprised that I went so far so fast, but we stuck together for the rest of the journey. We finally reached the top. The view was breathtaking. I could see all the way down to where I started and even observed some of the buses making their way up the mountain as well.

By then, we were exhausted, but I really wanted to go to the Inca Bridge too. Then, my dad let me go with the other members of the tour group and asked them as a favor to look after me. He went down himself. Skipping the perilous descent down from the gate, the Inca Bridge trail certainly wasn't for those who were afraid of heights. The path was narrow (very narrow), cut out of the cliffside, and had no railing or protection. To be honest, I thought there would be a massive bridge and a bit more to the trail, so I was surprised when the trail disappeared. I hugged the wall so that I wouldn't fall off. It was surely a moderately difficult walk but not as bad as hiking up to the Sun Gate.

Thirty minutes later I was reunited with my parents. My dad thanked the other members of the tour group for taking care of me. But, they told my dad that they should instead thank me for leading them during the hike! Apparently, they were impressed with my abilities, until dad told them that I was a runner at the running club at my school. Then, they said: "no wonder". Again, my mom reminded me how important it was to keep up with my weekly swimming. I detested it because I had to wake up early and swim several laps or more each time. I always told my mom that I wanted to quit swimming, as I had been doing it for eight years without wishing to advance. But, my mom always said that it was good for my lungs and stamina.

It was time to leave Machu Picchu. We stopped by at a counter near the exit to get "Machu Picchu" stamped on our passports as a souvenir. We then headed to a restaurant located inside the only hotel next door to the ruins. There was a great variety of food. We ate while serenaded by a group of Peruvian musicians. We departed Machu Picchu via train, then transferred to our hotel in Cusco.

The next morning we visited Sacsayhuaman Fortress.

It's hard to pronounce, I know, but, if you listen carefully to how it is pronounced, it sounds like: "sexy woman". It is a big complex with lots of walls made of stones stacked together. The stones were carved in square and rectangular shapes. Most of them were big with some small ones in between. I looked closely and tried to insert a piece of paper between the gaps. But, I couldn't find any gaps at all. The stones just fit together so tightly and perfectly. It was so impressive that I couldn't imagine how it was built in those days.

Another amazing place we went to while in Cusco was the "Cusco Cathedral". It is in the middle of a plaza. Like the churches in Europe, Cusco Cathedral is heavily ornamented in gold and silver with hundreds of colonial paintings and statues. It was built in the 16th century and it took a hundred years to build. It is now a UNESCO heritage site. There were many interesting exhibits in the church, including the painting of "The Last Supper", which featured Jesus dining on a guinea pig with his disciples. Guinea pigs are native to Peru. It is a pet and food (cuy chactado) for the Peruvian. Of course, to some Americans (and certainly all vegetarians), this is quite disturbing.

We still had some time to stroll around the town before dinner. So, we went to this complex full of souvenir shops. We bought some "Coca" candies. Coca is Peru's famous plant. People plant them in the ground, chew them in candy, and put them in tea. Coca leaves are also used to treat altitude sickness, which is much needed in places like Cusco. Just like the saying: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", we also chewed the leaves and put lots of them in our tea like the locals.

We were shocked to learn that "Coca leaves" were, in fact, an ingredient in cocaine!

However, we soon found out (to our relief) that the coca itself is harmless in its natural form. However, when it is processed, it can turn into cocaine, a potent drug.

Of all the souvenirs being sold in a market nearby, one caught my eye: finger puppets. They were very cute. I bought two puppets dressed in traditional Peruvian costume.

Our tour was nearing its end. We had our farewell dinner party that night. It was a buffet serving a variety of Peruvian dishes. There was also a band and some other traditional performances. The entertainers sang and danced. Their dances involved a lot of movements like jumping. But, amazingly, they weren't out of breath. I couldn't help noticing something interesting about these singers and dancers: they were kind of short. I also noticed that the average Peruvian I met was kind of short too. My dad said that it was because of the high altitude, so I concluded that these Peruvians had adapted to the high altitude with big lungs and smaller bodies. Since we had to catch a flight back home early the next morning, I decided that I'd better get some sleep. We concluded our memorable trip and said goodbye to everyone in our group.

Chapter 3

Japan (Tokyo, Hakone, Hokkaido (Hakodate), Shirakawa-go, Kyushu (Hakata, Nagasaki), Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Nara, Kyoto)

We had a layover in Vancouver, Canada on our way to Japan this time. We spent one night there before returning to the airport to catch our flight towards Asia. I arrived at Tokyo Narita airport a bit tired and grumpy (as one typically is after crossing eight time zones). As soon as we made our way through customs, we looked for the train ticket office.

My mom planned the entire trip from start to finish. Prior to leaving for Japan, we purchased the Japan Rail Pass (JR Pass), which covered basically all of our travel expenses for two full weeks. One crucial note was that the Japan Rail Pass was only for foreign visitors and generally needed to be bought outside Japan.

In the two weeks we would be there, we planned to capitalize on our $398 (per person) pass by taking as many bullet trains as possible. However, getting on those trains, we learned, might be challenging because we travelled during the Obon period. Obon is the annual Japanese holiday that commemorates deceased ancestors. Trains are very busy during this period because people travel from cities to their villages or wherever they are from to pray for their ancestors.

To ensure that we got the trains, we needed to book all the trains necessary for our journey as soon as possible. So, we waited in line at the ticket office at Tokyo Narita airport. When we got to the front of the line, my mom pulled out this huge sheet of paper with information for every single train that we would take over the next two weeks, down to the hour, train number, departure, and destination.

The lady at the counter gawked at our list of "demands" (and even _that_ would be an understatement). I could see her face turning a bit paler with every glance at our list.

Luckily, for each train, we knew all the exact info and she was able to call up the tickets on her computer quite rapidly. We must have ordered at least forty tickets while most others only bought one or two. Some of our tickets would have cost us over one hundred fifty dollars (converted) each way if we didn't have the JR pass. In short, the pass saved us tons of money and the list that my mom had prepared definitely sped up the whole process. We were out of that ticket office in fifteen minutes! I couldn't imagine how long it would have taken if we weren't prepared.

We then proceeded towards the exit to take the Narita Express train (N'EX train) towards the center of the city. As I rode through the evening, I was amazed by the beauty of the landscape. There were fields and fields of green crops and green grass. There were trees! Big, green, lush trees! Not the sparse, dead kind that I'm used to seeing, at least. It was just how I imagined it (i.e. imagined from all the video games that I played).

I really liked the modern look and feel of the train, but before long, I drifted off to sleep (especially because I was suffering from jet-lag).

When we arrived in the city, we transferred to the Yamanote Line, which was one of the railway loop lines in Tokyo. The Yamanote Line was also called the Green Line. In Tokyo all local rail lines were color-coded. For these local rails, we didn't need to buy any tickets thanks to our JR pass! I also noticed a couple of ads around the stations. They had a couple of Pokémon on them, but I didn't take too much notice.

And besides, I was being distracted by the amount of StreetPass hits I was getting on my Nintendo 3DS. I brought it because I knew that I would be in a very densely packed area and that there probably would be a lot of opportunities for me to use it. When another 3DS user passes me, I would get a StreetPass "hit" (which had some in-game benefits). I had one Pokémon game loaded on my device (because I knew that I would probably run into someplace where I could use it). Unfortunately, because none of my devices were phones or GPS-enabled, I couldn't bring a device with Pokémon GO (even though that would probably be more advantageous). But that's beside the point. Just know that throughout the trip I had my 3DS on me, which communicated with nearby 3DS's.

We arrived at our destination, and I was incredibly tired. I had not slept (properly) in many hours. When we exited Shin-Okubo station, the buildings around us looked a bit daunting. It was already dark, but the area felt very damp and foreboding. There were also lots of people. We took a left from our station and walked along the "main" road. We passed by what looked like an arcade, but I soon realized that it was _actually_ a gambling center. Except, everything was a slot machine (no poker/roulette etc.) and the A/C was so loud that I could barely hear myself speak.

We took a look before retreating back to the road and turned left again at a 7-Eleven store. Looking in, we stared in amazement at the Japanese version of fast food and convenience goods: hot dogs were replaced by rice cakes and pizza was replaced by sushi.

In turning the sketchy corner, we entered a very narrow alley in the backdrop of a massive city. The alley looked incredibly shady; a car could barely pass through. Then, we took a right into our hotel. It was slightly drizzling, but we found our hotel. When we entered, I felt a complete change of atmosphere. It was quite cozy and warm. My parents checked-in while I waited around. We dropped off our bags while they got the room ready and I could already picture myself taking a warm shower and jumping into bed.

Unfortunately for me, we still had to eat dinner. We turned onto the main road and perused a variety of stores and restaurants. Interestingly, we saw K-pop posters and stores everywhere. It turned out that our hotel was in Tokyo's Korean town. We ended up settling on a Vietnamese restaurant that served some fried rice, though. It looked very contemporary, yet, by the time we got the food, I realized we had made a horrible mistake.

The whole room was filled with smokers! I'm a bit sensitive to smoke, so the experience was uncomfortable, to say the least.

When my rice arrived, I was half asleep and was certainly not in the mood to eat. The rice was pretty good, no lie, but I always have tummy troubles whenever I travel so I felt a bit queasy. Either way, we boxed some of the rice because I wasn't too hungry at the time.

Returning to the hotel, we went up to one of the top floors and saw a small Wi-Fi transmitter just plugged into the wall. The hallway was quite sweltering, we made our way to the end of the hallway and went in, eager to get some sort of rest.

Yet, the room looked kind of poor in my opinion: with three mattresses set on the floor, a small TV, and a window. The shower situation was remarkably unnerving, though. It was very small, and all made of plastic. The curtain was ripped and a bit dirty. I thought about how much better the room would be if the shower curtain were simply replaced. My mom told me that this hotel was, in particular, quite expensive. I doubted it at the time, but the fact that it was at a very favorable location likely made it more attractive.

The next day I woke up extremely drowsy to the sound of an obsolete television. I was greeted by the smell and taste of the fried rice from the dinner the day before. I was surprisingly very hungry, for the jet lag screwed up when I wanted to eat. There was no complimentary breakfast— only a free cup of coffee (we barely even got that). We shortly exited the hotel to start our one-day trip to Hakone.

It was only a thirty-minute ride by bullet train from Tokyo, making it a very popular destination for tourists and locals alike. Hakone was near Mount Fuji and was famous for its hot springs. The bullet train got us as far as Odawara only, which was the gateway to this region.

We soon purchased a Hakone Free Pass, which allowed us to use the local train, cable car, skylift, boat, and bus to explore the whole region. The entire tour was meant to be done in a circular path.

Our first stop was Hakone-Yumoto, which could easily be reached by local railway. The railway was narrow and winding. As we ascended, I could barely see in front of us due to the heavy vegetation that was nevertheless breathtaking. Then, we stopped. And waited. I began to worry when the conductor of the train came out of the car and walked to the other side. Even though visibility was low, I could still tell that if we were stranded out here, it would be a long walk back.

But, magically, and to my surprise, the train started to move backwards!

I thought we were returning to base because something was wrong; a couple of glimpses at the mirror showed that there were no more tracks in front of us. But, shockingly, we were still going up! This happened a couple more times; I felt a little bad for the conductor because he must have been exhausted running from one end of the train to the other. I concluded later that we must have gone through a few switchbacks.

Then, we got onto a skylift. It was supposed to be grand— we would be able to see the lake, and the mountain, and the trees. We would cruise through the clouds, admiring the many sights and the high elevation.

We were supposed to.

But the only problem was that the terrain was completely enveloped in fog! There was little-to-no visibility and we spent about twenty minutes looking at some bleak clouds. When we reached the first switchover point, everything was like clockwork, somewhat like an amusement park ride; the belt kept moving, and we all had to hop off or we'd be stuck for the return journey. They also gave us all a bunch of cleansing towels/wipes/masks for some reason.

I soon found out why. As we exited the modern-looking building, the entire rocky area reeked of rotten eggs! Apparently, the smell came from volcanic/hot spring activity nearby (I was glad they gave us facemasks). The stench was so strong that I almost passed out. This, combined with the visibility akin to total darkness, made navigation around the buildings incredibly difficult.

We went to various structures and museums, all of which had interesting artifacts. They also had a couple of trinkets lying around. I noticed that people were eating black eggs, which seemed to be the local specialty. I was told that the eggs were boiled in the hot springs, turned black and smelt a bit sulphuric. Unfortunately, I just didn't have any appetite for black eggs— the method seemed a bit questionable at first (I later heard they were pretty good). Legend also said that you will have longevity if you eat one of the eggs.

It was drizzling a bit outside when we got out so we took a picture of the only truly visible thing we could see: an egg-shaped sign.

We then moved to our next means of transportation: the boat, which looked like a pirate ship. The boat cruised along Lake Ashi, surrounded by nice views of hills and mountains. Also, the entire boat was densely packed. After becoming a bit too intimate with our fellow passengers over the journey, we docked at the other side of the lake.

There was a restaurant, but we decided not to eat there. Rather, we walked around for several minutes inland. After reaching a main-er road (I refuse to call it the main road due to it being only a couple of lanes), we realized that there weren't very many options for food in the area. Walking up and down that road, the only restaurant we could find was a very small noodle house. However, while the building itself was only large enough to hold a few people, the food was incredibly tasty. While sitting around, I played my 3DS. I noticed that whenever someone passed me, the 3DS showed the region they were from. Already, I had a couple people from various Japanese territories recorded. Anyway, we went back outside to the road and looked around the street further.

There was a small shopping complex, and we went to one of the larger stores there. Particular items that interested me were the Gudetama keychains (the lazy egg) and the Japanese "Wave" painting by Hokusai (the artist). Just a heads up: this trip was probably the one where I spent the most time shopping. Everything had a neat quirk, or at least a cute appearance. I was so enveloped in shopping I nearly forgot we had to continue to our next stop.

To reach our next location around the mountain, we could hike or take a bus. However, it was raining by that point and we didn't want to walk. We were also worried that the last bus would be coming soon. I must admit, however, that we did start walking up the hill before we saw a bus and ran scrambling back to the bus stop.

We took a bus back to downtown Yumoto where a bunch of famous hot springs were located. I was a bit nervous at the time not because of the springs, but because of the conditions of entry. Everyone would be required to go in nude, which I found super disgusting. I had already pictured all the naked men with their unflattering bodies just walking around in the hot springs.

My mom, sensing this fear (and obvious awkwardness) decided that it would be better if we had a private hot spring. In theory, this was an amazing idea, but in practice, all of the private ones were filled (no surprise there; who wants to show their naked body?).

A bit later we were outside contemplating our options. We decided to simply get onto the bus and continue to another location. Our next stop was a small shopping street. The bus pulled up under a large bridge and we began to walk up and down the street, searching for souvenir stores. It was there that I first used the instant translate feature on our phone.

To nobody's surprise, initial attempts were unsuccessful at decrypting the wording at the side of packages and we continued onward, thinking we would try again later.

All around, I could see convenience stores with Pokémon promos here and there (more on that stuff way later) as I pampered myself by viewing all the exquisite merchandise to be seen.

The next day, we got up for the Tokyo city tour. We grabbed a couple of drinks at the reception and purchased a couple of rice balls from the 7-Eleven store on the corner for breakfast. We then made our way to the tour meeting point at Shimbashi, central Tokyo. Our first stop: Tokyo Tower.

Along the way, our tour guide told us how the Tokyo Tower was destroyed twice in its existence. I thought about when that could have been (Not during WWII... Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki... not during the earthquake/tsunami disaster... hmm). I was stumped.

Then, the guide said that, in fact, the tower was destroyed twice... by Godzilla! We got a good chuckle out of that one.

The bus would be leaving in one hour, which seemed like ample time. So, we passed through the small shops at the bottom and went up the elevator to the top. All around us, we could see a sizable portion of the city. There was also a cool glass floor at the top in which you could see directly downward.

We went around a couple of times and up to the highest level where we took nice pictures; it was overcast the entire time, but it didn't matter too much. Before leaving, we went to the gift shop and bought a miniature Tokyo Tower as well as other souvenirs. A lady at the top was calling all tour members to come down, but I didn't even get a chance to see the shops at the bottom! Either way, I reluctantly left the tower and we took a couple last-minute pictures from ground-level. The next stop was the Meiji Shrine, which essentially was a nice stroll through the woods. The shrine was dedicated to Emperor Meiji and his wife. When we arrived, we were greeted by a long, dirt path into the forest. After taking a couple of turns, we made our way to the main complex of buildings. There was a massive Torii gate at the front, which signified that we were entering "sacred" grounds.

There were a couple of "fountains" near the front where one could take a ladle-like object and scoop the water. It is customary to wash the hands with the dipper and rinse the mouth before visiting a shrine (for "purifying" oneself). Our guide showed us the proper steps.

If I remember correctly: first you take a dipper in your right hand, scoop water and wash the left hand. Then, switch the dipper to the left hand and wash the right hand; switch back the dipper to the right hand again; finally rinse your mouth with your left hand.

The entire shrine was under construction when we went (due to the upcoming 2020 Olympics at the time) and some parts were closed off. We entered the shrine and saw a couple of shops to our left and a strange wall filled with writing on our right.

We were told that this was a place to put petitions towards the Japanese gods. The process was to first purchase a piece of paper. The person would then put it on the wall. Finally, they would throw an offering into the shrine and hope that the god accepts the offering.

After another walk through the forest, we went to our next stop, the Imperial Palace East Garden. The first thing that I noticed was the strange entrance. The whole garden was surrounded by a massive moat and the entrance consisted of a ninety-degree turn into the garden.

I learned that this was to prevent attackers with battering rams from easily entering the garden. The doors were also incredibly thick and heavy, which in my mind was a bit overkill.

The garden itself was immensely beautiful. It was all green with giant, lush trees, all in the middle of a bustling city.

We stopped at one matured tree and were told that this particular tree was dying at one point, but thanks to Sake (Japanese rice wine), it was revived and now was thriving. Our guide continued to say that the Japanese would drink heated sake to get rid of sicknesses like the common cold. Apparently, Sake has surprising health benefits not only to humans but also to trees.

There were relaxing ponds, bridges, bonsai, and more that all fit together in an elegant masterpiece. I walked all around the pond in awe. We then walked over the bridge separating the palace from the city and stared at the moat filled with vegetation; there were also quite a few ducks— I could imagine the park being heaven for them.

It was now time for lunch, so we went to a large building in the city to eat. I noticed that one of the differences between Japanese food in America and Japanese food in Japan was that in Japan, there was much less meat. If anything, there was a lot of rice with a small piece of fish (if even that). But I didn't complain because Japanese sushi rice tasted amazing. We sat in a nice little private room on the floor as we were served our meal.

Fully rested, we ventured to the Hama-Rikyu garden, which was also a very beautiful garden. This one had a sizable lake in the center and wooden pathways going across it. The place seemed to be famous for its tea; the teahouse in the center of the lake was packed. We walked all around it and I took wonder in how such a park, so densely packed with trees and nature, could be sitting in the middle of the city. We wanted to get some tea but didn't have enough time.

Our next stop was a cruise along the Sumida river. We started at Hinode pier with a destination of Asakusa. One of the most notable sites on the tour was the Asahi company's building.

There were two buildings that looked incredibly strange. One had a reflective yellow glass for all its windows with a strange white section at the top and the second had a large black base with a golden "flame" (It just looked like it) at the top. The first was supposedly a representation of the beer that the company made, with the white stuff being the foam from that beer. The second was to symbolize the "burning passion" of the company's workers.

When we left the ferry, we were suddenly attacked by a ninja! Sort of. Our tour apparently included a performance on the boardwalk, and this ninja was part of it.

Nearing the end of the tour, we went to the Asakusa Kannon Temple. However, in order to get there, we first had to walk down the Nakamise shopping street, which was incredibly crowded. I stopped many times to check out the shops on both sides of the street, but it was very difficult, especially with the street being only a couple of cars wide and the nearest person always being within a foot of my face.

We looked at a variety of shops, comparing prices and looking for cool trinkets. I was not really interested in clothes, so I skipped a lot of those shops. However, I did look for Gudetama (the egg), Pokémon, and the Japanese Wave (painting). Never before did I realize how useful the camera feature on Google Translate could be.

Either way, we found a couple of interesting souvenirs, but were a bit slow to buy, resulting in us having to hurry a bit at the end. Each section of the long street held a giant "gate" that had a large lamp and/or a statue. The lamp/lantern was absolutely massive— as tall as a person and as wide as a car! It hung over our heads and we took a couple of pictures.

We hurried through the street and eventually reached the Asakusa Kannon Temple, which also had these giant lanterns. It was a Buddhist temple and there was a massive pagoda five stories in height! Although it was completely overcast, I was very thirsty and sweaty. The humidity didn't exactly help with the heat.

Afterwards, we drove to Akihabara, where we got off. This commercial area was packed with people, stores, and more. It seemed like nearly every block had an arcade/casino (with those super loud slot machines) and a store specializing in collectibles. We were near the train station and it was nearly dark when we started walking around the area.

The whole place lit up with blindingly-bright neon lights, and people were at the doors of their arcades preaching about the amazing things that could be won. It was here that I bought my first capsule toy (Gacha).

Gacha is the nickname for Gachapon. It actually consists of two words: "Gacha", meaning "vending machine" and "Pon", meaning "toy capsule". So, it's a toy inside a capsule that can be bought through a vending machine (usually one to six dollars)— sort of like the gumball machines in the U.S. But, Gachapon is different in that the figures/toys are small, colorful, detailed, and are of high quality. The toys in the capsules vary and can be based on manga, video games, or other brands. They're fun partly because you don't know what toy you'll get.

I also must admit, this can become a bit addicting because sometimes you don't want to stop putting coins in the machine until you get the one you want.

Gacha is so popular in Japan that you can find them basically everywhere.

I put some coins in the machine and out popped a surprise toy. We then went onto a busier street, but by that time, we were all very hungry. We looked around for food for a while until we came to this corner restaurant that had a ton of people around.

Looking inside, I saw that it was one of those places with conveyor-belt sushi. The sushi sat on plates and rotated around a table while people could pick up the plates and eat as they wished. The pricing system was a bit difficult to comprehend, but I realized that it was based on the plate the sushi was on.

After taking a couple (about twenty) plates of sushi, we looked around and saw that not too many people were eating sushi. I was a bit surprised to see that; in fact, they were eating some sort of clam soup. I thought it was ridiculous that one would eat _that_ in a sushi restaurant, but then I looked at the wall and saw a poster. It didn't take advanced knowledge of Japanese to tell that the soup was a special and rather inexpensive.

As opposed to the sushi, the giant bowl of soup and clams cost a half or a quarter of the price, so we each ordered one. To be honest, we should have done that from the start, for it was incredibly tasty. A lot of people were in suits too, which was a bit intimidating, but they did show us what to eat.

There is no way to quantify (very precisely, at least) how much time I spent on that street, looking around and shopping. I remember entering this one store that had over five levels of collectibles and another that had a basement with every single space on the wall being taken up. I bought a couple of toys and we continued down the street. I must have spent multiple hours there because it was very late at night when we decided to go back. I honestly wanted to stay a bit longer.

I woke up excited the next day because we would take our second bullet train to Shin-Hakodate in Hokkaido, the island furthest north in Japan. We were on schedule, about fifteen minutes early to our local train station. We had to travel to Ueno (east of Tokyo) to catch the bullet train.

However, about halfway through the line, the train stopped, and the doors remained open at a station.

No big deal, I thought, as the train's doors gaped open for a minute. But that quickly turned into two minutes. And then five minutes. And then ten minutes. Unsurprisingly, I could feel the death stares my parents were giving to the open train doors. I heard my mom murmuring that we would miss our bullet train. Something might have been said over the intercom, but... of course it was in Japanese.

After about twenty minutes, people began to leave the train, and I could see my parents start to panic. I thought Japan had literally the BEST train system in basically all of Asia!

My mom promptly yanked her phone out of her bag and marched to the nearest Japanese person and began to type some things into a translating app. Then, out of nowhere, the stranger my mom approached pulled _her_ phone out of her pocket and began typing some words on _her_ phone.

For about ten minutes, their "conversation" was a combination of smiles, soft laughs, subtle frowns, and desperate faces. Then, my mom walked back to us.

Apparently, someone had jumped the tracks about five stations over. And no, they didn't just jump and stay there. No. They jumped AND RAN ONTO THE TRACKS. So, all trains were grounded until the missing person was "found".

Now that I think about it, the district that seemed to have a lot of karaoke parlors also had mechanical doors that only opened when a train pulled up (I wonder why...).

Anyway, after another ten to twenty minutes, we were up and running again. Unfortunately, we missed our bullet train. We headed to the ticket station hoping to exchange our tickets. The line was very long. Apparently many people also missed their train due to the prior incident. We were very worried that we might not be able to get seats last-minute due to the busy holiday season. We explained the situation to the ticket agent and our worst fears were confirmed: he said the train was full and the only one available to take us to our destination was late in the afternoon. We insisted that we really had to go on our trip that morning and that we simply didn't have much time in Japan. The agent checked again and again in his computer and said that he could get us to Shin-Hakodate with a different route.

There was one catch, however, and it was that in the first segment of the trip (3+ hours), we had to stand!

Anyway, skipping the one or two hour wait, we got onto the next train. The bullet train looked very futuristic. On the outside, the train had a metallic-green color with a long nose-shape head. To me, it looked like the beak of a duck. The ride would take multiple hours. I did have my book and my 3DS, however (I had to read _East of Eden_ over the summer- i.e. five hundred pages of obligatory reading), so that was what I did.

I never mentioned before how beautiful the trains in Japan were and the amazing scenery that we passed through. In the few and far-between spots that there was direct sunlight, the fields and houses shone and looked incredible. At one point, we saw that in the cabin, there were a couple of empty seats, so we went to take a seat in them.

However, within a couple of minutes, the train conductor asked us to leave them... but they were empty!

A couple minutes later, we tried again, but he came again.

After the third time, I was beginning to think that he was psychic, but there was probably a pressure sensor or something that I didn't see.

A couple of people in standing seats also tried our trick, but the conductor came down again and told them to get up.

It was kind of like a dance now that I think about it. The conductor had to keep walking from end-to-end of the train to check up on us while we looked out for him and sat in the seat when we could. Sometimes we sat down and when we saw him coming, we got up. He just passed right on by with a blank look on his face. It was pretty funny. At one point, the train went underwater (or above water?), but I couldn't really tell when due to everything being dark.

I believe at some point the train must have been under the water when it crossed from the main island to the northern island. I was too busy reading my book. When we finally arrived at Hakodate, the first thing I noticed was that it was much less humid and significantly colder.

We left the station to enter a large plaza. Conveniently, our hotel was right across from us (thanks to my mom's superior planning). We entered the hotel and got ourselves a room. The room was only remarkable in that the window was an escape route to the roof.

Anyway, we went down to the town to look at all the shops and arrived at the Red Brick Warehouse. It was a shopping mall inside an old warehouse complex. There was some jewelry, clothes, and even a couple of free samples. Here, we bought a transparent umbrella as well as a couple other goods. There were a few collectible shops, and I bought a Metal Slime from one of them.

After browsing the massive mall's various goods, we decided to leave to go onto the cable car. We initially planned to go somewhere else too, but we couldn't due to that crazy man jumping the tracks; our trip got cut short. When we stepped out of the mall, we were instantly drenched. We had to make a journey up the mountain towards the cable car station.

As we approached the station, we saw quite a few western-style buildings and churches. I wondered why and later found out that Hakodate was among the first Japanese ports opened to international trade. That was how they received so much western influence.

We all huddled under our tiny umbrella. It was also a bit foggy so we couldn't exactly see where the entrance was. A nice man guided us from the parking lot directly into the building, however, so that was convenient.

As we waited to get our tickets to the top of the mountain, I read the info screen. It gave information about the current weather conditions and departure times.

It didn't take much examination to see the disappointment in my face when the info board said, "Visibility Zero".

We took the cable car up the mountain all the while staring into the fog. When we got to the top, we stepped out and looked out on the city.

Stepping outside, however, was a huge mistake. I felt like I was in a hurricane! The fog was thick, and the wind was powerful, especially near the top of the station. I wanted to get back inside as soon as possible. In short, we didn't get to see the view.

But, there was a _cardboard cutout_ showing what the city view would have looked like on a clear day (or, in this case, night).

We took a couple of pictures of the signs up there and my mom got a few more capsule toys. She seemed to be really interested in the ones that hung onto a cup. After sitting in the lounge for several minutes, we went back down in the cable car. We then caught the next local tram back to our hotel; it was still raining when we got back.

The next day, we were to go back towards Tokyo, but decided to check out the morning market first since our train left later. All throughout the morning we walked around the sea and saw various shops and goods.

Some of the more notable items included expensive scallops, squid, organic fruit, and crab meat. The scallops sold at a ridiculously high price (as did the fruit) due to their taste or some other rare feature. I think the place is famous for the seafood because just nine scallops (a thumb in width) cost us at least twenty dollars. Since the melon from Hakodate was well known, we thought we would try one. The price was five dollars for a _single_ slice!

Then, we entered a restaurant that seemed to be promising. When I looked at the menu images and prices, I thought it was a sham— who in the world would put that much crab meat for such a low price? However, when my giant bowl of rice and seafood arrived, I was proven oh-so wrong. The whole bowl was filled with crab meat— real crab meat all above a bed of sushi rice. It was one of the best dishes I had ever tasted. The restaurant even gave us complimentary stuffed squids!

Having eaten too much, I felt like going to the bathroom. But, I was a bit concerned with the bathroom situation since this was a marketplace that wasn't exactly nice-looking. After taking three dark turns in a tiny alley, I came across a fully-automated bidet toilet. I was shocked that such nice facilities could still be present in a seafood market. After leaving and looking around a bit more without coming across anything too interesting, we went back to prepare to depart southward.

It was about mid-day. We took the bullet train (no crazy people jumping the tracks this time!) and made our way back to Tokyo.

Remember me mentioning how there were Pokémon ads posted all over the local train stations? Well, apparently, I had wanted to ask about that but was too tired to think it was that important. However, when I saw kids carrying a sheet and having it stamped, I knew that something was up. I asked for one of those sheets at the information desk, but it was all in Japanese. Anyway, I would learn later that I was supposed to collect stamps at certain train stations (what I didn't know was that my opportunity had passed, since we only had a few more stations in Tokyo to go).

Meanwhile, we went to Shibuya crossing, the _supposedly_ largest and most crowded street crossing in Japan. It went in five directions. But in my opinion the crossing didn't look that big; there weren't as many people as I thought either. I think it was much smaller than Times Square in New York.

We attempted to get into a building to see the crossing from a greater height, but the whole place was packed. The only elevator could only be operated by office workers and so the next best thing was to go up to the second story coffee shop. Unfortunately, everyone had the same idea we did (or we had the same idea as they did) and window seating was scarce. We were able to finally get to the window to take a couple of pictures.

Anyway, we went back to the local train station and went to Ameyayokocho street around Ueno station. The train station was right behind us and we walked down the street in the area. There were many shops, of course, but it was getting close to dinner time. We looked around for a place to eat and soon encountered a "floating" noodle bowl. It was basically two chopsticks going up and down with noodles hanging from them; it seemed like they were floating, but it was all mechanical. However, we ate at a different restaurant.

The one we went to made us use a vending machine to purchase our food. It was a bit difficult because we could barely read anything, but eventually, we were able to get our order of udon/ramen. When I sat down, I checked how many people I passed on my 3DS. Each time I had more than ten people (with 3DS's) pass me. Either way, we soon went back to our hotel. There was little that was remarkable about the hotel except that it was fancy and rather large, right in front of the Shinagawa train station.

That night, I put my phone's translating features and my researching skills to the test. I pulled out the Pokémon pamphlet that I was given, and I looked online for translations. I really should have done this beforehand, but I figured out all the special stores and events that were occurring having to do with Pokémon that night. Unfortunately, translating the pamphlet confirmed that I was supposed to collect stamps at stations to win real prizes, but this was the last day we would stay in Tokyo. However, I learned that I could still visit these special stores called "Pokémon Centers" in places such as Osaka, Kyoto, and others, all of which we would be going to.

Early in the morning we headed out to take a train to Takayama via Nagoya. Takayama is more inland and not as large as the other stations. I believe we had to transfer from the bullet train in Nagoya to a smaller train to get there. The train ride took up the entire morning, and we arrived at about noon.

With most of our train rides, we purchased bentos (Japanese lunch/food boxes) at the station so we wouldn't have to worry about food during the multi-hour rides. Although I loaded quite a few games, I ended up spending a lot of my time simply reading _East of Eden_.

Our hotel in Takayama was quite a walk away from the station, and so it took us about twenty minutes to get there. But, once we were inside, it was very relaxing. We were on the second floor and our room was a traditional Japanese-style room. It was incredibly minimalistic, with only a couple of mattresses (that we had to set up ourselves) and a bathroom; the walls were also incredibly thin. We had to sleep on the floor (on top of the mattress). I guess most Japanese people sleep on the floor on a Tatami, which is a mat made of rice straw. We didn't stick around for very long in our room because we had a tour to Shirakawa-go just an hour later.

We soon arrived at the tour meeting point and got ready to go. Shirakawa-go is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is famous for its traditional houses. It took an hour or so to journey into the valley. Our bus had a giant red faceless doll called Sarubobo in Japanese.

This doll is unique to Shirakawa-go and also serves as a lucky charm! It is believed that it will bring good luck in life. The doll comes in different colors and each color has a different meaning. For example, red means family, gold means money, and so on.

Curving around the mountain, we eventually reached a six-mile section in which the path curved directly through the mountain in a continuous tunnel. I would later find out that my uncle from Japan (who we would meet later) had worked on it (he was a geologist).

After the long ride, we arrived at an observation point above the village. It was incredibly beautiful. There were rice fields all over the place and the houses were all thatched with what appeared to be straw. Everywhere was green.

We then moved towards the base of the village, but we had to cross a tightrope bridge across the river. Inside, there were many tourists and several shops. Now, we could see the houses up close. We heard that it cost about $200,000 to make a single roof! We were left to our own devices for two hours.

After taking multiple pictures, we wanted to go inside of one of these houses, so we paid the admission fee. Inside, there were multiple rooms. The entire place was wood, and we had to take off our shoes. There was a fireplace in the center, a TV with tea to the left, and stairs to the right. In addition to the essentially unlimited tea, the fire was very relaxing. From the attic, we could see through a window the entire village.

We went around a bit further looking at all the rice fields before turning around and going towards the museum. During the tour we thought we heard our guide say that one could get unlimited Sake (the Japanese rice wine) in the museum.

My dad decided to go in; there were a lot of wax figures in there. Near the end, my dad asked for a shot of sake. After trying that kind, he asked for another one. It was when he asked for a third shot that the priest looked at him a bit funny.

Apparently, the Sake was not unlimited.

At some point along the trip, we stopped at a gift shop; I got myself one of those faceless dolls but this one was blue (for academic success). On the way back to Takayama, we consulted our guide on what to eat, at which point it was suggested that we go try some Wagyu Beef.

I think it's a specialty there, similar to Kobe steak in that the cows were treated very well and were grass fed (perhaps even given massages) for the best taste.

Since there was still daylight, we went out for a stroll. As we got closer to the center of the town, I looked for my collectibles: that painting (of the wave), keychains, and other trinkets. We passed a restaurant that served Wagyu beef and went in.

The room was quite small, with wooden floors and tables on the floor. After biting the bullet of some ridiculously expensive Wagyu beef, we were greeted by a plate with six miniscule cuts of meat. I'm not sure if we can say we got our money's worth.

That night, I wanted to claim an event Pokémon at 7-Eleven. So, I brought my 3DS and we walked along the main street, Kokubunji Dori, and crossed the river to reach the store. I tried connecting to the Wi-Fi, pulling up 7-Eleven's website, using my phone to connect, etc. to no avail. I even asked the store owner how to do it; of course, she didn't know what I was saying, and so, went into the back room. I thought she had given up on me and my American nonsense. But, surprisingly, she came back with a phone on conference call!

The representative on the phone could speak both Japanese and English, which was very nice, but as the time deadline for the event drew nearer, I realized this wasn't going to work.

I woke up the next day and got ready to take another bullet train towards Hakata, in the southern island of Japan. I haven't been mentioning the transfers in-between stations but just note that we stopped at Nagoya to transfer to Shin-Kobe first and then finally transferred to a train that went to Hakata.

The first thing we did when we got out of the train station in Hakata was to find our hotel. The hotel was on the other side of the river. So, after an arduous walk, we managed to make it to our hotel (skipping the heat and bumpy terrain). We wanted to drop our bags off before we did anything, but the elevator was about the size of our luggage! Being the slim people that we were, we could carefully maneuver ourselves so that we fit inside as if we just did a perfect Tetris arrangement.

Upon entry to our room, we were greeted with about four square feet of free space. On the scale of moderately sized to tiny, this was probably the smallest room we had ever entered (which is _really_ saying something). Everything was crammed together; little space remained for anything, as three beds and a TV hogged up basically the entire room.

When we got off the train earlier, we saw that the train station housed a massive mall, so we went there to spend the rest of the day. Skipping the long commute to the mall itself, the whole place was filled with all sorts of stores. There were several levels that went underground and even more above ground. There was a giant food complex that we looked around and a wide variety of trinkets. There were also many, many restaurants. We decided that since it was getting dark, we would look at the menu. Every single one said that they had a "special" but upon further inspection, the only bonus item for purchasing a bowl of noodles would be another bowl of rice.

Nevertheless, we were hungry, and had to use the vending machine a second time to order the food. This time, however, it wasn't as easy. The machine had a time limit that refunded your money if you took too long to order, and sometimes the money wasn't even accepted! The machine kept refunding us until it ran out of coins; a person then had to fix it (which seemed to undermine the purpose of the machine).

We ultimately ended up eating ramen and something else, which was tasty. Meanwhile, I was technically passing by loads of people on my 3DS; a lot of the regions in Japan had been filled up by now. I figured now would be a good time to summarize my mom's shopping spree since this mall had basically every store. She bought a small purse, origami earrings, bookmarks, and more. Most of these we gifted to friends and family. Going further down into the mall, we became aware that the mall went below street level. There was a small sushi shop that sold pre-made sushi for a discount (since it was the end of the day), but we didn't buy any.

There were also many, many more shops in almost a whole new world underground; it was so expansive that I almost got lost! It was at this point that we made the fateful decision to go up to the surface to see where we were. We ended up at a bus station. The roof was only six or seven feet tall. Apparently, we came up in this rather large, tall (and skinny) building.

It seemed to me that nearly all Japanese buildings had a similar layout if they were large and tall: the center had an escalator going up, and the downward part was on the other side. If that floor's shop was closed (a single shop occupied each floor), a person could just move up a floor and use that floor's open shop to get down. Great use of space, right? As you can probably already tell, there's a problem with this design. What if ALL the floors were closed and you kept going up to try and find an open floor so that you could go down?

Well... I wanted to go to floor seven, which had Daiso (a store also in the U.S.), so we went up a couple of floors on the escalator. Pretty soon, I had realized my mistake. I was one level ahead of my parents, and the escalator only went up a couple more floors; there was no return to the ground in sight. Mind you, it was also LATE and there weren't a lot of people around. At this point, camping it out until daytime seemed more and more of an option, being stranded between an upwards escalator and roof. OR, I could push the red "Emergency Stop" button. Or at least that was what I thought it said. Surprise: I don't know Japanese.

My parents also realized the error in my ways. My imagination then took a more creative turn and I pictured myself swiftly sliding down the handrail of the escalator down to safety (That wouldn't work for obvious reasons; handrails moved with the escalator). Try to guess what I did. Like any reasonable child told not to run up the slide or climb over the guardrails, panic mode activated, and I took a mad dash _down_ the furiously (and intimidatingly-sounding-and-looking) _upwards_ moving escalator. My family took a couple more strides down (Thank goodness we could still move well enough to do so!) and we arrived, panting, back in the bright lights of the first floor. Nevertheless, the small Japanese congregation down there looked stunned.

We went back to the hotel after that.

We had our breakfast downstairs at our hotel. It was a typical Japanese breakfast with rice and Miso Soup (a bit out of the ordinary for me, at least). Also, there were free drinks including coffee and orange juice from the vending machine. Fueling up that day, we realized there were a couple of neat malls that we could go to, yet along the way, my dad wanted to go to a couple temples.

They all seemed pretty standard, but one of them, upon entry, had a gigantic Buddha statue inside, which was interesting. Anyway, the first mall we went to was more of a street walk. There were a variety of wares in the enclosed area; we did not intend to go here initially but decided that it was on the way to another mall. I don't remember buying anything here, but there was some pretty cool merchandise.

Upon exiting this street, we turned left and went towards the mall we were aiming to go to. The layout of this mall was like the one before, except that the floors were all open this time around. In the mall, there was actually very little that was of interest to me (other than seeing that I had overpaid for my Metal Slime by about two dollars).

We then went out and took a bridge over to yet another mall, Canal City. This one was the one we intended to go to. There was a small canal going straight through the mall with stores going many stories up on each side. The bridge connected to the second or so floor, and immediately upon exiting the bridge, I noticed that a Yo-Kai Watch store was right there. I wasn't even looking for it, but I was interested because I had seen a couple playthroughs of the game. There were stuffed animals and figures of the main characters all around. Of course, I had no idea what any of it said or meant, but it was cool. I ended up buying a couple of figures from the game for a few hundred yen (couple dollars).

This mall was filled to the brim with amenities and cool shops. The first thing I noticed was the water show. There appeared to be an activity where the kids could run into the fountains in the center of the mall while water guns and spouts of water were being sprayed all over.

On the inside, there was an entire floor dedicated to technology, clothes, food, you name it, not to mention a variety of capsule toy dispensers (we bought a couple more ourselves).

It was still early when we left Canal City, so we decided last-minute to take the bullet train to Nagasaki. We had half a day left and promptly booked our reservation for a two-hour ride to the place without a fee (JR Pass to the rescue!).

Shortly after, we were on our way to Nagasaki, at the very south of Japan. Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the two cities that the atomic bombs were dropped on during WWII.

The main site in the city that we saw was a giant peace statue, a tribute to the lives lost in the atomic blast. The seated man is shown with his right hand up to the sky and his left hand out to the side. The right hand pointing to the sky represents the threat of the atomic bomb and the left hand extended horizontally symbolizes peace.

There were placards next to some surviving rubble. After looking at all the memorials, statues, and tributes, we went to a souvenir shop and bought a miniature of the statue we just took a picture with. The only other place we went to was Chinatown, which was in a small alleyway. It was getting late. We then went back, eating a bento on the train.

The next day, we took a bullet train to Shin-Osaka, which was further up north, but still south of Tokyo. As opposed to Osaka, which had no Shinkansen/bullet train (Shin means "new"), Shin-Osaka did. Our hotel was very close to the station, so we exited through the elevator into the hot sun.

We made a left and began to walk, thinking our hotel was in that direction.

But it wasn't.

We then started to ask around a couple minutes into our walk because we thought the hotel was supposed to be very close. A person told us to make a right. Then, another person told us to make _another_ right.

We ended up going backwards on a different street until finally, we made one more right turn and our hotel was there. We took about twenty minutes going around the entire block when we could have just made a right straight out of the station and gotten there in five. I was sweaty, so I was relieved when we went in the back door of the hotel (with A/C). I saw my aunt and uncle from Japan waiting for us at the lobby and we greeted each other.

We then promptly went up to our rooms to drop our luggage off. The room itself was in a wholly separate building from the reception, which I found to be a bit strange, but when I entered it, I saw that it was immensely beautiful. There was some ambient lighting and it was incredibly spacious; the windows even had two layers of blinds to cover up unwanted sunlight. The bathroom had dimmable lighting and a fancy bidet toilet.

But we couldn't enjoy all of that yet, so we went out with my aunt and uncle onto the local train towards Osaka (the older, original Osaka as opposed to the newer Shin-Osaka we stayed at). Since I had done my research, the moment I got off the train I went to the Pokémon Center in the mall that was connected to the station. My uncle knew where I wanted to go too.

Upon arrival, I realized that the **entire floor** was occupied by the Pokémon Center. I saw a ton of Japanese kids playing games too. I also came prepared with my 3DS. Just know that I got a special "gift" for coming to the store.

Moving clockwise around the store, I saw that there were capsule toy dispensers everywhere and I picked up two. I also bought a small figure and a plate. Everything was so cute. I then noticed that some kids could receive something for their birthday. I wanted to ask about that too.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get anything because my birthday was not in the month of August (when we were there). Although a little bummed, I would consider that visit a success.

We stopped by Kyobashi for a quick visit of a building that my uncle had rented out, then continued to Dotonbori. We emerged as the sun was setting in a very populated area. Darkness had fallen as we walked through the streets until we came to a restaurant that served some ramen. The counter had very limited seating, but we asked that we all be seated together. There were five of us in total, which was quite a few; we needed to get lucky to have five consecutive seats open in a row out of a total of about twenty seats. But, just as we were about to say that it would be OK if we split up, magically, five people left and we sat exactly where they were!

It was very convenient and I quickly ordered some ramen, for I was really hungry. Outside of the restaurant (we ate for an hour or two), we came to see the famous "mechanical crab". The whole street and adjacent streets were completely lit up with signs and neon lights. There were a ton of people crowded into this small area. We then proceeded forward to cross on to the river bridge.

There, we saw the massive amounts of people lined along the riverside with the lights of many buildings in the background. Behind us, there was this peculiar animated message board that showed a man running in a race. I learned later that this was the "Glico Man"; we all posed in his position: two hands up with one leg off the ground.

My aunt said that the Glico company sold candies (apparently, eating one of their candies can make you run faster). We then continued through a couple long corridors of shops to get to the train station and returned.

Since we were staying for many nights in Shin-Osaka, and my aunt and uncle would keep on joining us, I won't mention too many details about the train rides. On this day, we went to Nara, which was the first capital of Japan. We went eastward through Nara park when we arrived.

One of the first things I noticed were the massive amounts of deer everywhere! Every couple of steps there were deer. They were not only used to living around humans, I realized, but also street smart. One injured deer waited at a crosswalk and then crossed when cars stopped for it!

Another realization that I had was that there were no trash cans— anywhere. Come to think of it, there were no public trash cans here or basically anywhere else I went to in Japan, except some transparent ones I found at the stations. Despite the lack of trash cans, every place we went to was very clean. I would later find out that a couple of years ago, there was a terrorist attack where a person put a bomb in a trash can.

The solution? Ban all trash cans. The problem came when we actually needed to throw something away. It was difficult stuffing everything in our pockets.

Either way, we walked through a rocky road, fully enveloped by tree branches and made a left to go towards the palace. Along the way, there was this man that was selling breadcrumbs to feed to the deer. As I walked up to him, I was swarmed by deer, even though I had nothing!

There were so many deer; I tried to get a picture with one; it luckily stayed still for a couple seconds. I didn't dare get any closer than six feet for fear of those massive antlers. We then looked around for food. There weren't too many restaurants in the park, so we ventured elsewhere on the main road.

After a moderate search, we found a noodle place; we even got second floor seating on a mat. It felt really nice. As usual, I ordered ramen and my family ordered udon.

Exiting the restaurant, we saw that there were a TON of deer leading up to the palace. There was also the peculiar stench of deer dung and urine; one even "relieved" itself right in front of me! It was shocking how I didn't lose my lunch then and there.

Anyway, we continued along the path until we reached the gate to the Todai-Ji. The gate itself was made of wood and many stories high. I believe each side housed a giant bell or statue, and we shortly entered the sacred grounds of this Buddhist Temple. The complex seemed to be divided into two parts, the first being the outer ring and the second being right in front of the temple (the part you had to pay to go in).

The entrance to this part was on the side. On the way in, we lit some incense and walked in. I suddenly realized why the building was so massive (even more massive than the gate— perhaps three times as tall): there was a gigantic Buddha statue right in the center! Next to it were some smaller statues, but there were other statues all around the entire place. The statues were incredibly precise and made of metal and wood, which was crafted with absolute precision.

On the way back, we stopped at a shop... to buy socks. Sure, it might seem a bit off topic, but upon going up a floor we purchased some cute socks that had a small pocket for each toe.

We then went back and traveled to my aunt and uncle's house at Otsu. The city of Otsu is located on the coast of lake Biwa, which is the biggest lake in Japan. As we walked from the train station, I wondered which house we were going to. We passed by a lot of single and double story houses, but my aunt didn't stop at any of them.

Finally, we approached a large apartment building. Although I had visited them when I was about a year old, I did not remember them living in an apartment; we soon went to the top floor and entered the apartment. I thought that everything was quite small. But I wasn't too surprised: it's Japan; space is at a premium. The living room was connected to the kitchen and there were two bedrooms. To offset the small size, my aunt and uncle had collected a ton of small figurines and stuffed animals as well as bookshelves of reading material. I found it all very cute and comfy.

Yet, we did not eat our dinner here. Rather, we went down to the ground floor and I was told that we would drive to a restaurant. Wait, drive? I didn't see any car. I was surprised that we hadn't used it up to this point since it was available all this time. I must admit, however, that the train was probably cheaper.

With a push of a button, a strange contraption that stored cars whirred to life, putting my aunt and uncle's car at ground level. To this day I'm still amazed at how this technology works; what a way to save space! I had no clue where we were going to eat that day. I was busy playing my 3DS when we arrived: it was a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant (like the one in Tokyo)!

Stepping inside, I was amazed at how some of the mechanisms worked. We sat down at a small table with a touchscreen device showing us what we could order. All we needed to do was take sushi from the conveyor belt, or order food with a request. It would be promptly delivered; not by waiters, however, but instead, by bullet train.

Okay, not exactly: there were two tracks above the conveyor belt that housed moving containers that _looked_ like bullet trains and could go to any table in that row. I was amazed at the taste of the food and with the way the food could be ordered. I barely even needed to lift a finger, nor did I need a waiter to come by to ask for anything! It was all fully automated.

As usual, the cost was determined by the plate color. We ate a ton! On the way back, we typically used our JR Pass to get through the checkpoint turnstiles at the station; however, that required an actual worker be there to _see_ that we had the JR Pass in the first place. Yet, at this late time in the night, no station worker was there, not even a single passenger. We had no choice but to jump the turnstiles as beeping noises rang through the air! We made it back to the hotel without incident and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The next day, we were to go to Hiroshima; we took the bullet train and hopped on a bus that went to all the major tourist destinations. This free bus tour was included in our JR Pass. Our first stop was Hiroshima Castle, which was (another) island garden with a nice castle in the center.

I remember that the walk to the castle was pretty hot because we were dropped off on the opposite side of where we needed to be. The inside of the building we went into was very small (in terms of floor space), so I was surprised that they were able to fit in stairs that went all the way to the top.

The place was mostly a museum with a nice viewing area near the top. The only other interesting thing that I can remember is that the people there allowed us to dress up in traditional clothing. I got to wear a pretty nice helmet and my parents seemed to wear dresses. In trying to catch the bus back, we ran to the bus stop because we could see it coming, but we missed it; we waited for another thirty minutes. Then, we proceeded to the Atomic Bomb Dome.

When we arrived, I expected an absolute wasteland (you know, because of the atomic bomb and nuclear fallout). Surprisingly, the water in the river looked crisp and clean and so did the trees and grass around us. The dome stood right in front of us, and I could see that it was being held up by supports.

Walking around the dome, we noticed this man surrounded by lots of people. When we came closer, we noticed that he had ten or twenty books about the atomic bombing complete with some gruesome pictures. There were some pretty nasty mutations and burns people had to suffer, I saw (and then quickly averted my eyes). Some people just kept flipping through the book.

Next we went to the Peace Memorial Park. There were some strange sculptures there. It was the Children's Peace Monument. Nearby, there were a ton of origami birds. They were all stacked up in booths and I wondered why there were so many. My mom told me that a little girl was affected by the atomic blast and became very sick. To comfort and support her, hundreds, and eventually thousands of people sent her origami birds with messages on them. However, after a while, she eventually passed away due to her disease. So, this monument is to commemorate that little girl and the thousands of child victims of the atomic bomb of Hiroshima.

It was nearing noon, and we caught a bus to the department store. As we drew nearer, I saw this strange building that had no windows and no doors. I quickly noticed that at the bottom, there was this opening that cars drove into. Then, I saw the cars moving up. It was only then that I realized that the entire "building" was a car storage facility that moved the cars around and up vertically automatically. I could only imagine what would happen if the car moved up while someone was still inside.

We finally reached the mall and I was thrilled to feel the air conditioner on my face. The mall, I might also note, housed yet another Pokémon Center. As such, we eventually made our way to the top floor. This store was much smaller than the one in Osaka but had some cool figures. I also noticed that the baseball team there, the _Carp_ , seemed to relate to the high quantity of Magikarp and Gyarados Pokémon in the store.

There was also an interesting game that my dad noticed. For the price of about three dollars (converted from Yen), one could choose a card out of a deck and claim that rank of prize. I knew that these were carnival games that would very likely lead to a loss, but I tried one anyway. To my surprise, I picked a card with rank 'A', the highest level (other than level S), and proudly claimed a Squirtle (Pokémon stuffed animal) as my reward.

When I looked around further, I saw that a bunch of people were crowding around something. I took a gaze over and saw that it was a giant Pikachu in a Rowlet (another Pokémon) costume. It was really cool (and cute), especially seeing it squeeze itself back into the elevator.

There was one more thing to note, which was a "treasure hunt" that the place had. A person would be given an answer sheet with twenty questions and three answers 'A', 'B', and 'C'. The way the game was supposed to be played was for that player to go around the mall looking for message boards with the questions and marking the answers accordingly. The easiest prize was for six to ten correct and the ones after that required more precision. I really wanted to do the treasure hunt, but we didn't have time.

Of course, by this point, you might have realized something: I only needed to get perhaps a _third_ of the answers correct to get _any_ prize (in this case, a postcard). So, I could have guessed on every single question and I would likely have at least gotten the lowest tier prize (yay, math). Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until we left the building.

Since we still had a lot of time left in the day, we took the train to Miyajimaguchi and caught the ferry to Miyajima island. Again, the ferry ride was included in our JR Pass. The commute took a while, so I just continued reading _East of Eden_. We were to see a massive Torii gate in the ocean.

The interesting thing about this place was that during low tide, people could walk up to the Torii gate. We deliberately chose to go there in the afternoon because we learned that low tide would be around three o'clock on that day. From the boat I was able to see the iconic Torii gate in the distance. It looked spectacular with its bright colors. As the boat pulled up to the dock, we passed the Torii gate and saw a lot of people standing on the sand around the gate. Arriving at Itsukushima Shrine (same place), we began to walk towards the gate since the docks were a little further away. The walk along the coast was filled with tourists, vendors, and more. It was kind of stuffy around the area, especially with the heat. Since the walk was long and the scenery unchanging, I'll skip to the actual gate.

It was perhaps three to five stories tall and had massive pillars. The gate was made of decay-resistant wood and the foundation was made of stones. Some animals could even be seen jumping around the receded water. As the day grew older, the tide began to come in, encompassing the entire lower part of the gate. We retreated to the pier/building further inland, which was built atop seemingly-pointless stilts (the operative word being _seemingly_ , as when the tide went in, the stilts kept the building out of the water).

We went all around the wooden boardwalk and ultimately went back, but this time, we took a different route through a food street parallel to the coast. We ate some clam noodles for dinner and returned to the ferry. Then, we went back to Shin-Osaka.

For breakfast, I should mention that every day we spent in this hotel, we ate basically the same thing. There was always rice, maybe some fish, lots of small plates of pickled vegetables, and miso soup. Every meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) always seemed to have some soup and rice. I must also note that the sushi/sashimi was quite different from the U.S.; there was no imitation crab meat (in fact, there was barely any meat at all) and there was no such thing as a "California Roll". For breakfast, the food always tasted a bit funny because I was used to rice and soup for dinner. Our schedule today was a walking tour at Gion.

Gion is a historical district in Kyoto and it is the best place to see Geisha, if you're lucky enough (more on that later).

Our tour started right outside of the station in front of a river. We waited a while in the hot sun as people gathered around the Izumo no Okuni statue. We stopped at many interesting sites during the tour. Firstly, our guide talked about Geisha, and the performing arts scene in Kyoto. Geisha are professional entertainers and highly respected. They must train for ten years or more to reach elite status, and it isn't cheap either. As such, these people practice constantly and are rarely seen outside of their housing. And when people do see them, it is typically inside during a performance, which is priced at hundreds or even thousands of dollars, if not priceless.

During the tour, we passed by this special teahouse where only political elites could meet and be entertained by Geisha. I learned from our guide that before becoming Geisha, they had to be trained for at least five years as Maiko. There were differences in appearance between Geisha and Maiko. Maiko (the apprentice) normally wore more colorful kimonos with longer sleeves and their hair was typically decorated with many flowers and/or other adornments. On the other hand, Geisha had a more conservative look in that their kimono's sleeves were shorter. Their hair also had fewer decorations.

It was pretty easy, I thought, to identify one in public as they typically wore traditional dress, donned a white painted face, and had little red lips. I thought I saw some of them wandering around. But, I was dead wrong.

The real Geisha often wear silk kimonos that cost thousands of dollars; they also don't spend time taking photos on the street. These were just tourists dressed up as Geisha! Later, to our guide's surprise, we were able to catch a glimpse of the back of one of the real Geisha!

We were then told of bowing procedure, which typically occurred during a greeting. Each person would slightly bow, but what was interesting was how low a bow went if a person accidentally hit another person (i.e. while walking): the offender would bow all the way (and in earlier times, this was to give the person affected a chance to behead the perpetrator!).

Throughout the alleys, there were small racoon-like sculptures, and our guide told us those were Tanukis, which meant that the facility was a bar. Let's just say there were a lot of Tanukis.

Going further along, we arrived at a Buddhist/Shinto temple. There were three wise monkeys around the place who had their hands over their eyes, ears, and mouth; these apparently represented "see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil".

We continued around the temple nearby and were told that there was a mix of Buddhist and Shinto influence around the place because the Japanese people didn't like certain parts of either religion, so they fused the two together and only took the best of both worlds. The sun was blazing by the time we exited the temple, and when we stopped for a break, I propped myself up against a wall in the shade. Then, we continued to this nearby store/gift shop, which was near the end of the tour.

Inside, I saw a giant stuffed animal of a creature that I had seen before but didn't know the name of. It was quite massive, fluffy, and plump; I took a picture. I would later learn that it was a Totoro. We promptly exited the shop and ended the tour. Since Kyoto was another tourist hotspot, there was yet another Pokémon Center in the area, and so we went to check it out. This one was also small, but we bought a couple of "exclusive" souvenirs there.

A quick ramen break later, we went to our next location: Fushimi Inari Shrine on Mt. Inari. Here, there were thousands of Torii gates lining all the paths all the way up the mountain.

The path was so densely packed with Torii gates that barely any sunlight pierced through. We proceeded inward, knowing that we would have to catch the train back in a limited amount of time.

We learned that the Torii gates lining the trail were all donations by individuals or companies. We could buy a gate for a couple thousand dollars and our names would be on the gate.

At one point, we stopped for a break and my parents said that we could not make it to the summit of the mountain with the time given. Normally it takes about two to three hours to get to the top and back.

However, I really wanted to go. The solution? I went by myself with the camera while my parents waited.

I had to run.

I ran up the stairs through all the gates until I reached a small overlook of Kyoto. After taking a few pictures, I went up this side path thinking it was the main trail. It was only when I realized that there were only a few pots and shrines up there that I went back down and went down another (the correct) path. From there on, the trail became slightly more inclined and there were fewer and fewer gates. I dashed up the mountain and I'm pretty sure the kids walking down thought I was crazy. At some point, I asked which way was to the summit, and the person told me that this was it.

There was **nothing** here. I mean, there was a magnificent shrine and a good resting point, but there was no view, and only a little bit of sunlight broke through. Anyway, I took a picture, and ran back down the mountain. It took me about forty-five minutes in total.

My parents and I soon went back together; they had apparently been bitten quite a bit by the flies swarming around. This whole time (this day and the day before), my aunt and uncle were with us; my uncle said goodbye and left soon after.

Returning to Kyoto station, we looked around during the night. We first went to the giant LED-lit steps right next to the exit of the station. The whole staircase, which went up perhaps ten floors, changed colors to form pictures, text, and more. I also noticed a lot of people making out on these steps (and promptly looked away). At the top, I was treated to a wonderful view of the night sky and the city. It was incredibly windy, however, and we soon went back down. Around the area was also an observation tower, but it was getting late; we opted to go into a nearby mall. As we went back to our hotel, I bid my aunt farewell.

The next day, we took our last bullet train back to Tokyo followed by N'EX (Narita Express train) to Narita airport. However, when we got there, we noticed that the check-in screens had a blue background with some red text on it: flight delayed.

But, this was no normal delay. It was delayed by about four hours! We were shocked by this revelation, but still proceeded inside the terminal. I was concerned that we would miss our connection in Canada at first, but then, I realized that we had originally planned to stay for about eight hours in Canada to see an island nearby. So, with this delay, we would simply eliminate that side trip to catch our connection on-time. What luck!

Additionally, in Japan, we were eligible to enter the airline waiting lounge because we had free passes. Inside, there was all sorts of cool amenities; the seats and ambient lighting made it very comfortable and there was food as well. There was some sushi, pastries, Miso Soup, and even a couple of sandwiches to eat. I loved it. After many hours, we left that wonderful place.

Somewhere along the line, we realized that we had lost our transparent white umbrella that we bought in Hakodate. We must have left it somewhere. I was particularly saddened by this because I liked that umbrella, but it was too late; we seated ourselves on the plane and left towards North America.

We stopped for our layover in Canada and went through some special Canadian immigration so we wouldn't have to go through immigration in the U.S. Then, we returned home.

Chapter 4

Mediterranean: Italy (Rome, Vatican, Palermo/Sicily, Genoa), Malta (Valletta),

Spain (Barcelona), France (Marseille)

Like most trips, we parked away from the airport. Usually that sufficed, but this time, something was off. We arrived during a darker hour of the day and came to our normal lot to find that a sign was placed next to the entrance. "Lot Closed". This was one of the worst possible outcomes— we had already booked and paid for our parking for seven days and nobody was there to help us.

Out of the blue, a person from the next-door lot came over to us and said that he could help us. In utter and complete panic, we accepted the mysterious man's offer without even considering the fact that our payment was likely not valid for this other parking lot. But, hey, in a panic, things happen. More on how we resolved that later (as you typically pay when you leave the lot).

For now, we were led to a less (but still substantially) packed parking lot. We drove down into the not-so-shady (yes it was pretty creepy) basement and parked our car. We attempted to go up the ramp because it was next to our parking spot, but noticed a sign saying, "Pedestrians do not use ramp". Upon arrival at the elevator, we were met by the words "Out of Order".

We used the ramp.

After a brief wait at the shuttle to the airport stop, we got on and made our way to the international terminal. We checked in as usual and passed through security with few issues. The guy at the counter seemed pleased with himself, and I was, too. Every time I go through customs now, I always pre-load my memory with my age and birth date just in case they ask (you'd be surprised at how long it takes to figure it out— embarrassing, right?).

Luckily, this time they didn't ask me anything. We made our way to the gate and boarded the flight.

The plane was fairly nice. I checked all the movies on the plane. Unfortunately, I had already watched many of the movies before (the ones that were interesting, at least). The only new movies typically were documentaries or comedy shows (and even those aren't movies).

We stopped in London for a layover. I guess you could say that I visited yet another country on this trip! Once again fast-forwarding two hours, we started to get onto our plane towards Italy. This plane was completely bare-bones with no entertainment system. But, it wasn't like I was going to use it anyway because I quickly fell asleep.

Upon waking, we were a few minutes from Rome. When we entered customs, we got stuck behind a group of Chinese tourists. We entered the "Non-EU" line and waited.

I heard a few words: "you, other line".

My hopes of moving into a faster line were promptly crushed when we saw that the people behind us had moved to the other "EU" line. They were holding American passports. We attempted to move there, but the man stopped us. "No, not for you".

After another person holding the American passports passed through, we began to protest a bit, and upon seeing that we actually _did_ have American passports, he let us through.

Collecting our luggage, we made our way out to meet our private driver. The man was quite formal, and his taxi was nice. It was a fancy limousine! After a thirty or so minute drive, we arrived at our hotel. The area seemed a bit shady, so I wasn't sure if this was the correct spot, especially with all of the cars parked on the sidewalks.

We made our way up this narrow alley and into our hotel, which was surprisingly nice and modern. After a quick conversation with the concierge, we attempted to get to our room. It was late at night... or at least that was what I _thought_ , as I was still jet-lagged. We decided to whip out our new camera to start taking some pictures soon after that.

Getting down from the hill our hotel was on, I kept thinking I was about to get run over, as the sidewalks were basically nonexistent, and the streets were very crooked. The concierge told us there was a good place to eat very nearby, but on our way down, we couldn't find the street we were looking for. Unfortunately, our map wasn't that helpful as the street turned a corner every hundred feet.

We decided to take a walk on the main street instead, hoping that we'd run into the restaurant at some point, which, surprisingly, we did. Inside the restaurant, we were greeted by a rather lovely atmosphere with some pretty good food. We knew that in Europe, we'd have to pay for bread by the piece and water by the glass, but we didn't really care about that at the time.

My mom and dad ended up ordering a very thick-sauced spaghetti while I ordered spaghetti with a very light butter sauce and clams. The food, of course, was excellent and very appetizing.

Fully fueled up, we turned our sights towards the Vatican, which was only a couple blocks away from our hotel (we could see the dome of it from our hotel).

Approaching the Vatican at night, I took some pictures, but quickly realized that my hands were about as stable as an elephant on a tightrope.

Nevertheless, we approached the entrance of Saint Peter's Square and were greeted by massive pillars before entering the expansive square (or circle, depending on how you looked at it). There were security implements in place (metal detectors), but they didn't seem to be in use at the time.

The first thing I noticed was the massive obelisk in the center, with two gorgeous fountains on the sides. On top of the pillars, there were a multitude of statues that depicted various saints (I assume) and other images. In the very center, we saw the church and dome, which, accompanied by some very splendid lighting, were absolutely magnificent. The plaza was quite empty (considering thousands of people typically crowded for mass) and police cars were at each "corner".

We couldn't get inside that day because it had already closed (it was Saturday). Rounding the plaza, we went down the long street that led up to the church. There were various flags along this street and a great deal of large objects that blocked the path (presumably to protect pedestrians).

Near the end, we went onto this busy street and turned right onto a neat-looking bridge. From there, we could see Castel Sant'Angelo in the distance, and with the help of the railing on the bridge, I was able to take a steady image.

By that time, it was very late, and we decided to head back. Skipping the uneventful return, we went back to our hotel and slept.

The next day, we woke up and made our way to the breakfast on the rooftop. It was a perfect sight of the dome of the Vatican, and we wanted to take a look around there during the day. We quickly ate and went off so that we could make it back in time to catch our train to the port (more on that later).

The walk up to the Vatican was extremely similar, except, this time, way more crowded and with beefed-up security. We decided to go around, which we would later find out would keep us from entering from the only entrance near us. So, we weren't able to go inside the church.

Instead, we went off to the side to look around the same bridge and the castle. We decided to venture further on with the limited three-hour period we had until we needed to get on our train.

We quickly went towards the Colosseum and Trevi fountain. Near Trevi fountain, I made sure to keep my belongings close, as the streets were very narrow and packed with people.

Continuing on the main street, we ran into this massive plaza with a very large building in the center, but since the lighting was bad, it wasn't very remarkable in my eyes. We turned left towards Trevi fountain, and, skipping the long walk, made it.

It was very crowded, but the fountain was very beautiful. There were many statues which were very clean. Like everyone else, we threw some coins into the fountain. After that photo stop, we returned to the massive plaza and went forward to get to the Colosseum as quickly as possible.

There was a long walk as well as many ruins leading up to the scene. Then, when we finally saw it... it was under construction.

The whole place was covered in construction walls and I couldn't get a very good picture, but we finally made it. We didn't go in, of course, as the line for tickets was half a mile long.

By then, we had maybe an hour or so to make it back to our hotel, check out, and buy our tickets for the train. Skipping ahead an hour, we rapidly made our way to the train station just next to our hotel and entered, looking for the machine to buy our tickets. The place was completely empty and looked very shady, but then we saw that if we went up, we entered the track area and the main entrance.

Luckily, there was a lady who spoke English at the main entrance directing us to where we were to get tickets. We were able to get our tickets no problem with twenty minutes to spare. Although we only had two carry-on suitcases with us, they seemed to weigh at least a ton, and going up and down the stairs to get to our platform made me think I was going to break my back.

But I had time. A train came into the platform near us about two to three minutes before we were to get onto our own train— we almost got on the wrong one! We said "Civitavecchia?". The attendant made a swift gesture towards the opposite track and we decided to wait.

When the train did arrive, it looked incredibly full, as there were so many people and the ceiling was very, very low. To my relief, there were still a good number of seats. The spot where I sat had graffiti on the window, so I had to move to a different seat on the opposite side of the train while the train was in motion! On this side, I could actually see through the window.

But, I noticed that whenever we went through a tunnel my ears felt pressurized. At first it was funny, but after we went through about seven tunnels, it became a bit annoying having to pop my ears whenever the train went dark— and then re-popping them when we exited the tunnel just a couple of seconds later.

I remember our driver, who picked us up at the airport, telling us that to get to the port, a private transport was the way to go. But, this train ride only cost us six euros each, much cheaper; it wasn't bad at all. The whole time I was waiting for the ocean or sea to appear in the window, but I only saw rolling hills and greenery the entire time.

To pass the time, we read our tickets. There were no announcements as to any of the stops. Since we always traveled like locals (i.e. on a budget), we had a way of figuring out when to leave: we calculated the approximate time to our destination. Since there was only a stop about once every twenty minutes, we could approximate. My mom and dad read the paper and concluded that we had a forty-five-minute trip.

But then looked again and said we had an HOUR and forty-five-minute trip, and then my dad looked at the paper and then said, indeed, we only had _thirty_ minutes left in the train ride. A bit apprehensive, I made careful note of every stop and sign as we passed each station. It turns out, actually, that we didn't really need to be too careful in reading the approximate time to the destination, as at our stop, the entire train vacated itself. The doors remained open for a significant period of time as well, another indicator that this was our stop.

As I exited the train, I realized why I hadn't seen the ocean the entire time: I was on the wrong side of the train. Anyway, as we left the station, we needed to make our way to our cruise ship. Instead of taking a bus or taxi, we decided to walk, saving us more euros. Many decided to do that as well, leading to a swarm of people walking along the beachside towards the ship in the distance.

We followed this group until we came to a "checkpoint" that stopped all cars. We weren't sure if we could enter, but since the rest of the group went, we did as well. We kept walking in the heat until we could see our ship right in the distance. Only about a mile or two forward seemed to separate ourselves and the ship.

But, the entire group stopped, and a bus started to come our way and opened its doors to us. We had no idea where the bus was going or why it stopped, but a person from the group went up to the bus and began speaking Italian. I don't know what she said, but pretty soon, nearly all of the group boarded the bus, my parents and I included.

We heard a couple of mentions of "MSC", our cruise, but we also heard mentions of private docks, which wasn't exactly where we were going. I was excited when the bus started going towards our cruise ship in the distance, but then, I noticed the bus started going away from the port, which began to make us panic a bit.

After a disturbing ten-minute trip, we were let off at a small parking lot a bit further inland, at which we followed the group to another bus, this one marked with the name of our ship, so I was a bit more reassured. We quickly loaded our luggage, but I noticed my piece of luggage was on the edge, so I was worried that it would fall out of the bus's lower compartment storage. I sat next to the window to make sure.

Then, we departed, but I noticed that we were going away from the ship itself! We went almost all the way back to the train station, but by then, I realized why. The port had a jetty that came out from the shore and formed a second docking location away from the coast. Our cruise ship was not docked on the coast as we had originally thought, but was actually docked on the jetty. If we had continued on without that lucky bus ride picking us up, we would have gone two miles before realizing that we were on the _wrong_ side of the port, and would have had to make a four to five mile trip around the port to get to the other side! Our bus went around the U-shaped port and deposited us on the correct side of the "U", right at the gates to the ship.

After checking in our bags, we went through security and entered the ship. Upon entering the ship, I immediately noticed the bright ceiling, which looked like it was completely stained glass. But, I would later learn that it was a giant LED screen that spanned the whole promenade.

We then went on to explore the entire ship, which spanned nineteen levels, and noticed there was no level seventeen. I did some research and apparently, seventeen's Roman numerals, when rearranged, in Latin (that's a lot of transformations!), say "I have lived", which means that someone has died, which is bad luck.

The ship itself had a great number of provisions, such as multiple dining rooms, theatres, lounges, bars, shops, and amusements. The most notable ones that I remember were the Polar Aquapark at the top, which housed three waterslides and the Himalayan Bridge, which was a rope obstacle course. There was also the sportsplex/amusement park, which had a full indoor basketball court, 4D simulation area, and bowling lane.

The ship itself was massive and we got upgraded to a balcony view of the ocean, which was a pleasant surprise. Our cabin was twice the usual size compared to what I was used to on other cruises, and there were two chairs in the balcony.

Thanks to their Status Match Program, we got a gold membership status even though we never cruised with them before, which was cool; it came with some perks like a free gift, free fruit basket in our room, free photo, etc.

Another important note about the ship was that it wasn't like other ships that we went on before: the ship didn't unload and load all at once at one port; instead, it unloaded and loaded passengers at _every_ port during the trip, sort of like a hop-on, hop-off bus, which was interesting.

To eat some lunch, we went towards the buffet. Since my last cruise, I had grown to like fine dining and having restaurant service; previously, I always wanted to eat at the buffet.

We had a mandatory safety drill, as all ships are required to have one, but since the drill was in the chocolate shop, I was, to say the least, a bit distracted.

After exploring the ship a bit more, we made our way to the dining room. In cruises, we are always paired up with two other parties or so at our table. In this particular cruise, we had two other families at our table— both were from the U.S. too.

Our package brought us additional benefits such as twelve free drinks, free mineral water, coffee, and tea for each of us. After a lot of clarification (as I also have an allergy to milk, etc.), everything was settled in and our food was brought in. For the remainder of the cruise, I always remarked upon the tiny-ness of the main dish plates and the generous amount of "filling" foods they gave such as soup, pasta, and bread. Pro tip: I just ate the "better" parts of the food such as seafood and ordered another dish (maybe one or two times) until I was stuffed.

I wanted to try something on the menu, but the waiter took a step back and said that he couldn't get it for me because I was "allergic" to it.

He said, "I can do it, but I cannot take responsibility". I found this hilarious because I almost mistook my dining service as a liability hearing (or whatever lawyers do). However, the waiter was nice enough to hand me a menu for the following night; that way, I could see which dishes were dairy free.

After our delicious dining, we decided to see a show, and learned that everything was digital. At every floor, there were these touch screens that had information about everything on the cruise, including maps and seat reservations for shows. Unlike other cruises, this time, we had to reserve our seats for the show.

The theatre was very wide, and pretty cool/modern. The seats up front were never taken, so we always sat in the front off to the side, which were excellent seats for arriving very late. The show that night was about people using their phones too much. By the time the show ended, it was very late, and we decided to go to bed.

Since I was still kind of thrown off by the time switch, I woke up very early and quite tired in the morning. We had our breakfast as a dine-in instead of buffet. I ordered my favorite eggs: fried and well-done. They were very good.

To accommodate my allergy, my mom began to talk a lot with the head waiter, and they seemed to get along very well. He personally served me a delightful breakfast. On that day, we arrived in Sicily (Palermo), and disembarked ship.

As we got off, we were bombarded by about a hundred taxi drivers and solicitors that offered an "amazing" private tour for the low cost of about one hundred euros. However, by the time we made it to the end of the line, the people were offering us the tour for only eighty euros.

Apparently, the best place to look for info and market prices for tours was the tourist information booth, which we promptly consulted; they told us how to get to where we wanted to go with no hassle. As we attempted to go along the "main" street, the whole road was being demolished, so only the sidewalks were open and giant cranes lined the area.

We turned left and met a long and populated street ahead of us. As we went along, we saw a large building that looked pretty nice. I think it was a theatre, but we took a picture anyway. After a walk along the street with a long stretch of stores (twenty or more minutes), we came to a crossroads. This square (actually, this one was also shaped in a circle) was a street intersection, but each corner (or quadrant) had a (I think) identical copy of the other four corners' statues and architecture. In my mind, that just meant that I could get an excellent picture no matter what time of day it was.

Here, we noticed that all of the traffic lights were optional. If the lights were flashing yellow, the pedestrian had to initiate walking for cars to stop. Surprisingly, the drivers were quick to respond to people crossing in front of them so close.

We continued and turned into a fountain area where we took pictures of (another) church.

Italy has a ton of churches. Strangely, they're quite empty even though the buildings themselves look magnificent.

We took a small road to see another church, but this one was a UNESCO World Heritage site built in the 11th century.

Usually, churches are free to enter (Getting closer to God should be free), but we had to pay a bit to enter this one. It wasn't very big either. Inside, it did look nice, though. Everything was decorated and very fancy. We decided to turn back after that to the main road and went down a different street to go further inland.

On this street, there were many souvenir stores, and I noticed they all promoted cannolis, knight "dolls", and The Godfather (movie). I assumed that the Godfather reference was because it took place in Sicily.

As we walked, we noticed that the style of the buildings seemed to be very similar to that of New Orleans, Louisiana with beautiful balconies and grand exteriors. So, we checked it out. Apparently, many Sicilians immigrated to New Orleans in the 19th century. Going further inland, we made it to yet another church. It was Palermo Cathedral.

Of course, to enter the balcony, we would have to pay more, but the church itself had a lot of cool statues of the popes (I believe) on the walls. With one more block, we reached a garden that was incredibly beautiful and lush. Passing the garden, there was an arch gate that led outwards with an opening the size of a large truck, and so we decided to go through.

On the other side of the arch gate— what a sight! —massive amounts of traffic and somewhat weathered buildings with people on the sidewalks selling things. It was such a stark contrast from the palace gardens indeed. As we walked further, we saw complete chaos; cars jammed up and some people got out of their cars in the middle of the street yelling to each other directing who should pass first. It was fascinating; we thought they were shooting a movie or something. But no— that was real!

We then went back to the ship. The cruise had an interesting game that I wanted to check out during the afternoon, so while my dad used the jacuzzi, my mom and I went to the lounge to check it out. I thought it would be a cool/interesting game, but it was one of those carnival games that was almost impossible to win (basically). I won't go into explaining it in-depth, but it involved guiding a ball with ropes to a drop point in a bucket. I spent thirty minutes trying to win, but I quit when I saw the prize was some kind of lanyard.

When I returned to my seat, my mom looked at me and asked if something was in her eye. When I looked closer, I could see that half of her eye was _very_ red. This terrified me, and at the elevator, I worried that the blood would go all the way around her eye. This development was not expected in the least, and when my dad returned, we decided to visit the doctor on-board.

When we got there, five people were already in front of us. The wait took ages; I think in reality it was only an hour, but still, I had basically nothing to do!

Some person came in asking for a bandage for his finger; he didn't look too happy and wondered if they had any. The nurse then said "you buy six euro". I was careful on the cruise after that.

Long story short, one of my mom's eye vessels popped, but there was nothing to worry about. Anyway, by the time we were done, it was dinner time and we left the doctor's office a hundred euros in the hole.

It's difficult to remember the food that I ate during the cruise, but this night, I believe I had some sort of mussel dish with a soup and a type of meat that was also very juicy. As for dessert, since I could not eat any of the cakes or anything that was prepared off the ship, I had a fried/cooked banana with a couple more pieces of fruit. After eating, we went to the show which was, I think, about various Broadway shows in the U.S.

We then went to a lounge, which was for 18+ (I was not 18 yet), but I managed to get in. Maybe because I was with my parents. We had to use our drink coupons somehow and ordered a couple of drinks. I had a Pina Colada, without alcohol of course. The drink was thick with icy coconut milk and pretty sweet. I never had it before. Nevertheless, it was tasty.

The next day we had to wake up early again. We had docked in Malta and needed to leave the ship quickly to catch an elevator ride up (we were on the lower part of the city- Malta, while just a tiny island, _is_ a country).

At breakfast, and basically at every meal, I ordered a different premium drink, as I wanted to see which one tasted the best. It's difficult to recall which drink I ordered on which day. The highlights of my drink experience included a green apple juice that looked like ground-up celery juice, pear juice (which actually tasted like pears!), and my beer. And yes, I did drink beer. Non alcoholic, of course.

But wait, there's no such thing as no alcohol beer, right? Well, there is, and it actually tastes pretty... bad. When I drank it, I described the beer as "when the soda machine runs out of syrup and starts dispensing carbonated water but then starts adding bitterness to it"— which equates to "not that good" in my book.

We left the ship to search for a pharmacy that carried a special eye drop for my mom. We stopped by a tiny pharmacy right at the ship terminal and the pharmacist told us that no pharmacy in Malta had that special eye drop. So, we decided to just take a ride on the elevator to the upper part of the capital of Malta.

All the turnstiles were broken, so we all bought tickets manually. The elevator itself was unremarkable; it did have a glass window, but that was it. We arrived in a small garden at the top where I could see the ship as well as a good look at the port. After taking a couple of pictures, we walked around the city.

We walked up and down the streets, which had drastic height differences, and decided not to do the strenuous hike up and down the coast. All of the street names also infuriated me because they were so close together and the direction of the sign wasn't always clear.

Shortly afterwards, we saw this nice Cathedral, St. John's, I believe, and wanted to go inside, but the cost was astronomical (for a church, at least)— more than fifteen euros for a child.

Upon entering, I was immediately struck by the immense decoration and exquisite Baroque-style architecture with walls, ceilings, and more covered completely in what appeared to be gold.

The whole place was incredible and sparkling with depictions of biblical scenes all around. I took a great multitude of pictures before climbing up to the balcony and getting an amazing shot of the roof. I spent about an hour or two in there before coming out.

Going down one of the streets, we entered a glass shop, and I found a couple of pieces of neat-looking glass that I wanted. I was about to take an eighteen-euro glass bird when I noticed near the door that there were pieces of glass half off.

They apparently had minor "defects", but I chose a nice egg-shaped glass piece instead for half the price; there was only a tiny part that was not polished perfectly, so I was pretty satisfied with the purchase.

Going back to the main gardens, we decided to head through a pair of "gates" that symbolized the gates to Malta. I thought we were entering a more "real" part of the city as the crowds of tourists dwindled. My dad wanted to go to this blue crater in the middle of the ocean that seemed like an interesting grotto, but, having failed to plan it ahead of time, we were unable to make it. Adding up the time to get there and back, the ship probably would have left without us!

So, we took a few pictures of the gardens around the entrance and another cathedral (another one!) and returned. On the way back, we noticed that there was the same exact store for the glass that I bought— right next to the ship! However, there wasn't anything within my budget, so I felt pretty proud of the piece I found earlier.

Even with this shopping, we arrived early and were able to dine-in at the restaurant. I decided to sleep for the next couple of hours afterward. Dinner on that day consisted of some pretty good oxtail soup with a juicy piece of meat and some more seafood/risotto. The plate, I realized was really just a tiny bowl with a massively over proportioned rim. That night I think I drank a different type of iced tea, which I found to be incredibly tasty.

A very sweet rice pudding was my dessert; at first I didn't know what the white stuff was, but when I did, my first thought was: "Who puts rice in pudding?". Yet, as I tasted it, I began to realize just how good it was.

The show that night was a musical show about various types of music within popular American Broadway shows. My parents used their spa coupon that day, which allowed them to use the spa for an hour for free. Since I was a minor, I wasn't privileged enough to get in.

Another side note about the trip was that I actually had homework that I had to do the entire time, so any gaps in my story usually correspond to me doing my math homework; the break I had lasted from weekend-to-weekend, so I had to do all my work on the ship.

Now is also a good time to explain the interesting features of the room. There were a series of colored lights at our door that seemed to indicate whether we were inside or not; upon entering, a card had to be placed in a slot to turn the room's power on, which then made the indicator light at the door turn red. I wondered how the housekeeper managed to always know when we were in the room. So, I did my homework for the rest of the night and went to bed.

The next day was at sea, so I went to dine-in and ordered pancakes and waffles. The ship had this amazing berry sauce that made everything taste amazing. Everything was sweet and I ordered some orange juice, but the juice tasted a bit more like water than what I was used to.

After a considerable breakfast, we walked around the ship and decided to go to the Himalayan Bridge, which had already built up quite a line of people. I waited for thirty or so minutes before getting up onto the course. Many didn't sign the waiver beforehand and were turned away. The course was pretty cool, as a person was suspended in the air and had to climb on ropes and other obstacles to make a complete circuit around the course.

When I got up, I took my sweet time, especially after spending quite a while in line. I stayed on for fifteen minutes, taking the most difficult route (had to get my time's worth).

Anyway, we then went to grab some lunch and dined-in. We still hadn't tried the Polar Aquapark yet, so I proposed to get up there and take a plunge in the (fairly cold) water. We learned that tubes were necessary for two of the slides while the other, which was a water "bowl" didn't need one. We were able to get in two rides on each of the slides (including the bowl) until the line stopped. We waited for several minutes, but the people in front of us didn't budge. After a few more minutes, my dad and I took a look at the slide and realized that there was no water coming out of it! The whole waterpark screeched to a halt.

The attendant said it was a "valve" problem, but the slide didn't look like it was going to be functional any time soon.

We promptly left, taking a quick stop in the jacuzzi for a minute or two. By then, it was time for our next show, an opera. The whole opera was in Italian so I had no idea what it was about (actually, I can make a good guess: love— it's always about _love_ ). By the time the opera was over, it was time for dinner.

The dinner, in particular, was pretty tasty, due to the dessert. There was a type of pudding without rice with that amazing berry sauce. I don't know what it's called, but it wasn't overwhelmingly sweet but still tasted amazing; I ordered two. It was also a gala night, which meant that we all dressed incredibly formal. There were two during the entire cruise. The show that night was about love or something (again)— isn't it always? For the night, we decided to check out the ship and we looked at all the neat shops.

On that day, our room attendant made an animal with one of our towels. I think it was a swan, which was very cute.

I wrapped up the day by taking a wonderful hot steamy shower, and then drifted off to sleep for a busy next day.

We woke up early to catch our walking tour in Barcelona. As we walked out of the ship, we took the public shuttle just fifty feet away for three or so euros. This shuttle took us to Columbus Square, and there was a tourist information desk there as well. We asked the lady about where we needed to go and how we were to get there.

We also managed to see the people from our dining table right behind us (what are the odds?).

I learned that the statue of Columbus in the square was a bit misplaced because Columbus was Italian (not Spanish) and it pointed outwards towards the sea, which was actually the Mediterranean Sea (not the Atlantic).

After a while, we were told that all the bus workers were on strike. We decided instead to take the metro to "Plaza Catalunya", about two stops down.

While we were trying to buy metro tickets at the machine, all of the sudden a man approached and aided us in purchasing our tickets and we tipped him two euros. Now that I think about it, that was 20% the cost of our train ticket.

The trains in Barcelona were very beautiful. The stations were very sophisticated and the announcer was automated. We stopped two stations down and started looking for an internet hotspot. We found it and arrived just in time for the tour to begin. The lady who was in charge of the tour was very lively. She came from South America, but stayed because she loved Spain (and a man, but whatever).

Our first stop on the walking tour was a couple of old ruins because the city was so old. A bit of information about the logistics of the city were given as well. The city was split into the "new" and "old" area— we would visit the Gothic Quarter, which was kind of an old area. The city was in a period of decline and forgotten until very recently (1900s) with the Olympics arriving at the city.

In addition, the city was incredibly clean because, apparently, they sanitized the streets and walls three times a day with street-sweepers, and erased graffiti almost immediately. However, some people hired graffiti artists to spray their doors so that (by unsaid law) another graffiti artist wouldn't spray over it.

On our tour, we saw many interesting sights, including a nice sport of Barcelona where people would stack themselves up nearly ten stories high as symbolized by a "wire" monument. I could only imagine how awesome yet terrifying the child who climbed to the top felt.

We also learned of the bloody and deadly history of Barcelona with medieval-style executions and the problems with being a butcher (and by law also the executioner). Apparently, the butcher had to live in the city's walls to protect himself from being killed by a mob.

Other "punishments" were given out to people who didn't believe in a certain religion at a certain time as well. Not far from here was a church. I forgot the name of it unfortunately. Our guide asked us to tell her what was so unique about this church. We looked and looked and noticed that it looked like a facade. And, we were right that the front of the church was indeed a facade. It also looked clean and kind of new— because it was built *only* a couple hundred years ago. Our guide quickly revealed to us that this renovation was because Spain was hosting the world fair during that time in six years, and had to spruce things up, but couldn't afford to remodel _everything_.

So, to save on costs and time, they only remodeled the front of the church, leaving the sides untouched (which we saw was a facade!). We then arrived at the Cathedral of Barcelona. We were directed to see the church's front window, which looked very similar to Darth Vader when we looked closely at it.

Another harrowing fact about the palace right next to the church was that in constructing it, the tombstones of the Jews were used (they didn't want to dig up another quarry!).

As with other places that were hit by the black death, the Jews were frequently blamed because they didn't catch the disease. This was, of course, not because they were practicing witchcraft or wizardry but because they had more hygienic practices.

In going down the alleys, we took a couple of diversionary routes because of a protest that was happening at the time. There were a lot of flags in Barcelona, which all looked slightly different from each other. Many were red and yellow, which was the official flag of the city, but many also had a blue triangle with a star on the side. Our guide told us that the flag referenced Cuba's flag and how it won independence from Spain. The star over the Barcelona flag meant that particular person wanted Barcelona to be independent from Spain.

We even were able to catch glimpses of large protests in the streets over this issue. Many roads were blocked by strikers and protesters who simply sat down and refused to get up. There was an especially large display of flags at "mile zero" of Barcelona (the center of the city). We took a quick pit stop in a coffee shop that looked very contemporary for a bathroom break before continuing on to another square. We could hear protests just a block away.

In the final moments of the tour, we learned that Barcelona had artificially made its beaches by shipping Egyptian sand to the area, thus, making it the third most visited city in Europe. We then continued on to the metro station towards our next stop. It was around noon.

After a quick metro ride we arrived at the base of a hill. We went up a couple of escalators and made our way up hundreds of steps. At the top of the hill, we looked at the city from above— it was quite dusty and smoggy. We were actually looking for Guell Park up there but the side entrance was closed.

After some consulting with people around us looking for the same place, we went around the hill to the main entrance, which was open. We could see the inner part of the park slightly but it was difficult. The ticket line was long, so we decided to just cruise around the outside of the park. My dad was here decades ago and he didn't have to pay.

Every ten feet, there was somebody selling merchandise, but the park was otherwise very lush and beautiful. There were these magnificent pillars and bridges that were especially nice.

We could have gone deeper into the park, but decided not to because we were short on time. Upon exiting the park, we began to look for another metro station that had the line that we needed. Apparently, it was just down the street.

We proceeded down the hill in a different direction. At the bottom of the hill, we crossed the street and looked for a red "M", which was the metro station. After wondering whether to go left or right, we decided to ask one of the locals. However, he simply pulled out his phone to look up the location. We went to the right, trusting the man's accuracy (after all, he was a local). After two or three blocks with no signs, we decided to ask another person walking on the street. This person didn't pull out a phone and simply pointed in the _opposite_ direction of where we were going, so we asked two or so more people to confirm.

By that time, we were pretty frustrated, as the station was now pretty far away and we would soon be on an even tighter schedule. We had no phone data to save us. After about a seven-block walk back in the opposite direction, we managed to enter the metro and continued to our next stop, the Sagrada Familia. Upon exiting the metro, we were treated to the beautiful sight of the cathedral. We didn't go inside, but from the outside, we could tell that it was still being built, made evident by the giant cranes around it.

After a couple pictures, we began to walk around the entirety of the church to make our way to our next destination "Casa Mila".

We asked some local policemen and they pointed us along a long street in one direction. With the free public Wi-Fi providing few results, we walked blindly in one direction for many blocks. My mom and dad were pretty tired by that point, especially because it didn't seem like we were making any progress whatsoever. Mom regretted that she didn't properly plan for this part of the trip. Our destination was a supposedly wondrous modern work of art, a building in an exquisite style.

Skipping a thirty-minute walk filled with asking people questions about where the building was, getting sidetracked on streets that took a ninety-degree turn, and general back pain that I'm sure almost converted into a migraine, we made it. We were now on a much larger street and took a couple pictures of this "remarkable" building (the walk didn't exactly put me in a good mood).

However, in taking one of my pictures, a crazy mime "attacked" me, but my mom waved away the costumed person, to my relief. Then, we made our way down the main street "La Rambla"; I had no idea how we were supposed to make it back to the ship, but apparently, the street went all the way down to the coast.

Along the way, we saw many protestors and demonstrators in the streets, holding flags of the "independent" Barcelona freely around their necks like capes. It was interesting, and we even came across an intersection in which people sat down, blocking all traffic.

Nearing the coast, we ran into a bunch of restaurants, and by then, it was the afternoon, and I hadn't eaten lunch yet. I wanted to eat paella badly, especially because I had never eaten one before (it's a rice and seafood dish from Spain). As we went by shop after shop, I saw the juicy paella I was looking for, but we could never eat it because they said it would take twenty minutes to make (I guess that's what makes it fresh). We had, at most, thirty minutes to eat.

As we strolled down the street, I could see various restaurants that had set up chairs outside, along with their menu. Every single shop had one word at the top: "Paella" and I flinched whenever I saw it. We even went to a market with fish and other types of food in hopes of getting a quick meal.

After a quick search, we saw that there was a bar-seating area with three seats open, perfect for us! As I approached the man at the counter, I said "Paella, how much?". He just shook his head. I asked again, thinking he didn't hear me or couldn't understand me.

After about thirty seconds of attempting to speak with this guy, he said one word: "closed". Crushed would be an understatement.

Soon after, we made our way back to the ship. At dinner, we noticed that a type of party was going on, and we saw that the waiters were putting on a cool show with some bongos and kitchen plates. It was pretty interesting; however the cakes that were made for the celebration made their way around the dining room... and then re-entered the kitchen (who knows where they went after that).

After dinner we took a special elevator that had a glass window where we could see outside the ship while we rode in it. As we went up, I could see the sea beneath us and the land in the distance. I forgot what the show was about that night except that it had good music.

The next stop was Marseille in France. We were given the option to shuttle out of the port for a "small" fee of fifteen euros per person. But, we chose to take a half a kilometer walk to the free shuttle offered by the port just down the block.

Our ship was very far from the city, and there would have been no way we could have walked all the way, so I was thankful the shuttle was there. However, we waited, and waited, and waited. It felt like an eternity. After about thirty minutes, the line had grown twenty-fold, but luckily, we were at the front. When the shuttle finally did pull up, many tried to jump the line; even so, we found a spot on the bus relatively quickly.

After a twenty-minute bus ride (filled with suffocation), we found ourselves in the heart of the city. We turned from Republica street (and sparing the twenty-minute walk), made our way to the harbor, where we were to meet our tour train. On the way, I saw this sweet tram that looked super modern.

Is it relevant to the trip? No, but it looked _amazing_.

We soon rushed to our train, which was one of those tiny choo-choo trains (it wasn't a real train). My mom speaks French, so we were able to get around pretty easily (in my opinion). The train itself was incredibly small, about the width of a passenger car at most, and was open-roof. As I was saying, it was like one of those trains you'd get into at an amusement park. After waiting in line for the tour train, we squeezed on board and listened to the announcer. The train itself traveled on the streets with no tracks, and I was treated to a history of the area.

I took many photos (surprisingly, they weren't blurry even though we were moving pretty quickly).

After a twenty-minute train ride up hill, we arrived at this church "Notre Dame de la Garde" on a large mountain that we saw from the harbor.

We made our way up the many levels to see a birds-eye view of the entire place. All the while, I was trying to get my camera to take some cool pictures, but I didn't know how to change the aperture (blur) setting at the time.

The church at the very top wasn't super big, but had a gold-plated statue of Saint Maria holding baby Jesus. She is considered the guardian and protector of the city, especially the sailors and fishermen. That was why, inside, we saw many model boats stringed on the walls.

We took a couple of pictures and walked around the place. We saw that the roof had a ton of coins on it, which was interesting (usually people throw coins in a fountain). Of course, the most curious parts of any trip are the giftshops, which we promptly entered.

My mom spent about twenty minutes in there before we used the elevator to get to the other parts of the church, which were not too remarkable (there was another gift shop embedded within the mountain itself). Attempting to get back, a bunch of people lined up to crowd onto the train.

We had to try and guess where the train would stop so that we would get a seat (otherwise we'd have to wait another twenty minutes!). When the train came, a bunch of people moved towards it and we felt like we missed our chance, but the train driver waved them away and came towards us, so we were lucky to get a spot on the train. We made our way back to the harbor and looked around.

As we made our way up Republica street, we saw a large number of stairs and decided to take a detour up to see the view. I took a couple pictures of the city from above and we soon went down.

A couple more blocks went by and I decided to take a stop at what looked like a toy store (being the childish person I was). Inside, I was amazed to find that the store was actually pretty massive despite the fact that it looked tiny on the outside. There were all the usual toys, and even a couple of Pokémon cards on sale. I thought about buying them and tricking my friends into thinking they were invincible (because they didn't know French). But, I changed my mind and put them back in the bin.

As we went up the street some more, we began to notice the large quantity of French Coiffures (I think that's what the barbers are called) and went inside so that I could get my hair cut. Unfortunately, the person inside was completely booked up and directed us to go to another salon down the block.

But, this place was also completely booked up.

After passing about four or five salons, they began to say "reservation only", and we went back to the ship wondering about how much people really cared about their hair. Yet, turning back to get onto the shuttle's street, we noticed one more hair salon and went in.

This one actually took us in, and I felt what a professional haircut was supposed to feel like (my mom usually cuts my hair). After washing my hair, I was shocked at the aggressive, yet precise speed of my hair stylist. We told her that we only had twenty or so minutes, and I could hear clip after furious clip behind me as she shaped my hair. I began to worry that she was going to cut all of it off (even my mom told her to be a bit careful)!

By the end, my hair was pretty short, but my mom said that the hairdresser did an excellent job with everything being so even and round. I couldn't really tell though; all I could tell was that on one side it looked like I was bald (if you looked at it the wrong way).

After running to catch the shuttle, we arrived back at the terminal after thirty or forty minutes. Entering the station, we had to go through security and eventually entered the ship. The closest entrance was always reserved for "Yacht Club" members (no, we weren't members), which meant that we had to walk an extra fifty yards when we could've gotten on much closer. Also, since our cabin was in the front, we always ended up on the wrong side of the ship and had to walk even more! But I can't really complain— the room was a free upgrade.

For dinner, I was pleased to finally have my paella, which was amazing (even though I was a bit full).

We had to leave dinner early to get to our specialty show, Cirque du Soleil at Sea Sonor, which was a modern rendition of the circus. We walked over to the Carousel lounge and passed through the casino. I had never been to the casino on-board, but it looked pretty intimidating to me (it was in a weird corner of the ship).

Upon entering, they served us cocktails, but I didn't take one because they were either alcoholic or made of milk. For the first twenty minutes, a trio or quartet of string instruments played, which was cool, but not anything like what I had hoped for.

Just when I thought the show was about to start, the violin guy began to play for another ten minutes, this time with some fancy projections which, once again, were interesting.

Then, the announcer went on and made an announcement that said we needed to turn off our phones... in ten languages (more minutes pass).

My eyes were already starting to close a bit, when I was woken up by huge stereo-sound bass drop and the darkening of the lights. Out of nowhere, the whole wall lit up and a section opened up into a staircase with all the drama and spark of a fireworks show! The **real** show had begun. Basically, the show was about a "Sound Thief" and Sonor's battle with him; the various parts of the show incorporated various circus acts, such as insane acrobatics, a "ring", and gravity-defying stunts.

I was wide-awake by the end of it.

They were obviously professionals who had done this many times before, as they seemed really immersed in the action. The movements and sound were mind-bending and insane, especially because I didn't think the lounge had enough space in the first place. We shortly after went back to the room and slept.

Our next stop was the last one on our cruise. After this one, we were to return back to Civitavecchia, Rome. We docked at Genoa, Italy, a spot that was north of where we first embarked. After eating breakfast with waffles and hash browns, we left the ship, which was very near to the city. We first, of course, went to the tourist information booth to learn where we needed to go and how we would get there.

On the way down the boardwalk, we ran into the head waiter from our dinner table and said hi. We also ran into other people from our dinner table (again); now what were the odds of this happening multiple days in a row?

Since this was the main docking port for our cruise, the majority of the people on our ship disembarked here. As we went down the road, we came across many interesting tourist attractions: a large (pirate?) ship, an aquarium, and a couple of bounce houses. Most of the people went this way towards the main square.

Skipping the thirty-minute walk, we rounded a corner and went up into this smaller square. There was a church and we went inside. After seeing all the gold-plated, flashy churches from before, this one didn't seem too special. Right next to our small square was the much larger square; I think its name was the Piazza De Ferrari.

Many people were sitting around, posing, and taking amazing pictures or utilizing the free Wi-Fi in the area. After taking a quick stop, we decided to make a wide loop around the area to return to the ship. We passed a couple of shops and museums (and a plethora of street vendors) going northward on a different route.

We eventually came to this really big junction with several branches and found that we were pretty lost. The signs on the streets were difficult to read and the map didn't show the super small streets. We had no internet either. After some furious pathfinding (maybe an hour), we passed Central Station and took a left towards the sea (and our ship).

That was when my parents let me know that they needed an internet connection to do online check-in for our flight to Ireland the next day. So, I began frantically searching for an internet hotspot, especially because I didn't want to go all the way back to the plaza (which was forty minutes down the road).

After a lot of walking (twenty minutes), we found a hotspot next to the harbor. I just sat there with my phone, waiting. After about thirty minutes, my parents informed me that we were too early. Apparently, to complete the online check-in, we had to try less than twenty-four hours from the flight's departure time.

We were, but it was hypothesized that they were going by the time in _Ireland_ , which was one hour behind our clock; that meant we were twenty-five hours ahead. Ouch.

At the ship, I wanted to go on the Himalayan Bridge again. It was super windy, and after taking a break to eat something, we went up to the top.

Nobody was there!

This was a stunning contrast to when, just a couple days earlier, people were forming a line half the width of the ship to get on it. I told my parents that I could just look out for myself while they went off to take care of the check-in for our flight home. I climbed all around that thing completing the course ten times! I did a round where I went backwards, without hands, etc. (not to brag or anything...).

It was pretty exciting, especially with the high winds at the time. I could also take pictures of the shore from atop the bridge (which looked amazing).

I think I stayed on it for about two hours before deciding that I wanted to mingle with the other kids by trying out the game consoles they had in the teen area. I left a note in the cabin and went up to the game floor. I was just in time to play the Nintendo Switch that was there.

It was a very long time since I last played anything that resembled a game console, and I was pretty entertained playing the next iteration of "Mario Kart". I played for maybe an hour or so with another person.

Then, I left for dinner (my dad was sitting at the entrance for a few minutes). My parents and I wanted to see the other Cirque du Soleil show, but the tickets were unfortunately sold out. At dinner, I was seriously contemplating buying off the tickets from another group at our table.

At the very end, we decided to take a few pictures and to collect contact information from the other group at our table and the head waiter, who had been so nice to us. Then, we headed towards our next show in the theatre. This one was about magic and "hands". First, there was a small magic show, and after, he began to make shadow puppets with his hands. It was pretty cool.

In between, my parents needed to do something and I wanted to play the Nintendo Switch again. Unfortunately, because I didn't know anyone on the ship, my session was interrupted by a group of four who wanted to play "Just Dance". They were really jolly and I couldn't join in (they only had four controllers). I really wished they had just one more controller so I could play.

Anyway, we went to the gallery to take a look at a couple of the photos from our cruise. One of the benefits of our gold membership was that we got one free photo per passenger, so we took a couple of the ones in the dining room. We then slept to rise a bit earlier (so we could catch our ride to the airport).

According to our itinerary, our ship was supposed to dock at eight o'clock, but, by the time we reached the port, it was nine o'clock. For an apprehensive hour, we waited by the departure gate of the ship, hoping that our reserved taxi wouldn't leave. We heard a couple next to us really start to panic because their taxi was starting to charge them extra for being late.

After an agonizing eternity, the door opened and we hastily made our way off the gangway. We had no luggage to transport, unlike other passengers, so we were able to leave the ship first. After rushing to the exit, we were relieved to learn that our taxi driver was still there.

At the airport, we had a relatively uneventful experience— except that our flight was delayed. This normally wouldn't have been a problem, but our layover in Ireland was meant to be an hour and a half, and with each delay, the time window narrowed. It was problematic and worrying.

The plane ride was exactly one day before my school started up again, so I could not afford any delays. Unfortunately, delays did not care about my pristine school attendance record.

We ran out of the plane with less than an hour before our connecting flight was supposed to leave. Then, we learned that we had to take a BUS to get to the other terminal. We were the first inside, but they waited ten or so minutes to fill the whole thing up before we left, negating any efforts that we previously made.

There was a special terminal for American departures, which, at first, had me relieved; However, what that _actually_ meant was that we were entitled to yet _another_ layer of security. We had to go through security AGAIN (usually domestic/within Europe flights do not need extra security).

That was when my mom was "randomly selected" for extra security screening. She was (in my opinion) strip-searched while we waited for another five to ten minutes. According to the info screens, our flight said "GATE CLOSED" and I was sweating profusely while panicking like crazy.

A brief mention by one of the security people informed us that the gate wasn't really closed, but I wasn't too sure if I could trust a person who sat next to an x-ray machine for who knows how long. We didn't have time for this!

Next, we had to go through automated checkpoints so that our security clearance in the U.S. would be quicker, which was a terrible idea because I would easily choose extra burden in the U.S. in exchange for quicker passage through Ireland, where it mattered the most.

The turnstile gates didn't even work, causing further delay as we were trying to figure out what orientation of our boarding pass they wanted. We darted to the customs line where we were greeted by U.S. customs officials and passed through with no hassle (thank goodness!).

We ran towards our gate, which, to my surprise, was not closed! We saw that everyone had already boarded. Soon after, the gates and doors closed and we were off.

Chapter 5

Korea (Seoul, Mt. Seorak, Nami Island, DMZ), Singapore, Thailand (Phuket,

James Bond Island, Bangkok)

We came to LAX airport via a rented sports car. Dad said that the car rental ran out of compact cars so they just gave us a sports car. It was my first time in one. What a ride! As we pulled up to the international terminal, we got off the courtesy shuttle and checked in. It was about 8:00 PM.

The line was incredibly short; we even got TSA PreCheck, which further expedited the security screening process. We joked with the lady at the airline counter about a potential "free upgrade" to first class. As we walked through the empty line into the terminal, I was pretty sure there were at least a couple who jealously stared at us. Their line seemed to never end, but we were able to get through swiftly. We started to board our plane near midnight.

The line to get on the plane was very long and winded around the gate. But, then we realized we were in the previous group (to get on) and went right to the front of the line. The airline worker looked at us a bit funny and I felt a bit worried she was going to turn us away.

That was when I realized that it was the _same_ lady that checked our bags in earlier!

We got in with a couple of laughs. Skipping the long wait as we were "in-queue" for the runway, I checked out the in-flight entertainment system. I knew that I would have to sleep, but I watched a couple movies anyway. The inside of the airplane was pretty nice, with the main remarkable features being a second story to the plane and massive leg room (the seats were huge). Our flight was around twelve hours to South Korea.

Sleeping was a bit annoying, but I took a couple naps and woke up, still dark outside. We would be arriving in the early morning due to the time difference. Also, we had apparently skipped over an entire day due to the crossing of the international dateline.

We arrived in South Korea, passed through immigration, claimed our luggage, and took an express train towards Seoul. It took us about an hour to get to the city center. As the train peeked out of the little tunnels, I could see the lush, green, landscape and was reminded of Japan.

The first thing we did upon arrival at the station was locating a taxi to our hotel. Foreigners were supposed to take the black "international" taxi. However, this one cost almost twice as much as the local taxi. Rather, we used the translate feature on our phone to communicate to the driver the name of our hotel. His taxi's color was orange, and we were promptly on our way. It was only about four dollars for all of us (Conversion: $1 = 1,100 Won).

Anyway, our hotel seemed nice, but I already knew we wouldn't be able to check in so early. It is standard practice for hotels to only check in after 2:00 PM and for guests to check out at noon. The hotel receptionist was kind enough to let us drop off our baggage. We asked for a good place to eat and asked him to write it down. I could still remember the time in Greece when we looked for a restaurant given only the directions and not the name (Spoiler: we got lost). Anyway, we walked behind the hotel and searched around for that restaurant.

As we searched, I came across "Donation Park", which, surprisingly, had a few plastic containers filled with LEGO Bricks! All out in the open, too. These were also all brick pieces, colorful, new, and surprisingly intact. I could have built something right then and there, but I was really hungry, so I kept going.

We made a turn into a little alley and some people were lined up at the door to this restaurant. It was the one that was recommended, and we went in. Sitting down, we were about to ask for a menu. All of a sudden, the waitress brought a couple of condiments and said something in Korean. Of course, we didn't know what she was saying.

We looked around and saw what other people were eating and asked again for a menu. A couple more condiment dishes came. When asked a third time, the waiter came over and assertively placed three large bowls of fish soup right on our table. She made a couple of gestures that looked like she was playing connect the dots with the condiment plates and then we realized that there was no menu: they only served _one_ dish: fish soup.

The place was packed, however, and I later learned that it was meant for hung-over people (I guess so you don't have to think about what to order). I tasted the soup and pickled dishes and was instantly enthralled by our breakfast. Everything had the zing of salt or pickles and the rice and soup neutralized these whimsical flavors. I loved it.

Anyway, we finished up and then my dad began to worry about the cost and payment method (we didn't know how much it would cost or whether or not they would accept a credit card). I gave a couple awkward glances at other people near us (those who were paying) and learned that the food wasn't too expensive; we were even allowed to pay with a credit card.

Twenty-one dollars later, we left the restaurant to go sightseeing. Moving down the main street that led up to the main palace, Gyeongbokgung, we came across the U.S. Embassy.

There were about fifty guards surrounding it (even on the other side of the street!). It was a bit awkward passing by them all with one every six feet.

As we continued to walk, we passed a ton of political propaganda and a couple of posters I couldn't read. One was about Communism, another about the U.S. president, and another about suppression (unreadable). It seemed as if there were a few demonstrations.

Around that time, we also learned that it was a national holiday: Korean Memorial Day. Maybe that had something to do with it. I would later learn that the main street was where people historically gathered with political rallies and peaceful demonstrations.

We made a right at the palace because our tour wasn't until much later, so we went towards a traditional Bukchon Hanok village. It was a very, very long walk and I began to see people in traditional dress. We could've rented them, apparently. But anyway, the walk felt like an eternity and we finally made it to some interesting traditional houses with nice roofs. I also noticed that on the street, there were a bunch of medallions with Korean text; I had no idea what they meant. Anyway, we took a couple pictures and went back to the palace.

I tried to enter, but some guy started yelling in Korean; I didn't know what he was saying or if he was even yelling at me, but we eventually entered anyway. Then, I realized that the reason was because there was a changing of the guard at the palace. I took plenty of pictures of the multi-colored, multi-weaponed warriors. There were a lot of children at the palace (probably due to the national holiday), so the line to get tickets was very long.

We met our guide, a nice lady who reminded me of my violin teacher, and went in. My mom told me that if we were to wear the traditional dresses, we could get into the palace for free (that explained why many people were wearing traditional dresses there). Anyway, the palace was actually very, very, very big; yes, three very's (it was originally _twice_ its current size). It's difficult to pick out the important parts because our guide provided good information on all of them. One of the earlier sections had us walking around a magnificent building with golden dragons on the ceiling. Each building (all around) seemed to have a couple animals that had special significance. Some figures included the monkey, the black turtle, and the monk.

Walking around further, we visited the king's chambers and a very nice building sitting in the middle of the lake.

Another interesting part of the palace was how the rooms were heated. The entire wooden floor of a building was heated by an under-floor heating system and the smoke would flow out of a nearby chimney. This would explain why there were no beds and why people ate on the ground (close to the heated stones under the floor).

I wondered why the buildings looked so good and vibrant with special colors; according to our guide, that was because they were rebuilt in the _20th_ century, after Japanese occupation destroyed the palace and attempted to re-write history (so, very recent).

The only things that remained were the chimneys, which didn't really look like chimneys, rather, like hexagonal birdhouses.

They were the only original part of the palace, which made them the "national treasure" of the palace. Speaking of history, the most powerful person that the king feared was the scribe. To keep an accurate historical record, they could not be fired by the king and could damage the king's reputation. Everything, including the scribe's records, were destroyed (except for one) by the Japanese.

Near the end of the tour, we learned of the tragic death of the last queen of Korea. With Japanese forces infiltrating politics, the queen allied with Russia, but Japanese soldiers were sent in to kill her and cripple the country's power further.

We also took a look at the "Blue House" (Korea's version of the "White House" in the U.S.) since it was right behind the palace. I could remember the mountain in the background looking very distant from the main street, but as I walked through the palace and got closer to the Blue House, I suddenly was basically at the base of the mountain. We then walked back to the hotel, during which my feet turned to spaghetti.

We asked the reception again for a good place to eat. He recommended some BBQ place down the road, and so we went. Upon entry, we had no idea what the menu said. The place was pretty nice, and also had cute pipe steam vents right over a stove in the middle of the table. Despite the language barrier, the waiter was kind enough to explain the menu to us. That alone took about fifteen minutes.

We apparently needed a minimum order of meat even though we were not that hungry. When the food came, I was surprised; she cooked it right in front of us! This was all on top of a charcoal stove (in the U.S. we only had gas stoves for Korean BBQ). The meat with some condiments (salad, pickled vegetables) from the bar, smelled incredibly good. I wrapped one piece in lettuce and tasted it. It was incredibly delicious: the sweetness and the saltiness combined with the coolness and freshness of the salad was exhilarating.

The second order was some pork belly, which didn't have the same sweet properties as the first one, but was still tender and scrumptious. The rice was also blue, and the Korean barley tea was amazing. I drank cup after cup of tea (perhaps even the whole bottle; we had to get a second). I was so glad we ate there.

Next, we were supposed to have a walking tour along the Cheonggyecheon stream, but in my tasting of delicacies, we missed it by ten minutes. The stream was just behind our hotel and wasn't far from where we had our BBQ lunch. We thought we could catch up with the tour group and hurried down into the stream below.

But, our tour group was nowhere to be seen. That was when it started to rain. It was also humid and a bit stuffy down there. As we walked further down the stream, there were flies going around the area.

Conditions were so unfavorable that we didn't bother trying after fifteen minutes, opting instead to go to a shopping district nearby.

We decided to go to Myeong-Dong because we heard there were some good souvenirs there. All I saw were mostly skin care stores/cosmetics, and K-pop. I do have to admit, though, there was a lot of interesting-looking food, like cooked lobster stands.

We continued down the street but it just became more crowded and chaotic. It was still raining, and I found a Daiso store (not sure if it's related to the one in Japan). We came down all the way and decided to return to the hotel, but with a pit stop at the mall on the way. I got a bit distracted by a couple of other stores along the way.

There was this one complex of shops underground that connected multiple street corners. I thought it would get us closer to our destination, but it didn't.

After a lot of pathfinding and usage of the map later, we were able to locate this massive department store.

The basement held a whole tribute to K-pop, which was pretty relevant even in the U.S. at the time. The second floor had a LEGO store, which always pleased me.

We moved to the main store. There were fourteen levels to this massive department store, with hundreds of smaller stalls inside. Near the middle of the building was the kids floor. I checked it out but found mostly shoes and other stuff that didn't interest me that much. I couldn't find electronics, games, or toys anywhere in the building. So, I went up further; the next floor up was the household goods floor. They only sold giant appliances.

We saw a group of tables where people were sitting, and I thought they were enjoying the Wi-Fi, but NO, they were talking with a store associate, making sales! And mind you, there were lots of these tables, all full. The whole building was filled with people; multiple people crowded at single

booths, hundreds watched in awe at some new gadget. I thought the whole time of how in America, every single mall was essentially empty or at least not as crowded as in Korea. We didn't spend much time there and decided to head back to the hotel.

It was raining a bit as we went back, and we needed to prepare for the next day. Some things we needed to collect were a jug of water, dinner, and breakfast for the next day. We then ate dinner at a fast food restaurant. They had those fancy touch-screen ordering machines.

Anyway, we went back to our hotel to check in. The room in my opinion was very nice and spacious. There was a fancy bidet, but the shower had literally no cover/door/curtain to keep water from flying out! I went to sleep soon after.

The next day, I woke up very early (Note: I also slept early due to jet-lag). We were to go do some hikes in the mountains that day. It was raining and we were to meet our guide at the station.

We didn't know how we were going to meet or if we even were going to meet due to the weather. But, he showed up, and we then took a van to the mountains. The first leg of the trip had us passing through the nice freeways next to the Han river. We even got to see the massive skyscraper, Lotte World Tower. Our breakfast consisted of some apple pies, so I was still pretty hungry, and so, at the break, we ate at the rest-station.

We were actually the only ones in this tour, so we could eat without the need to meet a deadline. We ate some udon (I needed hot soup in the freezing weather). Then, we continued onward.

This second leg of the trip had us go through miles of tunnel. The tunnels had a couple cool quirks though, including parts that played a musical tune, and segments that had cool lighting (like a rainbow, for example). Between the tunnels, there were a few gaps where we came out and could see the outside. The rain only became more harsh and the temperature more frigid. I really didn't want to hike under these circumstances.

But alas, we finally arrived at Mount Seorak, and our guide led us to a massive Buddha statue. It must have been at least five stories tall! It shined as the rain poured down upon it. We were supposed to go to the falls at this location, but we noticed there were no people going towards the trail.

"At least the guide will be with us in case anything happens,'' I thought.

Then, our guide said to meet him in two hours and left. My mouth gaped a little. What were we going to do in this weather? The whole path was covered in water and mud, and the trip to the top of the waterfall would take us about an hour one way. Nevertheless, we began.

Now would be a good time to tell you why I was so nervous. After all, not to brag, but I had climbed up to the top of Yosemite falls in the U.S., scaled Machu Picchu in Peru, and climbed to the top of the thousand (or so) Inari Torii gates in Japan. This time, however, it was raining, and I was wearing _shoes with holes in them_. I mean, these holes were part of the design, but they let water and debris in _easily_. We thought that we would be traveling to Korea in the summer, so this wouldn't be a problem, but apparently, we ended up trekking up a waterfall through a storm (or what felt like one).

Either way, the hike was supposedly only two miles or so, but I didn't know that we would gain elevation along the way. I stepped very precisely, attempting to dodge the massive puddles while still keeping underneath my dad's umbrella (we only had two small ones). It was difficult, especially with slippery rocks, metal, and more. I went very slowly and carefully.

Then, plop! I heard the fatal sound.

My eyes slowly moved to my left and stared at my enveloped foot. Then, the rush. I yanked my foot out of the sneaky puddle, instantly feeling the freezing water in my sock and the sediment rolling in my shoe. I walked around with a soggy foot for the rest of that venture. I still had my right foot though.

I promptly lost _that_ one within a kilometer of the final destination, where the trail took a turn towards the heavens above. The metal became very slippery and the rocks were treacherous. My mom hiked with us half way and had to stay behind as we crossed a suspension bridge that rocked with each step. A couple hundred more rocks and steps later, we reached Biryong Falls. There was, however, one last gauntlet that we had to overcome.

The falls were flowing so voraciously that the water began to flow _onto_ the trail. We couldn't get a good picture from our current position. It also wasn't possible to go around the water or climb on the side rails (there were none), and so, we had to make a mad dash through ankle-deep water. Just a reminder: my shoes hadn't plugged those giant holes since we last saw them.

A few sock squeezes and a barefoot me later, we took some nice pictures. The only problem was that pictures couldn't be easily taken without getting everything wet, and so we took a picture with one hand and held the umbrella with the other. No, we didn't have a phone camera, so we used a traditional one... one handed. The way down was particularly perilous due to the slippery rocks.

Each step, I could see myself falling between the guard rails and getting swept into the rapids below. It was, at times, chilling (in more ways than one). We went back in the soaking rain and, skipping over the gruesome journey, made it back to the van.

Everything was wet; both my feet were sockless; the sleeves of my "waterproof" jacket were soggy; my pants were filled with debris. It was quite an adventure. Nevertheless, we continued to the next stop. I had a couple hours to dry off, and surprisingly, things got better. I was getting very hungry, though.

When we arrived, we ate lunch, consisting of fried rice with a potato pancake. Yes, a pancake made of potatoes. When the food actually came, it looked so much better than the picture (surprising) and we were able to eat a bit of tender chicken and cabbage with various Korean condiments (pickled vegetables mainly). Additionally, the potato pancake was amazing: it tasted like french fries or hash browns, both of which I loved. The food was all cooked right in front of us.

I left full and happy; we then went to Nami Island, which was conveniently located right across the street. There were ziplines and ferries to the island, which I found cool, but the island was literally only a short ten minute ride away. We had heard that this island was the site of a Korean soap opera called "Winter Sonata" and had its own flag, currency, and immigration center. We passed through "immigration" to ferry over.

Walking through the front gate of the island, I was enthralled; the place was filled with kids on holiday and there were lots of cute statues and trails all around. There were a variety of exotic trees and animals stationed throughout as well. We first made our way straight through the main road. There were several cool stops along the way including a live ostrich, life-sized snowman statues, a man-made hill, a massive peacock, and more.

It was all very surreal; the sun even came out. For souvenirs, we stopped to buy the local currency (yes, the island had its own currency!) and a small snowman. Going back, we came across a row of colorful maple trees, a couple teepees, and a tank.

Not some water tank; rather, a gun-toting, heavily armored, military tank. Yes, a tank, which was ironically a symbol for peace. There were also tons of playgrounds and swings for kids, which I was happy to see.

Unfortunately, we could only stay for an hour and a half before shortly departing from the island. Upon arrival in Seoul (skipping the long trip), we were dropped off at Dongdaemun Design Plaza. The building was very unique. It looked like a deformed egg and had no edges. We walked around the strange structure and eventually went inside.

There were all sorts of foodstuffs within, which I was ready to dig into (it was around six at night), but we ultimately weren't able to settle. We instead spent time looking at a bunch of cute cats.

I noticed that at the fourth story of the building there was a type of "immersive" experience, which I was curious about. We went into the elevator and reached the top, but... it was completely empty. Most of the area was closed or had limited lighting. There was this large area that was supposedly a daycare (it looked pretty interesting to be honest), but it was closed. We were getting tired and were ready to move on to our next stop, so we looked for an exit.

Conveniently, upon walking out onto the roof, we saw that a large green hill _went all the way down_ to the bottom floor. The design was very smooth and integrated. It was getting late, so we needed to hurry to our next destination: Namsan tower.

It was one of the larger observation towers in Seoul. We went across the street and caught a taxi; the taxi driver was interested in baseball and my parents had a small chat with him. By the end, we arrived at the base of the tower. For some reason our taxi wasn't able to continue further up even though there was an access road for vehicles. Only buses were able to get through, and so, we got off... the tower a world away.

As we made our way up, we could see the tower in the distance, and it was _really_ far away: two kilometers on a steep incline, we later learned. Nobody wanted to do that, especially after the hike earlier in the day (about the same difficulty). So, we decided to take the bus.

After waiting, we saw a bus come and we ran towards it; it opened its doors... but nobody came out. The bus quickly shut the doors and drove off. Apparently, most of the buses that came up were completely full, as all went to the same destination. A second bus came with a different number; it didn't matter much anymore because we just wanted to get on. Again, the doors were slammed and people at our station began to walk up or down the hill. We were losing hope.

Then, just as we were about to leave, yet another bus came— this one was (relatively) empty! We hurried on-board and as we climbed the mountain, I was glad we didn't walk. However, that didn't mean our pains were over. At the final stop, we got off the bus and searched for the tower.

Once again looking up, I saw it, but a daunting (nearly vertical) hike still preceded it. My mouth gaped. Either way, this steep hike had us gasping to the top. There were some interesting things to note about the area, though. There were these massive chains of locks that were connected to all the surrounding guardrails, and we could literally see them for miles around.

The locks were a tradition, apparently, where a couple would write a note of love and physically lock it to the railing, tossing the key in the process. A couple benches were even "broken" so that people sitting on the edges would slip towards the middle. Looking around the base of the tower, we could see the palace, our hotel, and much more.

As the sun set, an enthralling sea of color and lights emerged. While we didn't go up to the tower, we checked out the store below and soon made our way back to the buses. This time, we had to choose the correct number: five, which went to Myeong-Dong, the commercial street with all the food I mentioned earlier. Before long, we were making our way down the hill and we soon arrived.

The main objective now was to find food. It was incredibly late at night (nine in the evening) and we hadn't even had dinner. Luckily, at the very end of the street, we found this seafood restaurant and decided to eat there. Once again trying amazing Korean food, I ordered their famous Bibimbap. It contained white rice topped with kimchi and all kinds of vegetables. I had learned that the various ingredients represented the elements of the earth and that, in mixing them, I would receive all the heavenly graces (or something like that). My parents ordered a seafood soup. The food was very good, but I kept looking at our neighbor's table.

Their group had ordered a very peculiar dish: Still-alive octopus (or squid). I thought that meant that they were eating live octopus (from the tank to the plate), but I knew something was up when the contents of the dish moved even _after_ the chopsticks were retracted. My face turned pale and my eyes widened.

Apparently, the octopus was _literally_ still alive as the customers ate it! Although all its legs were chopped off, the whole dish was still moving like crazy! Even as the people motioned to pick up the legs, I saw that they still wiggled around like little worms. I was speechless as the people at their table turned and smiled at me. We soon picked up some water, some breakfast for the next day, and went back to the hotel by taxi. I then went to bed.

I woke up the next day to venture to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea. Our driver arrived in-suit to our hotel and we were promptly taken to another hotel where we were picked up by the main tour bus. I ate my breakfast, a rice ball (reminded me of Japan) with "rice" tea. Anyway, we then sat for an hour journey towards the border.

We first went to purchase tickets to permit us entry into the Civilian Controlled Zone. For some background, there were multiple zones that separated the Koreas. The Military Demarcation Line was the border, the Demilitarized Zone was two kilometers on each side, and the Civilian Controlled Zone was five kilometers beyond that on the South Korean side. Our guide explained that the Korean War (1950) led to the DMZ on the South Korean side being controlled by the UN with most only going as far as the Civilian Controlled Zone.

Anyway, at the ticket station, we were able to see the "Freedom Bridge", which was apparently where thousands of P.O.W. were traded after the war as well as an observation point for the area. We couldn't really see North Korea (the only part we had seen up to that point was while we were driving). The characteristic that set the two Koreas apart (we were told) was how the landscape looked: if there were trees, it was South Korea, and if it was barren, the land was part of North Korea. Barbed wire lined everywhere and guard posts were every couple hundred feet (all male citizens were required to serve in the Korean military).

We then began to cross into the Civilian Controlled Zone. A Korean soldier came onto our bus to check our passports and we all had to write our identification information down. It was slightly intimidating, especially with caltrops and sharp spikes all around our bus. Then, we continued to the Third Tunnel, another landmark in the area. There were tunnels dug underneath the MDL (Military Demarcation Line) in the late 1900s which would have been used by North Korea to launch an attack on South Korea (Seoul). Only four major tunnels had been uncovered. We were visiting the Third Tunnel because it was most accessible.

Before we went in, however, we were prevented from taking any electronic devices or cameras into the tunnel. The tunnel was not very long, but quite steep. The tunnel down that led to the main tunnel was built by South Korea. The actual tunnel the North Koreans dug was mostly flat. People were so paranoid of the tunnel's integrity that everyone was required to wear a hardhat and photos of those who had passed out on the journey through the tunnel were plastered all over the wall.

Either way, we all went down the tunnel and the conditions were actually _very_ favorable. There was fresh, cool air the whole way, and the ground was smooth with mats. The two hundred to three-hundred-meter tunnel was traversed in about ten minutes and we entered the actual tunnel dug by North Korea. Our guide then told us a story about this tunnel.

Firstly, a defector from North Korea had apparently disclosed all the details of the tunnel in 1974, but he wasn't able to tell the South Korean government the exact location of the tunnel because he had been working underground and simply didn't know where he was. To search for hidden tunnels, the South Koreans dug thousands of boreholes in the area and filled them with water. If the water didn't shoot back up, this meant there might be a hollow section or a tunnel underneath.

The tunnel wasn't found until four years later. South Korea confronted the North about it; of course, they denied it was for attacking Seoul, claiming instead it was for mining. To further "sell" this point, they painted the walls of the tunnel black to show how much "coal" there was. A quick swath would reveal the entire two by two meter (or less) tunnel to be made out of granite.

We all had to bend our heads going down and we could barely move two at a time. After about a couple hundred meters of walking, we reached the "end" of the tunnel. There was a large bottleneck to see what was ahead. We waited our turn and when we finally made it to the end, all I saw was a small window and a number display. Peering through the window, I could see another blockade; the number display (I would later learn) was the number of days since the armistice. The whole place was very damp, but well air conditioned and lit. There were even some plants growing on the other side of the blockade; that wasn't even the end of the tunnel, as the true length of the tunnel stretched all the way into North Korea (we only saw a quarter of it).

The way up was slightly more challenging, but after the day before's hike, it was a piece of cake. We watched a movie about North and South Korea, took some pictures, and continued onward. Going further around the area, our guide pointed out that there were hundreds of explosive mines all around the DMZ that were not disarmed, and so there were upside-down hazard triangles marking off huge sections of land. A whole military unit was in charge of detecting mines!

In terms of the attempted one-upping of both North and South Korea (i.e. competing to be the "best"), there were many interesting stories. A village was installed near the border to court North Koreans while another was made to court South Koreans. People, however, began to notice the lack of lights (and also lack of people) that came with the North Korean village and concluded that it was fake. Another story was the height of the two flag poles. When South Korea raised their pole higher during the Olympics, North Korea raised theirs even higher. These two flag poles were also visible from the observatory.

There, we were able to finally take pictures of North Korea. At the top of the observatory, there were plenty of FREE telescopes to see the countryside of North Korea. I found it a bit funny that we were told not to take pictures of the South Korean side or any military establishments while we were openly encouraged to take as many pictures as possible of the _North_ Korean border/bases. In addition to the fake North Korean village and the two flag poles, I could even see a real, live North Korean soldier standing at his post. I wondered if he knew that a hundred prying eyes were staring at him. Much of the terrain was unremarkable with a couple barren roads and houses interspersed throughout. Leaving there, we went to Dorasan station, the last stop for the South Korean trains.

For the history of the station: the station was initially connected with North Korea, and the tracks went all the way to Europe and throughout Asia. It was a transcontinental train, and recently, the north and south agreed on re-opening it. However, the north soon demanded more concessions, and the project was scrapped (all the train tracks still remained, however). This station was apparently a symbol of hope for re-unification of the peninsula, but for now, the route marked Pyongyang was closed.

Upon returning to our hotel area, we noticed the main street around our hotel being flooded with demonstrations, protestors, and police. Every week, apparently, a massive demonstration was conducted to protest the ousting of a former female president of Korea. Aside from that, we decided to eat before combing through the crowds of people.

After much deliberation, we settled on a seafood restaurant and ordered noodle soup with real snow crab. My parents ordered similarly. The delicacy was so soft and tasty while the noodles and rice filled me up (it was already 2:00 PM). I wanted more, and so I had a couple servings of seafood. After leaving, we walked back towards our hotel.

Driving lanes were closing as protestors swelled and police gathered at key entrance points. I heard the loudspeakers and patriotic/nationalistic music playing at full blast but barely could tell what was going on. We passed by a court filled with basketball players and we deduced they were in a tournament; it seemed like a small game, but it was pretty surprising to find them here, especially with the massive demonstrations nearby.

We promptly entered our hotel to get our bags and left. The hotel receptionist said that he was tired of all the demonstrations and their regularity (they had been going on for ten years). I had no idea how they put up with all of it. People were walking down the street with signs, banners, and flags when we started for the subway station. We initially wanted to take a taxi, but with the waves of people marching, the situation seemed less than favorable.

Skipping the subway ride, we made it to Seoul station, where the main trains were located. The plan was to use this special city airport terminal check-in service at the Seoul train station for our flight that night. Exiting the train, we got out and followed the signs around the station. We had been to this station before, but I remembered very little.

We were looking for the Airport Express Train because the city airport terminal, where we could do early check-in, was right next to it. We walked and followed the signs. Then we walked a bit more. Then more.

Finally, we saw a map and realized that we got out at the _wrong_ exit and had to walk around the entire station going up and down levels just to get to where we needed to be again.

We asked a guy and he said that we weren't even supposed to get out of the station in the first place! We headed to the information booth. Nothing looked familiar.

Then, we turned a corner and thought that we ended up at the back of the station but in reality, it was actually the _front_. Everything was so complicated and confusing but we were ultimately able to find our way.

We rushed to the check-in line... but the lady stopped us. We needed to buy an express train ticket before we could use the airline check-in service. We were going to anyway, but it time-consuming to adapt. Then, we needed to go through _immigration_ after checking our bags. I was shocked. Why would we need to do immigration papers if we were _leaving_ the country?

No matter, as the immigration center was right next to the check-in area, which was convenient and would (supposedly) save us time at the airport later.

We still had a couple of hours to kill before going to the airport. So, we decided to explore Gangnam, south of the Han river. The journey to Gangnam took thirty minutes and we began to worry that we weren't going to make it back in time. Upon exiting the station, the entire platform was swamped by people. Everyone was moving but we needed to find a statue of Gangnam (in the plaza). It was built to commemorate Psy's "Gangnam Style". As we ascended the stairs I saw a bunch of BTS fans performing a mock concert. The statue itself was huge with two fists overlapping like in Psy's music video.

We still had a little time left and rushed to the Samsung D'light store. I was initially worried that it was just a small retail store, but upon entry, we realized it spanned three floors and had many interactive exhibits. It was really cool— they showed off their new technology such as an 8K TV, monitor-mirror, and smart appliances.

My dad had just assembled at home his 4K set (4K TV, 4K movies, 4K player), so I could imagine he was disappointed when he found out his technology was now obsolete.

After a very brief visit (due to time pressure) peering into the "future" (with nice concept videos), we made our way back to the station and returned.

Just a note, but in each train there were these "preferred" seats for women who were pregnant or were carrying small children. I sometimes got into my mom's lap to look the part.

We promptly transferred to the main express train at Seoul station and made our way to the airport. An hour later, we came to security; it turned out, we _still_ needed to go through immigration (two times now!). We passed through and entered the international terminal. The terminal was incredibly modern and nice, but I wasn't able to see much of it because we planned to go into an airline lounge.

Our airline was nice enough to give us a couple thousand miles from flying; these miles could be used for lounge entry. A lounge was basically a very comfortable reserved place in an airport dedicated to airline passengers (typically) and had various amenities. It was late at night and our plane departed at midnight, so I started to get very woozy.

A couple plates of food later, my dad asked me to take a shower. I thought this was gross and unrealistic, especially in an airport, but when my dad returned from his shower, he told me that it was actually quite pleasant. There were private rooms for the shower and each guest could have one shower; they were given their own towel, soap, and other amenities, such as a toothbrush.

Within an hour, I was within my own private room! The water pressure and temperature weren't too bad either. I took a warm, refreshing shower and brushed my teeth. Within another half hour, I was out, clean and happy (but still drowsy).

Before leaving the lounge, my mom encouraged me to try this "face massage mask", but it was with some type of special light. I put the mask on and a warm light emitted from it. I looked ridiculous but nevertheless sat there for ten minutes.

I'm not sure if it worked or not, but after, we quickly rushed towards our gate. The plane ride was unremarkable; I could only get a couple of hours of sleep on the way to Singapore.

Upon arrival, it was very early in the morning, and the time was shifted back by one hour. The first thing I noticed was the increased humidity of the air; it was very hot even though there was barely any sunlight. We had to pass through immigration, which took a bit longer than I expected (our line was really slow), and we soon after went to claim our bags. The first thing we did when we got out of the terminal was to go to the Jewel, an entertainment and shopping complex connected to Changi Airport.

Since it was early in the morning, all of the shops and restaurants were closed, but upon entering, I was immediately greeted by a massive, green landscape— all indoors. The mall had stores on the outer ring and a large ring of vegetation on the inside, with the center exhibiting a waterfall; it looked like a greenhouse!

Just like in Japan, it is worthwhile to note that I was on the lookout for Pokémon Centers, one of which was in this very complex. It was the first or second to be created outside of Japan. Unfortunately for me, the entire mall was closed until ten, and it was about seven in the morning. The top canopy, filled with the best attractions and nature, was even closed until two days later (they were still preparing it!). Apparently, the grand opening for this complex just happened about two months ago. We left to take the metro to our hotel.

In Singapore everything seemed to be much more organized and streamlined; even our metro transfers were literally right across the platform (we didn't need to go through a hundred corridors or escalators). After taking many wonky turns around our destination station, we were able to locate our hotel. The lobby had these cool robots that did room service and we even got to see one move towards the elevator!

Anyway, we left after dropping our bags off because we were too early to check in (as always). In the meantime, we decided to eat some breakfast. I had some wonton soup and then we went to Merlion park, the famous lion fountain right next to the sea.

To get there, we took the metro and had to navigate from the exits. We decided to ask the station guide for help. We walked up to her and asked where Merlion fountain was.

Without saying a word, she took out a slip of paper and pointed to it. It had exact directions from the station to the fountain. I guess they got a lot of questions about where the fountain was.

Skipping the hot, sweaty walk to the fountain, we arrived at the lion. The whole place was sweltering and everything felt like it was on fire. I reluctantly took a couple of pictures. As I turned back to the metro station, my mom stopped me, claiming that we would be walking _all around_ the bay, all in what felt like a microwave.

Trekking along what felt like the Sahara (but much more humid), we rounded the coast to reach a helix-shaped bridge. It gave little refuge, however, as it was made completely of metal.

By the end of it, I was sweltering and stepped inside of a mall. Our destination was the ArtScience Museum next door, but we took a look inside of the mall anyway. I wondered why the malls in Asia were simply so much better, nicer, more modern etc. than the ones in the U.S. or Europe. My only personal conclusion was that people might not have any better choice other than going to a mall as any other location would be too scorching on hot days.

I quickly made my way across the sun-lit area between the buildings, and entered the museum. We went to a futuristic exhibit with a blend of technology and art. As I entered, I was a bit underwhelmed; it just seemed like a bunch of projectors displaying some digital art. It was only when we read the bulletin in the next room about how the room was interactive that we went back. I realized that the flowers and water projected from the projectors could be tapped and interacted with!

In many instances, it was beautiful, and pieces of art blended together without frames to contain them. Another exhibit was a slide where a person could touch virtual fruit to make it pop. Yet another allowed visitors to move wooden blocks around on a table; a projector would then "read" the locations of these blocks and project new images of a metropolis based on how the blocks were arranged. I have to say, even with our poor city-planning skills, the exhibit still managed (somehow) to come up with a coherent layout. Everything was incredibly dynamic.

However, by far, some of the coolest exhibits were the ones that allowed a person to "draw" a virtual 3D model. A visitor would initially start off with a template, such as a car, and then would color-in the paper. Then, they would be able to scan the paper; a computer would analyze the image to generate a 3D model (of a car, for example) based on the colored sketch and that would be placed in a virtual scene.

This scene was interactive and could be viewed in 3D, which was amazing. There were hundreds of buildings, cars, UFO's and more. There were two or three of these set-ups. An alien invasion even befell one of them and I could see the firetruck that I drew come to the rescue!

Nearing the end, a spectacular show remained. As we approached this exhibit, I could see strips of LED lights hanging from the ceiling. I peered into the room and looked for walls, but could see none. I then looked at my feet and could only see more LED lights. The lights were arranged in 3D space, and were all timed to light up in a specific way. I walked right through this exhibit and listened to the deep, ambient music as it played along to the flashing patterns of the lights all around me.

At one point, I felt like I was in outer space— the whole scene turned dark and specific lights seemed to move further away from me. Mirrors in every direction only magnified this effect.

After leaving the exhibit, we could still see the crystal-like LED strips and learned that we could affect what would be displayed on the lights themselves. We pulled up a tablet and could choose what shape would appear on the lights, which was absolutely incredible— even inspiring.

We exited the area and learned that we could get a free look at the digital canvas in the mall we visited earlier. We went there, but were told that our ticket was "incorrect"; I wasn't sure why (it was supposed to be complimentary). We sat down for some tea and boba.

Our next destination were Gardens by the Bay, which were very near the mall. We made our way up an escalator marked with directions to the gardens after taking a look at a Superhero cafe/store. For some context, the mall itself was next to the gardens and at the base of three large buildings, the Marina Bay Sands, which looked like pillars.

These pillar buildings went up into the sky and were connected at the top by something that looked like a surfboard. As we ascended the escalator, the temperature only increased. It got hotter, and hotter, and hotter. It was sweltering at the top, and there was no shade either.

A custodian there revealed that now (literally twelve noon) was not the best time to go up to see the gardens. So, we looked for the metro station to go back. Returning to the breathable zone, we traversed the mall. There was another route that supposedly led to the gardens, and we once again, went up. Clearly, we hadn't learned our lesson. It was still scorching hot, but there were more people in this area; we could also transfer to a nearby building.

We went straight across a bridge inside of the column buildings to the other side to find that we were right in front of the Sky gardens. However, we decided not to explore further (it would be better later in the day when it was cooler). We soon left for the metro.

My dad wanted to stop by at Chinatown on the way back to the hotel. For some reason, literally every major state or country had their own Chinatown. So, we went. I was a bit worried that it would be a bit messy, but my mom reassured me that this was Singapore, the place where chewing gum leads to a $500 fine, so everything was certainly clean here.

Stepping out from the station, a combination of pungent odors and general chaos swamped my senses. We were here to eat lunch, but I wasn't very hungry, especially with the messy conditions. We settled down in a "food court" nearby and my parents ordered something to eat.

We went back to our hotel shortly thereafter. It was only after checking in that I realized how massive the hotel truly was. It spanned up thirty floors and had a massive amount of guests. I was surprised, especially because the lobby was incredibly small. With all this, and a very modern look, I was excited to see our room. The doors were incredibly large, and the ceiling was pretty high, so I looked forward to the dreaminess of the bathroom and beds.

As we opened the fancy door, I was shocked to see that there was only one big bed, and I couldn't even find the room for the shower! Taking another second of processing power, I located that my bed was a bunk right above my parents' and that the shower was in front of the wall-sized windows. The room was absolutely TINY, with record minimal dimensions being achieved by eliminating the bathroom (the sink was next to the bed).

This room was so small that I think it was even smaller than the hotels we stayed at in Japan! Interestingly, although it was small, it was functional. I found a hanger, umbrellas and a desk hiding behind the wall which could be pulled out as needed. We stayed in the room for a while and then went back to the bayfront to see the Gardens by the Bay.

There was supposed to be a light show at night and we went to see it. The weather was less of a scorching inferno with darkness falling. We wanted to stroll twenty-two meters off the ground on the skyway, which was connected by humongous trees.

Yet, we learned this was not possible due to the walk closing in fifteen minutes. It was getting close to showtime, and so we just sat down where we could see the massive LED-lighted trees. The show started soon after.

Unfortunately, we were too far away to hear the music that accompanied the show! Nevertheless, the lights were pretty cool and changed into multiple colors (not as interactive as the science museum earlier). After fifteen minutes of flashing and erratic color changes, the show ended.

Singapore is famous for its "hawker centers" (food courts selling a variety of food at cheap prices). We decided to check out Lau Pa Sat Hawker Center in the business district. At night, the street beside Lau Pa Sat was transformed into Satay street; people sat on plastic chairs in the street enjoying their satays.

It was so crowded that we could hardly find an empty seat. We finally got our seat and ordered a combination of pork, chicken, beef and prawn satays. To say the least, they were incredibly delicious.

We awoke at a reasonable time the next day. Since we didn't have any crazy tours or tight schedules, we planned to use the day to continue sightseeing. I was incredibly hungry, so we went to the food court downstairs. There, I had some sweet bread that sustained me until lunchtime.

We returned to the Gardens by the Bay to check out the domes and the skyway that we weren't able to see the day before. When we came up to the ticket booth, we asked where the domes were. It turned out that this booth wasn't the main entrance, and so we had to walk through the blazing sun across the garden to reach the "proper" booth.

For reference, the "domes" were the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome, which each housed some vegetation that was to be conserved. When we reached the booth, we were soaked with sweat, but proceeded to buy our tickets.

As we went to the front of the line, we began to notice that something was wrong. There was nobody around in line or walking about, unlike the day before.

Then, we saw the sign.

The skyway was closed for that day. Just that day, as if the powers that be had demanded it. We could neither go on the skyway the night before nor the current day. It was incredibly disappointing. There was nothing we could do, though, so we simply bought the standard two dome tickets.

The first dome was the Flower Dome. I expected the greenhouse to be, if anything, much more humid and tropical, but, to my surprise, the entire place was basically refrigerated. There was A/C all over the place, yet the flowers and trees still thrived amid a burning surrounding area. The gardens themselves had plants from all over the world, with statues and fountains in-between. There were bouquets of roses dotting the whole place, and a couple could be seen in what appeared to be a wedding. I was even able to see "exotic" American plants.

We then went to the Cloud Forest Dome. It wasn't actually a dome filled with clouds, but rather, depicted life in the clouds. The first thing we saw was the waterfall. The water splashed all over the floor and we could clearly see the pipes and metal sticking out from the artificial mountain nearby. My mom thought that this place could have looked much more natural if those pipes and metal were out of sight. We proceeded along the pathway and took an elevator to the very top of the dome's mountain.

From there, we descended, and at one point, were able to walk out from the mountain on a sky bridge. It was a bit dizzying because I could barely see the ground under my feet, but we took some good pictures of the ferris wheel and Marina Bay Sands, the three-pillared building (I mentioned the day before) nearby. It felt pretty nice as we made our way down.

Shortly after that, we went further down to the tree walk (like the skyway, but a bit lower) and then went down into the basement. The whole underground was basically a place filled with exhibits showing all the horrible things humans were doing to the planet, and how we had a duty to protect the environment. I shuddered a bit as I passed through.

We went out, but then we learned that the whole dome was going to "mist" up in about fifteen minutes. We thought the whole dome would fill with fog and that the mountain would truly look like it was in the clouds, so we waited.

Re-entering, the "fog" soon began, with sprays of mist being pumped out of the machines at the top of the mountain and around the sky bridge. I waited for the machine to get rolling and for the fog to start falling, but it never seemed to do so.

I waited, but soon realized that the fog never dropped below a certain point. My only deduction was that the machines were simply too weak to produce enough fog for the whole dome, and besides, the sun was beating down on the dome air, reducing the fog further. By the time it was done, there was a barely-recognizable, thin layer of "haziness" around the ground, if even that. At least they tried.

We then went to eat lunch. My parents had found Maxwell Food Centre and wanted to eat there. The closest metro station to this place was the Chinatown MTR station. We exited on Pagoda street and headed our way down another street to the food court's supposed location. But, when we got there, I could only see bulldozers and construction workers. I was a bit worried that the building would not be open due to this, but my parents were quick to point out the place was operating "business as usual".

We walked a bit further towards the building and peered inside: nobody. That was when we took a look at another sign just above the door. It said that the court was closed just on that day. Not any other day, but just that day. Coincidence? I think not.

Now, we were frantically scrambling for another place to eat. We looked around and with each stall we turned away from, my stomach rumbled louder.

We came to an alley full of restaurants with tables and chairs set outdoors. Due to the scorching heat, I didn't want to sit outside, instead preferring to sit inside a restaurant with A/C.

After a painfully long search, we settled on a restaurant. I was so relieved to finally sit down and eat.

Then, I saw the menu.

Every single dish appeared to cost a fortune. I could not believe how high the prices were (and the restaurant wasn't even that fancy!). We ordered two dishes, which were actually not so bad. However, when the bill came, we noticed an additional dollars charge— for napkins. I thought they were free like in the U.S.!

We each took one, but this felt a bit extortionary (call me dramatic). Anyway, on the way back to the station, I noticed that the temperature wasn't so bad (i.e. my skin was not peeling from the heat). I soon realized why.

A couple drops of water hit my hand; and then more; and then a flurry of raindrops began to pour from the sky above. I was only wearing a T-shirt (I left my rain jacket in the hotel). We rushed through the rain (which only grew more intense) towards the station, barreling past all the little shops lining the street.

Soaked, we returned to our hotel at Orchard road. Now would be a good time to mention that Orchard was a really commercial area with huge malls and many attractions. We roamed throughout the various malls, which spanned multiple buildings, ran underground, and were packed with people. There were stores with everything from furniture to tea (which I bought). Some stores had "samples" of skin care products while others were designer stores with incredibly expensive clothes.

We roamed around the mall area for less than an hour, and, as such, were not able to cover much of the buildings. This was mainly to wait out the heat of the day (with the super heated period being from 12:00-3:00 PM). We then took the metro to Clark Quay, which was a river walk.

Upon exiting the station, I immediately recognized that this location was very near Merlion park and the three-pillared building (i.e. I could see it from there). The place was supposedly a huge party place during the night and should have been packed with tourists and citizens alike.

Yet, in the afternoon, when we went, there was not a soul to be seen. I thought that I would at least catch some good food or something, but everything was empty. We made a quick trip around and then promptly exited the area. I'm sure that if we came later, the Sampans (boats) in the river would be filled up with families and friends. But, we didn't stick around and instead went back to the mall.

This time around, we stayed much longer, covering many of the buildings. The basement floors were the most crowded, and as we went up, more skin-care and doctor offices appeared. So, we stuck near the lower floors.

Most of the stores were of designer bags or clothing. One of the largest department clothing stores in Asia is "Uniqlo" (though I pronounce it Uni-Glo). I hadn't really paid much attention to it because I thought it was just another clothing store (I'm not super conscientious about what I wear), but upon entry, I realized that they carried some interesting shirts (among other things, of course, but the shirts were what interested me).

They had some small cute twist or saying or some other gimmick that made it funny or unique. The store spanned two floors, and I could almost swear the women's floor was bigger. Either way, I purchased a shirt or two.

I have this habit of "sight-shopping", where I enter a store and just look at everything without buying. This happened at a great number of stores, but one particularly stood out. The store had some strange exhibitions that contributed to the concept of reincarnation, which was a bit creepy considering that this was a store that sold sunglasses.

Nearing the evening, we went to eat dinner at the food court at the mall. We had noodles and some fish balls (tasted very good for a low price).

We awoke very early the next day to catch our flight to Thailand. When we got to the airport, the first thing that I noticed was that there was no security checkpoint. I was really surprised, as they only gave us minimal security screening before letting us into the terminal area.

We had to go through immigration (again) like in Korea. I noticed that as we went from country to country, the number of fingers they recorded for immigration increased. I initially didn't need to use the fingerprint scanner because I was a child, but then I had to put in my thumbs, and eventually, both of my hands.

While we waited in the terminal, we decided to check out the various amenities around the airport. We heard that there were many gardens in the terminal, so we went to one of them; I was a bit disappointed. It was not well lit and was quite sketchy with so few people around. I guess that was because it was still very early in the morning.

Yet, my mom also informed me that there was an entire swimming pool inside the airport. I was shocked... a swimming pool? So, we took an elevator up a couple levels to take a peek at the pool. There wasn't anything too remarkable about it (I must admit that a pool in an airport is pretty cool on its own) except that it was in open air with a clear view of the runway. I could imagine it being a bit difficult to relax with planes landing and taking off every ten minutes.

So, we headed back, and, on the way to our gate, we spotted more interesting items: foot massage machines. I examined the peculiar device for a coin slot or credit card reader, but no such implement could be found; this was quite unprecedented.

There were simply instructions on the side that directed the user to press a couple of buttons that would initiate the massage. I opted for my mom and dad to try first because they were probably the most tired from the multiple days of walking we did earlier. They seemed to be fine, and I put my feet in.

Pressing the button, I felt an immediate tickling followed by some pretty sharp rubbing. The massage had begun. At first, I panicked and giggled a bit with how awkward the movements felt, but after many minutes and various different massages (there were multiple settings), I came to like it and didn't want to leave. But, alas, we proceeded to our gate because it was nearing our boarding time.

That was when we realized why there was no security checkpoint at the entrance to the terminal: the screening was at the gate itself.

We got through, and, skipping the waiting and queuing in line (usually the most unpleasant part), we were able to get onto the plane. We took off and being a short flight, they soon provided food.

Now would be a good time to mention how I always order "special" meals, which have low lactose/dairy. It turns out that when your food is dairy-free, lactose-free, and allergen-free, it is also taste-free. So, not having a "special" meal this time around was a big change for me (and also quite delicious).

The layover in Bangkok was uneventful but quite long. We had to go through immigration again and waited for our next flight. The local currency is the Baht, and the exchange rate at the time was $1 = about 30 Baht, but, taking a look at the price of some fast food in the food court informed us that a hamburger would set us back ten dollars.

Our transfer in the afternoon was to go to Phuket (Poo-ket), and we shortly boarded the plane. In the plane, I slept and missed my meal (it was all milk anyway, so I couldn't eat it).

Nearing our destination point, we heard our pilot announcing that there would be a delay due to a crack in the runway. What? I pondered how that could even be possible. It was raining pretty hard in Bangkok (even leaking into the airport), but I only saw sunshine in Phuket. I was confused.

As the minutes turned into an hour, I began to worry that we were never going to get down. How long did it take to patch a crack? Concrete alone typically took days to dry. I was getting worried; what if our plane ran out of fuel?

Luckily, these thoughts didn't last much longer as we descended from the shining clouds to the ground below. I looked out the window to see the sparkling landscape filled with bushes and elegant hills next to the sea. It was whimsical.

We exited the terminal relatively quickly because we technically were on a domestic flight and searched for ground transportation to our hotel. Some people at a booth hounded us over asking if we needed a taxi/minivan to our hotel. My mom had already told me that a minivan was cheaper but required more people; the taxis were supposed to be bargained with. The man at the booth told us otherwise.

Reasonably skeptical, I thought that he was only telling us information so that we would take his ride sharing service. But, the price was still not that bad and so we bought a ticket right then and there.

Exiting the airport was like leaving a refrigerator and entering an oven. Even though we were under complete shade, it was still very humid and painfully hot. We sat down and waited for our minivan. And we waited. And waited.

The man told us that it should have only been fifteen minutes, but it felt like almost an hour of waiting. We were getting a bit impatient, especially because we didn't see anyone else grouping up to ride the minivan (we assumed we needed more people).

Just as we were about to go back inside to inquire about our ride, a fully occupied minivan came in and we got on. We then continued to our destination.

But, all of a sudden, the driver stopped to collect destinations from each passenger, filled in gas, and then picked up more passengers on the way. The drive itself felt like an eternity, but I was reading some interesting factoids the whole time (about driving, coincidentally).

I looked out the window occasionally, and saw that pretty much everyone rode a motorcycle. Much of the traffic was unregulated and a bit chaotic. I could hear our driver attempting to turn his van into some sort of sports car when the engine revved up ascending a steep mountain.

My heart raced and my nerves jumped with each crazy vehicle maneuver.

After almost an hour of stuffy driving, we arrived at our hotel. The hotel was surprisingly nice in a surrounding area that wasn't too professional. Either way, we were led up to our room, which was for some reason in another building up a couple flights of stairs (no elevators!).

To my relief, however, the room was much bigger than the one in Singapore. But, another problem soon presented itself: mosquitoes and insects. I had to put on some pretty liberal amounts of insect repellent (I'm still doubting the effectiveness of the spray with how many bites I still got). We then went out to eat dinner. After taking a couple hazardous street crossings and dubious turns, we found ourselves at a night market near Bangla street, a place filled with food.

We intended to go to the Banzaan market nearby, but the directions we were given led us here. I thought the place was a bit disorganized. The second we stepped into the plaza, we realized that we had another problem on our hands: swarming food vendors. So many local people came running to us speaking tons of different languages, all in hope that we would buy their seafood.

It was so excessive I might have even deemed it harassment as we could barely move through the crowd. Nobody said a word in English— I guess because they were assuming we were Chinese or Japanese. The sounds of "good deal" and "cheap food" were drilled into my head for the rest of the night. After much walking and consulting the proper prices of all the food, we came to bargain (hardcore) with one vendor, who gave us prawns and a fresh (i.e. live from the tank) fish to eat. It was, at times, fun to see my parents bargain, laugh, and continue bargaining as the locals struggled to find out what price we were willing to buy at. But I think that's the culture— they expect a bargain.

Nevertheless, the fish in particular was so tender and soft. The prawns and pineapple fried rice were also impressive. We even made friends with some of the stall owners. But, finishing our coconut water and food, we soon left to the main street. I mean, a main street (there were many important-looking streets).

The one that we chose to walk down I called "sin street" (Bangla), as the whole place was dotted on both sides with strip clubs, bars, and some pretty explicit content. It was nothing like in the U.S. where you had to show your I.D. and most of the place was obstructed from view. Here, everything was in the open with advertisers all around trying to sell a good "show", complete with visual artifacts.

All of this wouldn't be so surprising, except for the fact that there was an arcade for kids right next door. I could see the children passing by the "adult" section with questionable looks on their faces as they entered the laser tag zone. We then went back to our hotel.

We awoke early for our tour of "James Bond Island". Our transportation was late, but we eventually were picked up. After a long drive, we arrived at the main hub of the tour agency, and were assigned to our groups.

It was humid, and chaotic, but I was used to it by this point. We were herded like cattle onto a nearby boat and were set off on our tour (it was more tedious than it sounds here). As our boat departed, we were directed to put on our life vests, which looked very nice and new. I learned why a couple minutes later.

Apparently, the vests were just to clear pre-boating security checks and we could take them all off in the open ocean. Our speed boat was super fast with three engines and we made it to a small cave rapidly.

Our first stop was not very remarkable and I wondered why we stopped here. Stepping out of the boat and into the cave, I soon found out. Well, not that quickly, actually.

The cave was completely dark.

It was only when our guide stepped in did I see the stalactites and stalagmites dotting the entire area. I figured some interesting rock formations would be the crowning attraction to this island, as we were given some pretty hefty headgear.

Anyway, the cave's walls were sparkling white whenever a light was shined, and we eventually made our way to the other end, which was a small window into another body of water.

We then went to the canoeing site. I initially thought that we would actually grab a paddle and go down a river, but when I saw the rough waters of the ocean we were headed to, I began to worry. That was when I saw hundreds of small canoes, each with its own paddler, and I was relieved that I didn't need to rely on my puny arms to take a look around. Mom, dad and I all fit into one canoe.

Our paddler went all around the area: in caves, through rough water, and even "fended off" other canoers. At one point, we took a picture on the sandbar and at another, we entered an enclave with vegetation all around us.

There was a small island in the center of the bay that looked like the James Bond Island, but it was only a preview (not the actual one). Anyways, the view was all-around relaxing and spectacular, and we returned to the boat promptly. The next stop on our tour was James Bond Island.

It was called that because the James Bond movie, The Man with the Golden Gun, was shot on-sight with actual terrain from this location. This place, in particular, was very hot. My mom noted that the area wasn't as packed as it normally was, which was a pleasant surprise. We posed holding pretend guns in front of the island.

Oh! I forgot to mention what the island looked like. Overall, it was an island that was much smaller than I anticipated, about a couple buses in height. It was similar to a pencil sticking up surrounded by water, and there were rocks all around (but the island was not connected to those). Other than that, there was a nice beach that we landed on nearby to take pictures, and there were some extra "bonus" caves nearby for good measure (i.e. taking pictures). The sun was becoming more and more harsh, and it was also time to eat lunch.

Luckily, our tour provided us with all sorts of amenities on board. There was fresh fruit served to us at nearly every stop; unlimited drinks were provided; even non-dairy cookies were passed out that I could actually eat!

This made up for the fact that our shoes were confiscated whenever we went back onto the boat.

Lunch was held at Panyee Island at a Muslim village that was held up by pillars in the ocean (sort of like a floating city).

It was a buffet. We had rice, fried chicken, mixed vegetables, tamarind soup and pineapple as dessert. We walked a bit after lunch. There were lots of small souvenir shops, a school, a mosque and houses where the villagers lived. It was an amazing sight considering that they were all built on stilts over the sea. I just felt really hot and sticky by the end of it. Next, we headed off to Naka island for relaxing or swimming. However, this was when the boat ride really began to experience some turbulence, to say the least.

Now would also be a good time to highlight what the boat ride was like. Each time we departed, the engines went from a quiet whisper to a blaring noise so loud, I was surprised my eardrums didn't rupture.

But, that wasn't all.

The captain then turned on even (somehow) louder music. Note that we were sitting right next to one of these ridiculously overclocked speakers. The music was filled with songs we already knew, but over, and over, and over again, we kept hearing the same song(s).

Case in point: Despacito was played so many times that I actually began to understand some of the Spanish lyrics. Yet, with this nuisance and the constant vibrating of my body due to the power of the speakers, the journey wasn't so bad.

At least up to that point.

When we went toward the next island, all of that changed. I laid my head down to sleep since it was an hour boat ride, but awoke a few minutes later to some serious thumping and crashing. Thump. Whoosh. BOOM.

The boat seemed to be in a perpetual state of "jumping" the waves as we caught a bit of airtime with every push forward. I tried to lay my head again, and another startling crash slammed my head into the person sitting next to me. Everyone was giving anxious looks at our guide and captain as they stood— emotionless. I guess this was normal.

But, it certainly didn't feel that way with every ten seconds feeling like the crash of a roller coaster. I was glad that nobody in the boat had sea sickness. Finally, after an agonizing half an hour, we arrived; this island was meant for swimming and boating, but I didn't go swimming this time. We relaxed with some drinks for the duration of the time on the island and soon left. The return journey wasn't very exciting, so I will skip it; the only part worth noting was the shoe situation.

Because my mom and I had identical shoes except for the size (mine was one size larger), collecting our shoes from the boat was a constant pain. This, combined with the fact that they had large holes (akin to sandals but closed-toed) that let sand and water in, made the journey particularly annoying. By the end, my shoes were very, very wet and sandy, much like my feet. It took a long time to clean off.

But, when we were done, we bid farewell to our tour guide and went back to the hotel. After taking showers and watching anime on TV (of course I had no idea what the Mandarin subtitles meant, but my dad helped me... I think), our next priority was eating dinner.

Our next restaurant was a fancy one. Wherever we went, I noticed we were hounded by the locals trying to get us to eat at their restaurant, or try their massage. It was, at times, a bit intrusive, but I let it slide. I also noticed that along the street, there were these small carts with nice speakers in the back. I thought they were little taxis to the club down the road, but maybe they were just regular taxis.

Anyway, arriving at the restaurant, I was instantly impressed by the decor and lack of pestering most of the street vendors imposed upon us. We took a seat inside and ordered some coconut soup and roast pork, which was a local dish recommended by the hotel staff.

Sounds weird, right? Well, the coconut soup was actually incredibly tasty. It looked a lot like clam chowder, and that was only enhanced by the seafood in the soup itself. I gobbled that dish right up. The other dish we had was the pork, which I already had at home, but this one was especially smoky in flavor.

Some interesting food choices here were a supposedly stinky spicy shrimp paste with some raw vegetables (my mom ate it so I wouldn't know), and lemongrass, which I foolishly tried to eat (it was thorny FYI). The delicacy of the seafood and supreme taste of the broth stayed with me the entire night. We went back and slept.

We were to return to Bangkok (Apparently pronounced Ban-kaw) the next day in the afternoon, but we had a whole morning to do something. At the last moment, we booked a Khai islands half day tour for that day. The drive was long (like the day before), but we eventually arrived at the beach. Then, we waited for a long time (half an hour).

I watched as the crew loaded the boat up and we then got in. The heat, by that point, was unbearable, and the place was really chaotic. My shoes became clogged with sand and seawater as we walked up onto the boat.

This time, unlike yesterday, there weren't as many seats, so we all had to squeeze in like sardines. Also unlike yesterday, the majority of the passengers on-board were Chinese (I think they travelled as a group), so Mandarin was the primary language used onboard. Our boat ride was remarkably quiet to the first island, with no ear-bursting music being played.

The first island was for snorkeling and swimming. It was really hot and sticky, and the rocks in my shoes were almost as bad as the broken shells and corals on the sand. Also, a couple of bugs seemed to have an affinity for my bright, yellow shirt. The flies kept coming back, and I kept swatting them away, but they were relentless. I eventually made my way into the rough sea.

Snorkeling was miserable due to the poor weather conditions, but swimming wasn't so bad. The sand was really, really annoying at times, but the water washed it away occasionally. Before I knew it, the hour was up and we went back to the boat. However, I noticed the waves were getting particularly rough. They rocked the boat severely and I could barely get back up.

The next location we went to was another snorkeling area, but this one didn't have serious waves. The boat stopped offshore and we jumped into the water. We saw lots of fish, but also many sea urchins, which kind of terrified me. I feared the hostile appearance of the urchins.

Swimming through the water, however, the urchins were far under, and various tropical fish were near the top. I saw some zebrafish, rainbow-colored fish, and some other multi-colored fish. They were really cool, and we were able to get within a foot or so of the schools of fish. I could even touch a few if I was quick enough.

But, I should also mention the less admirable parts of this snorkeling venture. Firstly, there was a rope that anchored the boat, but whenever one touched it for support, it was very sharp, and left some pretty uncomfortable marks on the skin.

Additionally, there were also tiny, microscopic jellyfish all over the water (no snorkeling expedition would be complete without them...). I couldn't see them, but they stung in the most annoying places, and made some parts of the swim very uncomfortable.

Next, we went towards the last of the islands, which was simply another snorkeling area. Unfortunately, there were no fish; but, the surrounding view was beautiful; I just sat lazily in the calm water with my life vest for the duration of the stay. Returning to the boat we were served pineapple and watermelon, we then headed back to the hotel.

Cleaning up was a nightmare, or at the very least, super tedious, especially with all the sand and seawater. I was also covered in other fluids (sunscreen, bug spray, etc.). Luckily, our hotel allowed us to use their showers and towels even after we checked out, which was wonderful.

Since we were ahead of schedule, we ordered a couple pizzas and were able to relax for an hour or two. The seafood and sauce on the bread were delightful and filling. This was much needed after a lot of swimming and skipping lunch (it was around 2:00 PM). After that, I was exhausted and laid down; this continued even into the following taxi ride.

Not much happened at the airport; I ordered some extra wonton noodle soup and viewed a few souvenirs. Then, we got on the plane towards Bangkok. In the plane, the descent was particularly rough. As we passed through the thick cloud cover, I felt like I was riding yet another roller coaster as the plane shook violently up and down. I could feel my stomach at times jiggling and being suspended mid-air. This drama was only enhanced by the constant squeals of some of the passengers (it really was like a roller coaster). I didn't know if we would make it, to be honest, as the plane sometimes dropped rather violently.

But, within the last ten minutes, we breached the clouds and could see the ground, and it was pretty smooth from there. After landing, we took a bus (ew) to the terminal, which, I have to admit, did cut down the amount of walking we would have had to do. We then met with my aunt's Thai friend, and drove to a condo nearby. It was late at night, and we settled down. It was all very cozy and so we went to bed.

We were picked up by our friend (the one who lent us the condo). Before we left, we decided to grab a coffee from across the street. There was a small problem, though: there was no crosswalk. Of course, we had to do an "Asian Crossing" (running across the street like chickens without heads). We got back to the car in one piece, and continued onward.

The plan for the day was to go to the old capital of Thailand: Ayutthaya. The first stop was the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace.

Now would be a good time to analyze all the names of the places we had gone to. For example, Phuket (Pronounced Poo-ket), sounds like a place with lots of poo. And don't get me started on if you pronounced the "Ph" as an "F". The palace literally spells out "Bang Pain", which doesn't sound too pretty either (of course it's not pronounced that way). Finally, Ayutthaya is pronounced A-you-tie-yad which when slurred a bit begs the question: "Are you tired?". The answer would be yes, all throughout the various temples we went to during the day.

I began to notice signs along the roads and in certain Buddhist temple areas (the majority of Thailand's population is Buddhist) saying that it was disrespectful and illegal to use the Buddha for decoration. More on that later.

But, for now, the palace was fairly typical, with all the obligatory fountains, gardens, and a pretty neat watchtower, but there appeared to be some parts of the palace that didn't match up— they looked more European in style. Our guide told us they were, and that the previous king of Thailand was smart to make allies with the Europeans while every other country nearby was colonized. Thailand had never been colonized.

We came to this pond with lots of fish. There were some school children while we were there. They began to throw tons of bread into the water (a vendor was nearby), leading to a frenzy; I just thought about how obese the fish must be being fed so much every day.

After seeing a few more statues and a few elephant hedges, we went to see the "Reclining Buddha" statue at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon. We entered the area and immediately were greeted by a massive statue of a robed Buddha lying down with a relaxed smile. It must have been two or three buses in length and about three times taller than us. This was all in the foreground of some nice stupas (a mound-like structure) in the background.

We took a few pictures of this happy symbol and then witnessed someone pulling another golden robe over the Buddha; apparently, there were six or seven layers of robes that could be used to cover the Buddha, which was really interesting. As we continued our walk towards the stupas, the temperature only seemed to increase, and the heat rashes all over me began to intensify. No wonder summer was off-season in Thailand! It was so sticky and there were so many bugs. It was nearly unbearable as we climbed up the steps of the temple.

Inside, there was a "well" and a ring of small Buddha statues. Surrounding the temple were other Buddha statues that were dedicated to specific donors. We then came crawling back to the air-conditioned van to get to our next stop.

Since it was near noon, we ate lunch at a Thai restaurant; our friend knew the owner and it was only when I went inside that I realized how nice the place was. It was all air-conditioned with a view of the river right outside the window. It was relaxing as we chilled with some iced tea. The Pad Thai (noodles with seafood, in this case) was especially good. Some of it was incredibly spicy, however, so I passed on that.

Later, we ventured to Wat Mahathat. This one was the "old city" with a bunch of ruins. Once more, we dragged ourselves out into the heat and took a gander. Everywhere we looked, we saw collapsed buildings and headless Buddhas. We learned from our guide that the place was destroyed by a war with Burma. Additional damage was also caused by the brick structures being built on unstable foundations, which were only exacerbated by heavy rainfall.

The heads were apparently taken by thieves for decorations in bars and elsewhere (very disrespectful). However, a few heads survived, with one being particularly peculiar. At one point, this Buddha statue's head was dropped and landed in the grass. Yet, nobody took it and a whole Banyan tree grew around it, leading to the roots of the tree fully encompassing the head and protecting it from crooks.

We took a couple pictures sitting next to it (it was disrespectful to stand above it). That was the main attraction of the site; we then went to a nearby site. Here, there was a relatively short walk to the main building, but it was in the constant bath of the sun's bleaching rays. I really did not want to get a wretched sunburn, especially with all the bug bites I already had (I'd rather not mention the size or severity of these many bites).

We reached this temple at Wat Phra Si Sanphet with yet another massive Buddha, this one being a couple stories in height (but by this point, most Buddha statues were rather large). We had to take off our shoes and kneel as is the custom in front of the massive, gold-plated Buddha. But, our guide told us that most of it wasn't even part of the original!

We then returned along a shadier path, as some clouds began to come over (thank goodness!). There was some ice-cream for sale, and my mom was interested. I wondered what was so great about it and looked at the flavors. Our guide ordered one and we realized that they were durian-flavored! In case I haven't mentioned it before, durian is a very, very, very stinky fruit that I would be quite happy not coming in contact with for a long time. Its appearance isn't very welcoming either: oblong with thorny skin.

Yet, here it was, in ice cream form, and my mom decided to get it (luckily, processed durian wasn't as smelly). Reminder: durians were banned in nearly every facility; it was banned on the metro in Singapore, banned from our hotel room in Phuket, and even banned from the shops in which we entered.

We took a short pit stop at another reclining Buddha at Wat Lokayasutharam, which was slightly lengthier.

We then went to yet another temple site— this one was exceptional for the fact that the Buddhas were designed a little differently. I do have to admit, though, most of the heads and arms were missing, but from the few we could make out, they were not smiling/happy Buddhas.

Our guide explained that was because they were made during war time. The artist who made it wasn't happy. Therefore, this was reflected in his work.

When we went back to the car, I was so tired, ready to pass out and laid down. I needed a siesta or something. Luckily, we all felt that way and went to a nearby cafe for some iced tea; the strawberry tea I ordered really hit the spot.

We were supposed to go to another Buddha statue in Bangkok Chinatown next, which was 5.5 tons of pure gold, but it was closed by the time we got there. It was apparently a gift; the original was enclosed in concrete plaster until someone accidentally dropped it and discovered the tons of gold underneath. I saw some kids running on the street.

"What in the world were they thinking running in this weather?" I thought.

Our friend said that this actually was pretty good weather considering it was pouring the last couple days. So, lucky us! We caught two days of good weather in Bangkok. We then headed to dinner. The traffic was horrible, and cars were crazy there, so it felt like an eternity crossing through Chinatown and the city.

Our dinner was with our friend's family. We had lots of food, including fried rice, fish cakes, Pad Thai, seafood, vegetables, and more. I hadn't really been exposed to how Asian family banquets were supposed to go (America is more of a "you're on your own" place). I took a single scoop of the dish in front of me and another scoop of the same dish when it went all the way around the table. I guess, in this way, my diet was much more varied. After a lot of chat about how it had been so long since they had seen me, we went back to our condo. But not before obtaining more durians. I knew I would have a smelly night.

We left early in the morning and headed to the first stop of the trip: Khlong Lat Mayom floating market. There are a couple of floating markets, but we chose this one because it was very close to Bangkok and less touristy. I guess we were the only foreigners around at that time.

At first I thought the floating market was called that way because maybe it was built on stilts, like the Muslim village I visited earlier in Phuket. But, the market was actually on a river bank. A large portion of the market was built on the ground and you could see some boats loaded with fresh fruits or vegetables parked alongside the river bank.

Almost the whole market was selling fresh produce and food, but there was also an eating area with low tables for customers to eat along the water. Since it was really early, there weren't many people there and we were able to take a boat ride down the river.

The boat was pretty nice, but I noticed all the boats had what looked like machine guns at one end. They pointed them into the water and I quickly realized those were the engines.

Our ride was pretty lengthy along a small canal/ditch. The word "river" would be a slight exaggeration. We took a couple turns and began to see some dead fish on the sides of the canal. They were "skewered" and deliberately put there. I thought they were fake at first, but then I saw a couple bones.

Further down the river, my parents spotted a scaled reptile peeking out one of the gutter holes right next to our boat. It quickly retracted its head, and for a moment I thought we were in a horror movie. But, there was broad daylight, so we relaxed; still, we had no idea what it was. They said it looked like a small alligator or something. Any guesses?

Well, we didn't need to guess for much longer because just a little bit down the river we saw a massive lizard-like creature that looked a lot like a Komodo Dragon (the very venomous, deadly one)! We were within pouncing distance of it because it was only a meter or two from our boat being on the shoreline.

A quick search informed us, however, that it was a Water Monitor, which wasn't as dangerous as I initially thought. We eventually made our way to the destination of our boat tour: a traditional Thai house. The owner of the house was very nice and led us around the house, which was wooden and had lots of vegetation around it (there were no industrial buildings/modern buildings nearby). It all looked so natural and beautiful.

There were multiple levels and it was open-air. It was so natural that I began to see quite a few swarms of rapidly-moving ants! They crowded around the doorway and I had to use some precise maneuvering to avoid them. Call me a germaphobe, but I really didn't want those things biting me (they cause huge amounts of swelling). At the top, I noticed that some windows opened all the way down to the floor, and so one could accidentally mistake the actual exit for a window and fall right out onto the roof and onto the ground.

It did, however, let more air in, I guess.

We then proceeded to a couple nearby houses and gardens. It was all very natural; we learned the owner of the house was trying to preserve the area and encouraged his neighbors not to be bought-out by large companies. It was like a jungle in there, however, as we entered a garden nearby. The owner of this place told us that she lived completely off the land, selling the products of her garden for a living. The plants were very thick, however, so I could barely see the fruit at the time. The last part of this mini-tour was another house nearby that made perfume from a special flower. The place was decked-out with decorations and there was a whole set-up for crafts.

That was when my parents asked about the flooding situation; the river was only a couple feet down, and the rain could be very heavy at times (not right now; it was a very good day considering it was the rainy season). It was a very rare occurrence, apparently.

We returned and went to eat breakfast at the floating market. I had some really good noodles for only a dollar. The dish was cooked on the boat anchored next to our table. The portion was quite small compared to what we normally had in America. So, my dad and I ordered two portions... and then three... and then four (you get the idea).

The food was surprisingly pretty good. When we were done, we perused the market for other local food. There were just too much— most I had never seen before. My mom bought a fresh baby pineapple. I called it a baby because I had never seen such a small pineapple, yet it was extremely sweet. We also tried a sweet Thai dessert, which was a mixture of droplets of green jelly, coconut milk, jackfruit and palm sugar syrup. The green color was from the infused pandan leaves (not food coloring). So, it was natural. Some freshly-squeezed orange juice also appealed to me, and it was actually fresh; real, 100% juice (not from concentrate).

By then, it was getting very hot and people began to crowd the area, so we went to The Grand Palace. This place was incredibly crowded with mostly Chinese tour groups lining the area. We were able to get in, however, and took a couple of pictures in the scorching sun.

All around there were signs about how we needed to "know Buddha" and "respect Buddha" too. We went to the main Buddha statue and had to take off our shoes to go inside. There was no photography allowed because people were praying in front of a massive Buddha shrine. The shrine was golden and there were many Buddhas around the back end of the room; there was almost no room to walk, however, so we left.

The palace all around had elaborately-decorated walls with people in poses holding up the walls and embellished statues lining the exterior.

There were a ton of murals around the edges of the palace as well. We went around the entire palace, which was grand and golden as most palaces, and then left.

By then, it was nearing the middle of the day, and it was really hot; so, our friend took us to this juice bar and I got some mango juice. It was really thick, but at least it wasn't 60% ice like the day before.

There was a temple nearby as well called Wat Pho, and we went in. This one had the largest reclining Buddha. This statue was fully enclosed in perhaps a four-story tall building and stretched for the better part of a football field. It was massive, and I struggled to get a picture with it.

We dropped a couple coins in the donation bins for good luck. Then, we crossed Chao Phraya river on a boat ride (only four Baht!) and on the way, I noticed some vendors selling some Buddha statues, presumably not for worship (likely illegal too!).

On the other side of the river, we saw the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun). It had a massive tower at the center with very, very steep steps, but we didn't climb all the way up because it was blocked off (not that I could). The weather had become slightly overcast so we quickly went around the place.

As we walked around, I noticed that there were what appeared to be ceramic plates and bowls on the wall. We joked that the spire was covered in the dirty dishes of the ancients. A nearby shrine also supposedly had the "footprint" of the Buddha, which was really just a sandal print a few feet in length.

By then, we had pretty much finished all the main landmarks and headed off to a nearby mall. Driving to the mall, we noticed that there were a lot of skyscrapers in Bangkok. Many of them had unique shapes, taking the forms of elephants, the letter "G", a robot and so on.

When we arrived at the mall, we ate at a Thai restaurant and I ordered some iced tea. The food was pretty tasty and we browsed the mall. I noticed that there were a lot of free internet signs all over the place, but when I tried to connect, they all required a log-in and SIM-card or something.

For such a populated place, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have free internet. Luckily, our friend's son gave us a Wi-Fi hotspot from his phone. The stores in the mall were mostly for fashion. As we went around the stores, and eventually into the IT building across the street, we noticed a ton of portraits of the king.

Thinking back, there were actually lots and lots of golden-framed king portraits all over the place. The giant posters and pictures of Thai nobility reminded me of all the giant statues of Ramses II when I went to Egypt.

Although the building next door had a lot of technology, none of it really appealed to me due to everything being the same or greater in price compared to the U.S. For some reason, there were a lot of vintage discs for sale as well.

When I looked up some things on my phone, I also realized something particularly interesting. Next to each result, it displayed the date, and it said that we were in the year 2562 B.E., which reminded me of something. The pineapple pie we ate in Phuket had a strange expiration date with the year being '62, which would have been a bit strange if it were 1962 (expired, probably). That was when it clicked: the Thai used a different year system with the current year being 543 years ahead of the calendar we were used to in the U.S. It was an interesting revelation (also, it meant that pie wasn't expired).

Walking for perhaps an hour, we then went back and headed to church. Since the family was Catholic, we decided to stay for mass on Saturday. The church was very beautiful and populated, with everything being very clean. The mass was also in-line and unified with the churches in the U.S.; all of our friend's family was there.

After mass, we all went to a restaurant to celebrate our friend's birthday. The food was still pretty good even though I ate less this time. One of the more remarkable items were the mussels I ordered. As I was about to sink my teeth into the juicy meat, our friend suggested that I dip the mussel into some green sauce. She poured a little onto my seafood and I gobbled it whole. It was a mistake.

I immediately felt the burn and couldn't tell whether it was from the mussel or the sauce. A further examination of my plate revealed that the small green bits weren't green onions, but rather spicy chili peppers!

My lips were burning and I was in panic. I reached for the water for relief, but I knew that little would come of it. The water quickly disappeared and I began to panic further. A lot of people at the table began to view my distress and suggested that I eat some "bread", but the burning of the chili on my lip made it difficult to consume. Another person at the table then came up with a new idea: I was to rub the insides of my mouth with a tablespoon (a lot) of salt. I didn't know how that was supposed to help, but I quickly devoured the spoon of salt thrusted at me. It could have been some ridiculous joke (probably not), but it really felt like it was with the bits of salt foaming at my lips.

I'm not sure if it relieved the burn or not, but I drank a bit of coconut milk and the burning began to die down a little. It was still absurdly hot, of course, but the worst of the pain had subsided. I lost my appetite. When dinner was finished, I saw a flash, and a massive boom echoed throughout the room. I took a look outside and saw that it was pouring rain. Out of nowhere!

It was hot and sunny the whole day, but as we exited the building, it felt like the vaults of the heavens had opened up to give the earth a bath. It was incredibly heavy rain too, complete with lightning and thunder. Luckily, the waiters at the restaurant were able to lead us a short distance to the car and we jumped in.

The way back I could only hear the constant thunk of the rain on the roof of the car.

The next day we woke up super early to catch our flight to Singapore. We were picked up by our friend and went to the airport. Since we had an hour after immigration, we took a look around the food court. I ate some wonton soup and we proceeded to our gate soon after. As the plane reached cruising altitude, I could feel the constant thumping and shaking of turbulence. In retrospect, it wasn't so bad. I laid my head down and slept.

In Singapore, we went through immigration again. We exited the terminal and met up with my cousins, who were brother and sister. Since it was Sunday and the Jewel Changi airport was very new at the time (opened about two months prior to our arrival), the place was swamped with tourists and shoppers (but is there really a difference?). It was around noon, we went down to eat (time change +1 hour).

For the first time, I ate some stingray, which tasted a lot like fish. This reminded me of my time in the Cayman islands swimming and feeding the stingrays. Anyway, by this point, I had developed a liking for iced tea and ordered it on a regular basis (especially with the heat). The first shop we went to was the brand-new Pokémon Center in Singapore, and I really wanted to see what it looked like.

As we approached the level, it became increasingly difficult to see and breathe due to the massive crowds of people and the direct sunlight. Eventually, after much squeezing, we went in and took a look at the store. It was similar to the ones in Japan, but very crowded, which was not helped by the fact that we carried our luggage with us. As with the others, stuffed Pokémon lined the shelves and small figures could be seen everywhere. We then went on to look around the rest of the mall, eventually making our way to the top.

Last time we were here, the gardens were closed, but now, being the middle of the day rather than in the early morning, everything was open. My cousins and I decided to go into the garden to try the bouncing sky nets.

Of course, the decision was easy. We then had to make our way through the crowds of people to the ticket booth. I asked myself, where was the ticket booth?

Then, I saw it... but not before noticing the snaking line that appeared to be moving slower than a sloth right behind it.

An eternity later, we reached the front and got our tickets. Then, we learned the bouncing sky nets weren't available until six (it was around noon). I consulted my mom. By the time I got back, they weren't available until seven.

We decided to just go through the Canopy garden without the sky nets. And so, we went inside. All around us, there were "animals" made out of flowers and very well-trimmed hedges. Some places had wonderfully beautiful flowers and others had relaxing water features. This was all in the backdrop of the main circular waterfall in the center of the mall, which was in full blast.

There were other attractions at the top, of course, but those cost way more. Included with park entry were the Discovery Slides.

Then, I saw the line.

It stretched around the entirety of the slide, and my cousins and I talked for a good twenty minutes. Finally, at the front, we realized that the purpose of waiting wasn't to get onto the slides, but to see the view, which was amazing from the top. We decided to take as many pictures as possible (gotta get our time's worth).

There were three or so "slides": two that went to the bottom with a standard decline, and another that was a straight drop down for five or six feet. Of course, I took the more gradual incline and we all slid down (I saw the drop slide requiring people to wear shoulder/knee/headgear).

We continued to take a look around the park and went all the way around. Up close, the sky nets looked even more fun, but we really could not wait that long to go on them. My cousins ordered a ride and we went to their condo. This one was much bigger than the one we stayed at in Thailand, and there was even a pool outside. Over tea, we talked about their schooling and jobs. Then, a Nintendo Switch caught my eye.

For reference, I really wanted one, but I knew that if I ever received one, I would never put it down.

So, I asked to play it while my mom and dad went outside. My cousin only had one game, a JRPG, but that was fine; an hour or two flew by. At that point, we bid farewell to my cousins and went back to the Jewel Changi airport in a taxi.

The taxi driver talked about how safe Singapore was and how lucky she was that she lived there. She (the driver) also told us that we shouldn't come to the Jewel on a weekend (obviously) because it was packed with not only transit passengers waiting there to kill time before their flight, but also locals who went there for eating, shopping, and entertainment.

We were able to catch the light show just in time, which was projected onto the Jewel's waterfall. There was some interesting music and the colors were incredibly cool with images being projected into the water. However, we were standing in such a location that one of the spotlights shone right in our faces. I motioned to share the image of the lightshow with my friends at home in the U.S., but the Wi-Fi wasn't working.

I took a look at another Japanese store before motioning towards the skytrain to go to our terminal. We had to take a skytrain, and then a shuttle bus since our terminal was the farthest away at the main airport. Proceeding through immigration (again) and lots of security, we took a look inside at all the shops.

Like the airport in Korea, there were also some robots wandering around at Singapore airport. We were greeted by one of them, who asked us if we needed some help. I had a small conversation with it, which was neat.

Moving closer to our departure gate, I passed by the Heritage Zone with rows of historic house facades. A huge screen was embedded in the facade where a cultural show was displayed. The performance looked so real that you could hardly tell it was digital.

Searching further, I came down the escalator and saw a massive slide accompanied by a giant net playground. This entire branch was completely empty. The slide was about two or three times longer and higher than the discovery slide at the Jewel, and the nets were about five stories high! They looked like an hourglass, and one could climb all the way to the ceiling of the building.

Unfortunately, there were big gates blocking the entrance to the slide and the playground, which disappointed me. They looked really cool, but there was nobody to operate them (I don't know why anyone would even need to be present though). After a frown and a walk back up the stairs, we went to our gate and boarded our flight to Seoul.

We sat closer to the front than usual, so I couldn't see the wing, but could still hear the blast of the engine. The flight was during the night, and, throughout the night, I could only see thick cloud cover. I knew I had been on hundreds of airplanes before, but the shaking on this flight particularly scared me: drinks spilled, the seatbelt sign was on for hours, and cabin services were suspended. It was like I was on a horse's back, but I couldn't see and the horse was strapped to a roller coaster.

Sudden drops, constant shaking, lights flashing on the wings rapidly; I seriously thought we were preparing for an emergency landing. I wasn't even sure if it was raining or not because I was watching a movie. Of course, that didn't help either with the thundering whooshing noises and pouring of water, I truly thought the plane was going through a typhoon or something. I clutched my seat ever tighter.

I could only imagine how much worse it was for the flight attendants, however. They dashed through the cabin with tea during a brief moment of grace.

When the section in front of me turned off the lights and the intercom stated that babies should be removed from the crib, my mind really panicked. The announcements didn't help: "we are continuing to experience turbulence" rang in my ears over and over again. At one point, however, the plane began to stabilize. It was really late, but there was no way I could sleep. I even missed the gist of what happened at the end of my movie in the chaos. I maybe got two hours of shut-eye at most before we arrived. I could barely think.

Going through immigration again in Seoul, my mom booked us some free transit tours; we had a twelve-hour layover. Korea provided tours free of charge to anyone who had a long layover.

We ate a couple rice balls, and then went off on our four-hour temple tour. We learned about the Korean language and the geography of Korea from our tour guide on the way to Jeondeungsa temple, the oldest temple in Korea. It was built in the 4th century when Buddhism was first introduced to Korea. The compound was surrounded by trees. There was also a strange lingering smell; the guide said that it was from chestnuts. Apparently there were lots of chestnut trees in the surrounding area.

After a small hike to the top (the whole place was empty by the way), we reached the temple. I quickly realized a few things: the special BE year system was for Buddhists (in general, not just a special system in Thailand only), the Lotus was very special/symbolic to Buddhists, and you could not take pictures if anyone was praying inside the temple.

The temple itself had the typical animal figures on the roof. But, one was unique, in that it was a figure of an old ugly lady. Apparently, the builder of the temple gave up his life's savings to a pretty woman, whom he fell in love with, only to have that woman leave with his money.

His revenge?

Putting her naked as a statue holding up his building's roof.

Love hurts.

The other temples nearby were similar, and the environment was very relaxing. The whole place was deserted and very quiet. Visitors could opt to stay overnight to gain spiritual enlightenment or simply to experience what it was like to live among monks.

Continuing to move around the island north of Incheon (that's where our airport was), we arrived at Deokjinjin fortress. Once again, there weren't many people here. We saw low-tide and it was explained that the tides brought in some pretty good seafood. The fortress was a relic of the U.S. invasion around 1870 (I don't remember that being taught in my AP US History class).

The whole island was dotted with fortresses because if an attacker wanted to go to Seoul, they had to come through this area. We left for the airport shortly after. By then, it was around noon. I had been able to get a couple more hours of sleep and was ready to eat some Korean food. The only problem was that the food at the food court was spicy, very spicy. I had to settle on tofu soup with some rice and seafood.

Well, the word "settle" isn't appropriate; it was actually really good, and I could still add spice to it by pouring some of my mom's broth into mine (she had the ultra-spicy one so it diluted). We sat around for a couple hours waiting for our next tour.

There wasn't much to see outside of the terminal, but the time eventually came when we were to go. We had the same guide again, but this time, we went to the "Triple Street" mall. There was a name-brand area, but we skipped over that, and proceeded to look around the smaller food shops. We only had about thirty minutes, so we moved quickly. There were colorful umbrellas lining the ceiling; and we continued down the mall. Some other buildings had lots of shoe and clothing stores, and one even had a VR arcade.

We hurried back to the bus and learned all too late that there were a few gardens on the roof!

The second stop of the tour was a traditional village. It was nice to see traditional features in the middle of the city. The real attraction, however, was the canal beside the village. The architecture in the distance was very intriguing. Some of the buildings were a bit crooked/slanted and some had holes at the top, which, of course, was part of the design. Some even had gashes/slashes cut out of them or were block-like.

We took a few pictures and even saw a couple rabbits across the river. Then, we went back to the airport and claimed our gifts from the tour at a duty-free shop inside the departure terminal.

There were a couple of gifts to choose from. We got a few face-masks because skin-care was Korea's specialty. We still had some time before our flight and decided to see the IT-Experience zone. Inside, there were a ton of cool games and exhibits.

Firstly, we ordered coffee and a robot made it for us with its robotic arm. Then, we went to try some VR racing; I clearly did not know how to drive as my car blew up a couple of times. Next, there was some VR skydiving.

This one was particularly interesting because it really felt like I was skydiving. A person would stand on this machine and it would actually move up and down with fans blowing wind at your face. It was amazing. There was also a space dome, which was really just a tent with a couple projectors inside. We just laid down in there watching some stars on the ceiling of the dome.

Finally, there was a 3D-printer that was printing planes and lamps. What surprised me was that they gave away the prints for free provided that we waited about an hour for them to be printed. So, while we waited, we decided to check out the Digital Gym upstairs.

This place was like an arcade, but I actually had to break a sweat. There were three games that I tried: a stepping game, a basketball-like game, and a tapping (with your hands) game. They were all pretty easy and used touch screens/sensors to track your movement. I got some pretty high scores if I do say so myself, but there were some scores that seemed unbelievable. I was really hot and sweaty by the end as everything was moving so fast.

Going back to the IT-Experience zone, we picked up a couple 3D-prints and headed to our gate. There was also a kid zone with Pororo (a little penguin from a Korean TV show) but we skipped that. After waiting a bit, we got onto our double-decker plane with multiple engines.

By now, I had seen every interesting show or movie there was to see on the plane, so I decided to sleep a bit. As for food, there was actual sashimi on the plane, which really surprised me (multiple pieces).

Ten hours later, we landed in the U.S.

Chapter 6

Florida (Orlando), Cayman Islands (Stingray City), Jamaica (Dunn's River Falls),

Haiti (Labadee)

We arrived at LAX airport by shuttle at a decent time, 7:00 PM. I always wondered why we had to take a shuttle. Probably because of an "economical thing" that my mom and dad were always talking about.

For some reason, all the domestic terminals looked much better than the international ones, but that was no matter because we first had to face check-in and security.

It had always gone like this; even though mom said that this would be a "relaxing trip", I wasn't looking forward to arriving in Fort Lauderdale at 12:00 AM and then taking another three-hour car ride to the hotel in Orlando.

Like most domestic and short flights, I wasn't expecting any accommodations. But, at least we got three drink breaks during the flights. So, it wasn't that bad. The flight was pretty brief, and of course, I couldn't get a blink of shuteye because I knew that I was going to be rudely interrupted when the flight landed.

The thumping on the plane was soft too, but that was probably because I was half asleep. We arrived at the airport at around 12:00 AM local time. The first thing I noticed as I stepped out of our relatively frigid plane, was that the air in Florida was _extremely_ humid (which, I should have expected because, duh, we were surrounded by water and near the equator).

Even the airport was hot and humid! I also realized how late (or early) it really was. The ENTIRE airport was basically empty, and I was a bit scared to take a bathroom break because I thought I was going to get left behind.

Of course, it didn't come to that, but we still took a trip to the bathroom, since I needed some "grooming".

After washing my face at least four times and going to do my business, we continued on the long, dark corridor of the empty domestic terminal. We were going to take another shuttle to pick up a rental car, but we first had to FIND the place. We asked a few people (literally the only ones around) and they said that we should go upstairs to the car rental area.

Well, when we got there, there were about twenty different booths that represented different car companies, but guess what? Ours wasn't there.

That was when we were told that we had to take the shuttle ACROSS the street to a different car rental location outside the airport. No big deal, right?

Well, yes, but actually no. Of course, it didn't seem like much, but this was an AIRPORT street, which was a totally different story from your usual, run of the mill road in that there were some hefty dividers. It even said, "No Crossing".

Since we were literally out of our minds (and because the next shuttle was arriving and we didn't want to miss it), we made a mad dash across the street, and THROUGH the partition, to make it to the other side. It was like in the movies (but unlike the movies, we looked left and right). I always wondered how they got away with not checking their blind spots.

We got onto the bus just in time and began our short drive around the terminals to the car rental agency. Surprisingly, we weren't the only ones on the bus, considering the airport was pretty much abandoned.

We arrived at this small building a mile or two from the coast and we all shuffled inside. It didn't look too promising, but I knew that this was all part of "saving money" and we sat down, waiting for our turn. The cold air conditioner kept me awake, and in a pinch, I literally got up and put my face as close to it as possible. It was refreshing, until we had to leave. Our car was pretty nice for such a small place and we all shuffled inside. We gave thanks to the guy who helped us, and we were off. I dozed off almost immediately.

We arrived at our hotel at about 3:30 AM (I couldn't really tell because my body was on a completely different schedule), and I was just dying to check in. I knew it was just too good to be true, because a minute later, my dad came out of the hotel to tell us that (like most hotels) we had to wait until the "check-in" time which just so happened to be 2:00 PM or later. I knew there was no avoiding it, and once again, took a nap in the car.

I awoke to a ray of sunshine and slowly opened my eyes. I knew that we had to eat breakfast somewhere, so I told my mom and dad that we could eat at the waffle house across the street. I was pretty sure we weren't in the mood to argue, so we went there without much fuss. I thought the food was extremely good with hash browns, eggs, and pancakes. A while later, we took a shuttle toward Epcot Center as planned.

We arrived at the Epcot Center's parking lot after picking up a few other people on the way. As we walked closer to the entrance, we noticed that there were more and more people clogged into one space. We were packed almost as tightly as sardines near the front of the line!

Luckily, after a lot of waiting, and a daily dose of patience, the park began to open. I could barely contain my excitement. The park made their opening quite extravagant by shooting confetti everywhere. As people gradually distributed themselves throughout the park we decided where to go...

I voted that we should go right first, into the land, sea, and air section. Since I was still (yes, still) tired, I went into the nearest air-conditioned ride. It turned out to be a ride about the ocean and sea. It had no line, of course, even though there was at least ninety yards worth of line we had to walk through, and we had a fine time there.

Next, we went into the main building of the section. It was really crowded (like all park buildings) and we soon found out why: there was a new ride called "Soarin". From what I could tell, it was like the ride at California Adventure (which was ALSO owned by Disney, so saying it was "localized" would be more appropriate).

To distract everyone from their line-waiting pains, there were a few motion sensor jumbo screens where we could play minigames, and boy, those were exciting! A lot of the games required teamwork to win, so we waved our arms around to activate the motion sensors. After the wait, we entered the ride. It basically went like this: you sat in front of a giant screen and you were then yanked into the air (literally) and then simulated to be flying over the countryside to the Golden State (California). Wait a minute. That was where we just were!

We went on to the second floor of the building to see another attraction. I couldn't believe it, but that one was CLOSED for maintenance. So, instead we went on a boat ride a few stories below. The line was fairly short and once we were on the boat, I instantly relaxed (with the fact that I hadn't relaxed in a while now) and watched the scenes play out as we watched the ecosystem and forest roll by. We also got to see hydroponics and a few fish farms that could be used in the future for growing food (and it just so happened to be what I did a report on for my school project). I wish I could taste the lettuce, but that was not included in the ride. There was also a helpful automated guide throughout.

Leaving that one last ride, we took a brief run-through of the Discovery area. By the time we were finished there, we made our way to the left wing of the park. We then checked out the Universe of Energy ride and made our way into the prelude theater/waiting area. There were at least five jumbo screens and I knew the show was going to start any minute.

After a bit of waiting, sitting on the floor, and wondering when it was going to start, Ellen (yes, Ellen DeGeneres) popped onto one of the screens. I was pretty sure someone spilled something whenever she popped between screens. The story basically went like this: Ellen was watching a Jeopardy show when Bill Nye came in and told her how important energy was. Ellen didn't care and fell asleep, which led to a dream sequence. Then, we proceeded further inside.

When we entered a much larger theater, we all took a seat and that was when the story continued. The theater was giant, all our seats could move, and it even had some cool special effects! We were told that it would take about forty minutes to get through the whole thing, and we weren't allowed to leave during that time. I could imagine what a pain it must have been for people that needed to use the restroom.

We started by seeing Ellen pop in the middle screen and losing the first round of Jeopardy to her college nemesis, who knew all the topics about energy. Ellen then stopped the show and Bill Nye took her to another screen (and another period in time), to see the Big Bang. After showing that, all of our seats moved up to ANOTHER hidden room in the time of the dinosaurs. Ellen then ran around inside looking for Bill, who she thought was the growling sound behind the bushes (I'm sure you can guess what was _actually_ there).

Once that scene finished, all of the seats moved toward the next room. It took about ten minutes for our row to start moving since we were one of the last ones. We then moved into the final room with Ellen winning Jeopardy with "people power".

Upon leaving, we hurried to the Journey into Imagination ride, since the next show was starting soon. On the way, they were giving away small applesauce pouches that I really, really liked. That's right, they were GIVING them away for _free_. I was super excited for that quick applesauce pouch break. It was, to say the least, relieving.

As for the ride: it exhibited the senses and imagination. The one part that caught my eye, though (strangely enough), was where a butterfly in a cage seemingly disappeared as we drove by it. I was at first startled, but then realized that they must have used a mirror to reflect the symmetrical cage and butterfly onto one side, like one of those toys where you could see a figure on one side of the cube, and another on the other side. We soon departed for the second part of our trip at Epcot, the World Tour.

In our map, there was a whole back section of the park that housed world exhibits and cultures, and in the center of it all was a giant lake. We decided to take a boat across the lake to Morocco. We then continued on left to Japan. I have to say, they did a pretty nice job showcasing all the countries' buildings, culture, and most importantly (at the time, at least), food. It was about lunch time, and so we went to eat Japanese food, which I really liked. In addition, since I was having jet lag (only three hours), I really enjoyed the air condition there.

A thing that you should know is that I pretty much treat all jet lag the same; it's always exhausting and it's always there. We then continued toward "The American Adventure". I wanted to see the show there, but the man there said that it would start at about 1:15 PM, so we continued around, passing Italy and Germany to reach China.

We decided to go in for 1) the culture, and 2) the air condition (yeah, I'm serious). We went into this large room that had screens all around, which was probably why they called it Beijing 360. The Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City were among some of the sites shown on the screens. It was interesting to see the movie surrounding us.

By the time we got out, I realized that we only had FIVE minutes until the "American Adventure" show started! So, we dashed around all the people and ran into the building. It seemed like we already missed the show by at least five minutes, but my dad looked around and found an entrance with an escalator. I was pretty sure my dad wanted to find an entrance, but at the top, we were greeted by a group of CLOSED doors! We probably should have managed our time better.

Next we decided to take the boat back to the other side of the lake. The boat itself seemed like a traditional steamboat, which fascinated me: I had never ridden in one before. When we arrived, we had a few options since we still had time before the shuttle picked us up. My dad decided to go on the Racetrack, which seemed a bit too extreme for me. Extreme on so many levels, that is: 1) the line was _extremely_ long! 2) the ride was _extremely_ fast! 3) I was _extremely_ prone to motion sickness! Those were all the _extreme_ reasons why I didn't go on this ride, and neither did my mom.

After a seriously long wait, we went to the front of the park to wait in line for the first ride we missed, Spaceship Earth. This ride was inside Epcot's ball-like structure. I really didn't know what to expect.

It SEEMED like a short line on the outside, but once we really got moving, it didn't seem like we were going anywhere, since the line literally curved, turned, and twisted around like a dead knot.

When we finally got in, I was relieved to go on the ride because it was really hot outside, and I wanted to chill off on an interesting journey into outer space. The ride was amazing, on so many levels (which made up for the long wait for dad to come off of the Racetrack ride). 1) It was _amazingly_ cool! 2) It was _amazingly_ smart, in which it had its own personal narrator! 3) It was _amazingly_ relaxing, with the narrator describing the universe while we were sitting in a nice carriage and 4) It could _amazingly_ fit inside the tiny Epcot's sphere in the front of the park!

My dad wanted to go on ONE final ride before we had to leave in twenty minutes. I was worried that the ride and line would take more than twenty minutes, and we would be stranded at the bus station. Dad said he would be in and out in less than ten minutes.

So, in the meantime, we explored the little knick-knacks they had in the souvenir store. It became another episode of the waiting game. Ten minutes rolled by, then eleven, twelve, thirteen.... We started to get worried (don't blame us!), but there was nothing we could really do. Sixteen minutes rolled by as dad exited the ride and we took a mad dash around to bus stop 52.

We were early, of course (with our paranoid minds). Most of us at the bus station were also looking a little concerned because the bus was running late. Luckily, at last the one we were looking for pulled around. We drove back to our hotel and checked in. Our room was generally nice, with nice cable TV and decent beds, and we fell asleep after a long day.

We woke up and had to quickly get ready to get going to Fort Lauderdale. I was really excited because we were going to go on a cruise! It's not like I haven't been on one before, but I was still excited about it. So, we drove another two hours back to Fort Lauderdale from Orlando to drop off our rental car. I couldn't believe that at one point we even considered WALKING to the terminal (it would have been a _long_ walk). Luckily, we didn't. We took a shuttle instead from the rental agency to the cruise terminal.

It was, in fact 1.8 miles away, BUT we had to go through a ton of small streets to get to the terminal, which turned out to be at least 5 miles the way we went. We thanked the driver for taking us to the terminal and walked in. We then got through the relatively light security and went into yet another line. Since we went on Royal Caribbean Cruises before, we got priority, which was amazing. We got to the front of the line instantly and boarded the ship in no time.

As we crossed the gangway, I realized just how great this trip was, and we started to explore our ship. The promenade was amazing! It had rooms on either side and went about three stories up so we could see their windows! Since all ships have dining rooms, we checked those out next. We then checked out all the entertainment rooms, like the stage and (for the first time ever) the ice skating rink! I wanted to just jump into the ice rink, but if I did that, I would've run into a door. It was, like all the other amusements, closed at that time.

We then made our way to the top floor, which is usually where all the action is. There were pools, waterfalls, cafes, buffets, bars, giant televisions, a "FlowRider" (like a surf simulator), a rock-climbing wall, and loads of other amusing stuff.

We first checked out the "FlowRider", because it was pretty much the main attraction (and the most crowded). It was like a big slide that had high pressure water shoot UP the slide so that a person with a boogie board could stay on the slide. Basically, if you wiped out, it was the next person's turn, so everyone tried to stay on as long as possible, until they got too cocky and showed off a little too much.

Next, we checked out the rock climbing wall. Finally, since we were there, we played mini golf too. We then made our way to our room to check it out. As usual, nothing surprised me when I entered our cabin. The ship was huge. The atrium was huge. The dining room was huge. The pool was huge. The stage was huge. BUT, our cabin was tiny! So tiny that I had to take a bunk-bed on top to sleep! I guess we always have the most economical cabin because first of all, it's less expensive; furthermore who wants to stay all day in a cramped room?

Every time we go on a cruise, we have to take an "Emergency Preparedness Drill". Since it's part of the "International Waters Safety Code", we had do it. But after so many times, it gets kind of boring. It's probably more necessary than many think, though.

Luckily, this time when the alarm went off, we rushed to muster station A, which was not outside like most other times we had to do this drill. Instead, we were put in a lounge. It was literally a giant conference room. So, I just curled up and my head hit the table (softly); I took a short rest while the safety monitors yammered away. For all I cared, they could've talked until their voices ran dry, but I still wanted to explore the ship!

It was about dinner time when we finished, and we soon went to the dining room. This time, we got a small table for just the three of us. Normally, we would be assigned a table with other people. The good part of being with other people at the same table is that we usually become friends by the end of the cruise. I usually take a piece of sourdough bread, but since I had braces, it was kind of hard to eat it, so I only ate the soft part. I then started ordering my meal.

Due to my allergy, I couldn't eat most stuff, so I had to be careful, but when we asked, we found out surprisingly (after many years), that we could order dairy-free food! That night I had a fruit salad, though, because we had to order the special non-dairy meal a day in advance. As an added bonus, we could look at the menu a day EARLY, which was awesome.

After filling our bellies, we decided to go to the night show. Now our host was quite something. We really had a great time. He was enthusiastic (in that he danced a lot), which made me feel sorry for him because he was in a three-piece suit. By the time he was done with his performance (and his own theme song (can you believe that?)), he was sweating like crazy.

The show was a pretty good comedy and really funny. We really had a great time. We went back to our room and I watched some TV. They did have Cartoon Network except for one thing: It was all in _Spanish_! But I soon realized that the text on screen was in Spanish, but the words they said were in English. I was relieved at that revelation.

I woke up at around 7:00 AM because we had to get off the gangway in time to meet up with our tour group. It turned out that we didn't have to rush because (surprise!) we arrived an HOUR early at Cayman Islands.

"What a wonderful idea, arriving that early with nothing to do!" I said sarcastically.

I shouldn't have mentioned that out loud because a moment later, my mom was out and about shopping in the tiny marketplace next to the port (I guess it was _something_ to do).

The market was much more interesting that I initially presumed, especially with this one funny signpost. I thought it was quite humorous because it said "Evacuation Plan in Case of Tsunami: 1. Grab beer 2. Run like hell".

After an hour of walking around with an itchy bathing suit on, we met up with our tour group. The leader of the group was quite funny, especially when he said that motion sickness was the "tragic moment".

I can still quote him: "The first pill you insert into the mouth, then swallow before the tragic moment. Other pill insert into mouth, chew, and swallow during the tragic moment".

I was unsure if motion sickness was that "tragic", but once the boat started moving, I could see what he meant. Of course, it wasn't so bad for me, but it felt like the double-decker boat was going to capsize at one point due to the heavy waves. The guide also said we could sit on the hood of the boat, get a tan, and feel the wind in our faces.

Due to the weather (I believe), we stopped at the Starfish Point Beach first. It was a beautiful secluded beach with shallow and clear water. There were plenty of colorful starfish here. Our guide said that it was bad for the starfish if they were taken out of the water. You could touch or hold them, but they should stay in the water.

As soon as we took a step into the water, we saw another tour group take four starfish out of the water at once (the irony).

We looked around the sandy beach and saw a couple of starfish and shells. I even picked one up— by the arms, I mean (in the water), and took a picture. I still thought that if I held the starfish completely, my skin would be sucked into the spiky crevices under the arms. It was a quick stop, and soon after, we were back on the boat, drying off on the hood.

Before we got off a second time, we got fitted into snorkeling gear and SPIT into our goggles to "defog" them. Spitting was OK, but I wondered if they washed these things before handing them to the next tour group.

As soon as I jumped into the deep water, I knew something was wrong. My snorkeling tube couldn't get into my mouth (with my braces and such on), but I trusted the gear and started to breathe underwater. The result?

I breathed in water!

And by that, I mean I took in a giant _gulp_ of seawater. Imagine choking. Now, multiply that feeling x1000. That was what it felt like. I could swim still, but the problem was that my FINS were like twenty extra pounds. By the time I reached the boat (which was way farther than I thought), I was gasping for air and trying to pry my fins off. There goes the whole snorkeling experience.

After waiting for another thirty minutes for people to pack into the boat, we were off again. Lunch was provided, but no food suited my allergy. So, of course, I drank a ton of fruit punch to compensate. But that probably didn't matter, considering that a person could go three weeks without solid food.

Our next (and final) stop, was in "Stingray City", which had a lot of stingrays, hence the name. My only hope when we got there was that I didn't get stung. I can't believe my mom told me that when I was small, I actually CHASED a stingray around in Tahiti. I think toddlers just don't know what they're getting into. Stingray City was about four miles offshore. Our boat stopped in the middle of the ocean and we all jumped into the water. It was like magic! I could actually walk on the place— except when the waves hit. There were stingrays swimming around my feet and I can feel their movements underwater. One of our tour guides actually NAMED one of those stingrays and could make it do tricks, which was pretty cool.

One by one we got to "kiss" the stingray. We were told that kissing a stingray would give us seven years of good luck. So everyone lined up to kiss the stingray, which, thanks to the support of the ocean, looked super light (especially because it was super fast as well). When my turn came, I did that, and tried to lift it. I almost broke my back. It was SO heavy (180+ pounds!). I will never misjudge a stingray's weight ever again.

We were also given a squid to feed the stingray. We all stood in a circle holding squids and the stingray swam around to eat those squids out of our hands. One swooped over my palm and I could feel the yank of the stingray's bite on the squid. After playing a bit in the water, we soon got back on the boat and rode back to the cruise terminal. I'm making the transportation part brief, because in reality, it was pretty grueling.

When we arrived, there was a line to get back onto the ship. A line, half a mile long, I mean. We finally got back to our cabin. After indulging in some quick refreshments, we went off to eat.

I at last got the food that I wanted (didn't have any dairy). We thanked the chef for that. I never realized how GOOD the food tasted until now. It was amazing. I could eat whatever I wanted without my allergy holding me back. We soon finished with full stomachs and went to check out the show. I went to bed satisfied.

I woke up the next day ready for my next adventure in Jamaica. As usual I had breakfast first with my mom and dad. The food in the morning could be either a dine-in or a buffet. Buffets used to be 24/7, but a few years ago they cut the hours of the buffet. Of course, there were other alternatives, such as the pizza place near the poolside or snacks at the cafe. As soon as we got off the ship and the long pier, we started to search for a cheap tour to Dunn's River Falls.

After a bit of searching, we found a good deal from one of the local vendors; we made sure that they would take us back to the ship on time. This was critical because if for whatever reason, we didn't get back to the ship on time, the ship would leave us behind! This meant that we either would have to arrange our own transportation to the next port, where the ship would be, or would simply swim there!

Apparently, there were two cruise ports in Jamaica: Ocho Rios and Falmouth. Ocho Rios is actually the closest port to the falls, but our cruise ship docked at Falmouth, which is roughly a sixty-minute drive to the falls. Dunn's River is a major attraction in Jamaica; the famous James Bond movie "Dr. No" was shot at this location.

We quickly hopped onto the minivan. Again, I had to wear a swimming suit to the falls, so it was pretty uncomfortable. Our tour guide was extremely funny and the minutes passed by. In Jamaica, people like to say "No problem, Only Situations", which was quite true; I liked that attitude.

When we arrived, the area was PACKED with people. I also saw a lot of water shoes being sold there. You definitely need those kind of shoes to walk and climb the slippery slopes and rocks at the fall. We were well prepared and brought our own water shoes.

Then, we were assigned a videographer (this was an industrial operation) and were off on our "journey". It was kind of strange at first that we were going DOWN the path first, but when I thought about it, I guess it made sense since we would be going up the falls. The first thing I noticed was that the area around the base of the falls was narrow and PACKED. There were people lining up hand-in-hand climbing the rocks.

I knew that it was going to take a while to get along and that I was probably going to get bored. But to my surprise, I didn't get bored because the line moved pretty quickly. After going along slowly, yet steadily, we climbed over and around some interesting obstacles. There were several miniature falls that we climbed up along with several other people. We took several photos on these and they were quite exciting to ascend. The falls seemed to be endless, but I loved it.

After climbing up a ton of cliffs and waterfalls, our guide took several pictures/videos. First, he was there, the next second he was all the way over on the other side. Nevertheless, he was insanely fast and didn't seem to mind about his safety (he didn't even need the handrails!).

At one point we went under a bridge, which was pretty cool. We could even touch the ceiling by jumping a bit out of the water. At another part of the falls, the recorder recorded us coming down a natural waterslide into the cold water. It was really refreshing and super fun. Where the water was deep enough, some people even jumped into the water backwards!

At one point, someone even photo bombed us! That was amusing... for them at least. To climb up the last sections of the waterfalls, we had to actually hold metal handlebars. I felt like I was handicapped, but I really would rather not risk it, because that would mean a twenty-foot drop head-first into rock. Several people helped each other to get up the falls and finally, we made it to the final section of rock. It was super wide, and not as steep as the last cliff, but still a sure spectacle. We finished our six-hundred-foot-long hike up to the falls in about an hour. At this point, I didn't want it to end; the falls were basically a playground for me, and I was the one playing. We finally reached the top (A.K.A. our initial entrance) and exited through the gift shop area.

As soon as we stepped a FOOT outside of the fall's exit, there were already fifty pictures of us and our group on the wall. But, here's the even crazier part: the guy who was filming us this whole time just came back with twelve DVDs of US ascending the falls. Yeah, he got them developed and edited in almost five minutes! After about ten seconds, I realized why they mass-produced these darn things. Literally EVERYONE wanted one! We went back to the van with a bag full of "memories". The only thing I was wondering was what did they do with the extra DVDs... I wouldn't be too surprised if I saw one of those things flying in a landfill.

Our guide kept her funny personality throughout. A bunch of jokes echoed through the mountains as we made our way back to the ship. Or so I thought; we actually were going to another gift shop for a "pit stop". I couldn't tell what was a "pit stop" anymore. It seemed like we stayed there for an eternity, though, because one of our tour group members was "bargaining for a better deal" inside.

I hope that deal was good, because we were delayed by about thirty minutes.

Trust me, in a wet swimsuit, and with stuffy air, it wasn't exactly comfortable. By the time all the driving was over, we arrived at the cruise ship. My mom and dad (as usual) wanted to look at the market next to the ship. I just decided to take my room key and enter the ship by myself.

I really had no problem with that at this point because the pros outweighed the cons. To back my statement up, I should probably give a few background reasons why I would dare to do such a thing. 1)The ship had cable TV 2) I really needed to take a shower (and I did) 3) The ship was just as secure as a football game, so I didn't need to worry much.

After about two hours of unneeded worry, my mom and dad entered the room. We got ready for dinner soon after that. As usual, the food was OK, but I knew that the good stuff was yet to come. I had a really good pie for dessert that I wish I could savor right now. Since pretty much ANY sweet treat was rare in my life, I really enjoyed that lemon pie.

Afterwards, we went to the ice skating rink to see the special show there! It was quite impressive with beautiful colorful costumes and nice sets. They did a ton of spins and stuff that looked really cool. I knew it would be good, but this performance was phenomenal.

The next day, we woke up before the ship arrived at port and decided to go on the "FlowRider" at the back of the ship. Let's just say that the place wasn't exactly empty. After about thirty minutes of waiting in the scorching sun (maybe less), we got to the front of the line!

The front of the waiver line, I mean.

We, of course filled out a waiver and THEN we were eligible to surf. After another thirty minutes of waiting, I was able to take a try with a boogie board. Yeah, we didn't get a surfboard (probably for the better) when the sign was even carved like a surfboard. I first started on my knees, tightly clutching the board, as water whooshed into my face. After a few a minute or so, I began to feel a bit more comfortable (but by no means stable) and the staff there told me to get up onto my feet. I knew that the second I took my hands off the board, I was going to lose my balance faster than a nuclear reactor in a meltdown. And just like that, my surfing career was over.

Afterwards, we went out to the port of Labadee in Haiti. Since it was a small private island, security was light, and entertainment was high. Our ship was the only one in port, of course, and we had the island (generally) to ourselves. The first thing we saw when we got there was this big zipline running over the water. It looked like it started from the top of the hill. I could hear people on the zipline screaming with excitement as they crossed over the water. It seemed pretty thrilling, but with that kind of height, I decided against trying it.

The first area we checked out was the main beach. We didn't go into the water yet, though. Instead, we took the tram to another part of the beach. It was probably more for sightseeing than transportation, though, since it took its time to get going. With some effort, I could have ran there before the tram started! Once we got to the second part of the beach, we stayed there for the next few hours playing in the water. The water was fairly clear and we got some pretty nice seats under a tiny palm tree. There was also a buffet area nearby. So, we had our lunch there (convenient!).

I didn't really want to dip all the way into the water, but after a while, I got used to it and started swimming around in this nice calm water.

After a ton of drying off, we started to go around the market area before going back to the ship. They sold all sorts of local handicrafts there and I bought three little hand-painted wooden jars for my teachers.

Later in the day, I finished checking out all of the ship's last attractions including the top pool, rock climbing wall, and ice skating rink. We had to wait in all those lines, of course, but it was totally worth it.

On the main pool deck there was this cool waterpark just for kids where you run through a waterfall! Who needed beaches when you could have essentially an entire playground in a pool! I might have also unwittingly sprayed a couple of kids with the water guns there, but that's beside the point.

The rock climbing wall was pretty awesome because it had TWO sides and over twelve different courses; Of course, I couldn't do most of them, but it was enjoyable.

The ice skating rink was totally amazing because I actually could skate on it EVEN with the ship moving! It was really stable, and I actually "learned" skating there! The only unnerving thing was that there was a little girl, about half my age who could do figure eights and spun in the air while skating; meanwhile, I was busy shuffling along the edge.

After cooling off at the ice skating rink, we got ready for dinner. It was formal night, or as I called it "The Killer of your Self Dignity", especially when you had to dress in what amounted to a five-part tuxedo (or something like that). I hate to dress up, but I figured that it would be more awkward if I didn't.

Anyway, as I predicted, that was the day that all the amazing food was served. There was fillet mignon, lobster cakes, shrimp cocktails, and prime rib. It was amazing....

Since we wanted to get the MOST out of our wonderful cruise, we went to see the Ice Skating Show, AGAIN. This time, I noticed a few more things about their performance. First, right off the bat, the guy tripped and fell after doing a few spins. Surprisingly, he didn't get off beat as the tune continued on. Second, there was a fiddler player that I took more notice into this time around. She was cranking away at that violin like it had strings made of titanium. I could've sworn that thing was going to break the way she was playing it.

Finally, I saw that the performers must've had a bad day because they kept tripping. I felt bad for them. Still, they did a good job considering they had to skate on a moving ship.

During the cruise we had developed a habit of taking midnight snacks. We just couldn't resist; there was food around the clock. On the way back to the cabin, we stopped by at the coffee area to get a cup of water. No, wait, HOT water. In the last couple of days, I tested the best ways to insulate that hot cup of water.

So far, the heat had made it through two total layers of cup insulation and three napkins! I decided to try three cups of protection to make sure the heat didn't get to my bare skin. I even put three insulating cup holders in-between the cups so that I wouldn't get burned. By the end of my insulation-fest, it looked like I was holding a Thermos.

Yet, by the time I got back to the cabin, the cup was getting kind of warm, so I quickly set it down. I'll say that I marginally won that insulation challenge against the hot water.

The next day, it was time to depart from the boat. The lines were always half a mile long. Maybe more. After going through all the exiting procedures (scanning, checking, waiting), we got onto the bridge to the dock. They seemed to be limiting traffic onto the bridge— well, they'd better be, I thought, because there were already quite a few people on the gangway, which looked like it was made of flimsy plastic.

After that, we reached a sort of border control to meet... another line. This line had no end in sight; I'd say it was about forty miles long (well I'm exaggerating), and if you were there, you'd probably say so, too. I didn't know how they fit that many people, but the line veered left and right through so many different rooms that you could get lost.

Finally, we reached the front, where they checked our bags, and we were off to the taxi stops. Of course, we had to play another episode of "The Waiting Game" to get a taxi, but here's the deal: When one taxi came, we were excited because there were literally no taxis; two minutes later, the ENTIRE PARKING LOT was filled with a never-ending line of taxi drivers zooming in with no end in sight.

Soon after, we got to the airport and went to the same terminal that looked deserted when we first arrived— except, it was full this time. We checked in, and from there, it was a dash to our flight. We got in with no problems.

The flight took a bit over four hours, but we landed in LAX like it only took an hour (thanks to the time zones). We then exited the terminal and called the shuttle to pick us up. We got to our car in the parking complex as the sun began to set and drove home with a relaxed feeling of cruises and a strong yearning for shrimp cocktail.

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This is the end of my story, at least for now. If you enjoyed reading this book, please feel free to share your thoughts. Thank you.
