Poky Little Wanderer

Slowly wandering my way everywhere

Tag: Temples

Semester at Sea: Waterways in India (Part 2)

Published March 20, 2020 / / 2 Comments

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My Semester at Sea adventures in India continued with exploring some of the most important waterways in India: the River Ganges and Kerala’s backwaters.

Riding the Rails

Taking an overnight train from Agra certainly wasn’t the best night of sleep I’ve ever gotten, but it was definitely an interesting experience. After a long day exploring Agra and seeing the Taj Mahal we were exhausted, but even sleeping could only use up so much of our 12+ hour train ride to Varanasi.

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Cambodia's temples

Semester at Sea: Cambodia’s Temples and Beyond

Published November 13, 2019 / / 0 Comments

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It was a tough choice to sacrifice some of the time the ship was docked in Vietnam to visit Cambodia’s temples, but the lure of Angkor Wat was too much to resist. Especially after visiting my first of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall while in China I was eager to see another iconic site.

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In Vietnam motorbikes dominate the roads

Semester at Sea: Visiting Vietnam

Published October 30, 2019 / / 7 Comments

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For the MV Explorer’s next port of call we were visiting Vietnam. The ship docked in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon without any customs delays. Unlike previous ports though, we were given landing cards that we were required to carry with us at all times in order to get through the security between the ship and the port. While the official name of the city is Ho Chi Minh on all official documentation, many of its citizens still use Saigon interchangeably.

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Kelly the Poky Little Wanderer at the Forbidden City in Beijing, China

Semester at Sea: Beijing and the Great Wall of China (Part 2)

Published March 27, 2019 / / 12 Comments
Flying from Shanghai to Beijing
Fellow flying friends in the skies

My adventures in China during my Semester at Sea voyage continued as I traveled from Shanghai to Beijing.

Having successfully navigated the minor roadblock on our way to Shanghai’s airport when our taxi driver misunderstood us and took us to the zoo first, my friends and I got checked in and waited for our flight. We hung out with a large group of other Semester at Sea students who were going on the same trip. Our tour was organized by The China Guide tour company to show us the sights in Beijing and explore the Great Wall. The flight from Shanghai to Beijing was pretty uneventful, only two hours, but they did feed us dinner. This was a change for me from flights within the USA these days where they barely give you a drink and snack for much longer flights! 

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Bazaar in Shanghai, China celebrating the Year of the Tiger for the Chinese New Year

Semester at Sea: Shanghai, China (Part 1)

Published March 8, 2019 / / 10 Comments

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“China Tomorrow, China Tomorrow, China Tomorrow”

One of the deans on a previous Semester at Sea voyage used to say this to students when they had complaints during the voyage. It was his way to remind students that they were doing something incredible. The ship would be docked in China for 8 days, landing in Shanghai before moving to Hong Kong. Eight amazing days exploring the world’s most populous country as well as its 3rd largest. Warning, this is going to be a series so stay tuned for my continued adventures through this amazing country. 

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Peace Park

Semester at Sea: Japanese History in Hiroshima & Nara (Part 3)

Published January 30, 2019 / / 4 Comments

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Continuing on our journey west across Japan, our plan was to visit Hiroshima and Nara to learn more about ancient and modern Japanese history before heading back to meet the MV Explorer in Kobe. I began my trip through Japan in Yokohama and Tokyo (which you can read about in part 1 of my Japan posts) with stops in Hakone and briefly in Kyoto (which I wrote more about in part 2 of my Japan posts).

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Senso-ji or Asakusa Buddhist Temple in Tokyo, Japan

Semester at Sea: Exploring Japan (Part 1)

Published December 14, 2018 / / 2 Comments

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Yokohama skyline while Poky Little Wanderer was exploring Japan
Views of Yokohama, Japan from the ship

The second port on my Semester at Sea voyage was Japan, which was also the first international port. Having only traveled out of North America for my family’s trip to Ireland, I was both really excited and really nervous to land on the shores of a new country and continent. We had five days exploring Japan, an island nation and cultural titan. Since I wrote so much about this country, I’ve broken it up into a couple parts.

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