India Part 3: Rural India

This farm village took us all around and showed us how they do everything from planting rice to climbing coconut trees.  As a bonus, we got to ride around on an ox cart hay-wagon style!

India Part 2: Kanchipuram and Mamallapuram

Kanchipuram and Mamallapuram are each a couple of hours away from Chennai and both are full of so many really old, really beautiful Hindu temples that I lost count.

India Part 1: Around Chennai

We docked in Chennai, which has come a long way in recent years according to my fellow voyagers who have been there before.  It was hot, dirty, smelly and sweaty as I suspected, but I enjoyed every minute and especially appreciated the incredible food.  Southern India definitely has more to offer than I suspected and it makes me want to go back and explore the North that much more! 

Hindu Temple in Chennai

Auto Rickshaws...our main form of transportation around the city.  A wild ride and a lot of fun if you can actually get the driver to take you where you want to go without stopping at the silk shop where he gets a kickback.

Silk, silk, and more silk.

Dosa (savory south Indian pancakes) lunch served on a banana leaf.

Marci with the greatest dish of all...paper dosa.

The Sea Olympics

The Sea Olympics are an old SAS tradition where the ships residential areas (Seas) compete in various ridiculous events like crab soccer, lip sync, sycnronized swimming, tug of war, hula hoop, etc.   Everyone sports their team color and it looks like a bowl of rainbow sherbet exploded on the ship.  My team was not so much victorious, but we had a lot of fun!  The Archbishop kicked off the opening ceremonies for us.







Baby Griffin - mascott for the fac/staff team



Mauritius

Mauritius...time for a little r&r with friends.

















South Africa Part 3: Inverdoorn Game Reserve



I learned that Cheetahs can be fully domesticated!  Watch out Belle!



Our guide said that baby Zebra couldn't be more than 3 days old.



These "canned lions" were rescued from cage hunting.  They were overfed their whole lives which is why they're so big but they'll never be able to live in the wild because they don't know how to hunt.





Since all the hippos were underwater and we didn't get to see any, our consolation prize was getting out of the vehicle to walk with the giraffes!