Day 53. Into the Strait of Mallaca

Hi all

*my apologies for still no India blog. It is coming along, and is near completion. It's a lot to write, and I just don't want to spit something out real fast. Thanks for your patience!*

So The Explorer entered the Strait of Mallaca today. The strait is a narrow stretch of water, only 500 miles long that runs Northeast to Southwest, and connecting the India Ocean with the Great Pacific. At times, the strait is only 1.5 miles wide, so shipping traffic is intense, and we can see a lot of different ships around us in all directions.

"Over 50,000 vessels traverse the strait each year, carrying one-quarter of global trade.  Oil from the Persian Gulf states moves eastward to the oil-hungry economies of China, Japan, and South Korea.  In turn, their goods move westward to India, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.  The strait is not only narrow, it is also shallow.  In places the depth is only 25 meters (82 feet) and large supertankers must avoid it by going south around Sumatra and finding deeper routes through the Indonesian archipelago.   The size limit for vessels able to pass through the Strait of Malacca is called the “Malaccamax”; any ship larger than the MalaccaMax must find an alternative path.  The Strait of Malacca was notorious for piracy, and to some extent still is, but a crackdown by the Malaysian, Indonesian, and Singapore navies beginning in 2004 has made the strait a much safer channel than it was."

Still, we can't help but notice that precautions have been taken aboard the Explorer. There are firehoses on different parts of the deck, we've been told in case someone would try to board the ship. Additionally, the other day, the crew ran an exercise. Over the loudspeakers, we heard "Captain Morgan, please report to your reception" three times. I found out today that that is the signal that the ship is facing external attack, and the crew was just preparing. It was just a drill, mom... there are no pirates... yet.

There are a group of medical students and 2 residents who are on board with us now from the University of Virginia. I had dinner with them tonight with a few other pre-med kids, and we talked about everything from the MCAT to which electives are the best to take when. They're great guys and girls, and I hope to get to know them better. Me and a friend are hoping to travel with them in Vietnam to different hospitals to see what's going on medically abroad.

The only other news, is Jill and I struck again at the ship's Karaoke night. We were supposed to do a perfectly choreographed "I'm real" by J-Lo and Ja Rule, and even had the costumes to go with it. When we got up there, though, we faced a sad reality- the song unfortunately wasn't available. Never ones to back down from a challenge, Jill and I hobbled through "I will survive," still decked out in stilletos and gangsta rap gear. Everyone got a kick, and we saved face. It was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow, preparations for Bangkok reach critical mass... and I plan to figure out my plans in their entirety. We also arrive in Singapore tomorrow, just to bunker off of the coast.

OH! I forgot to tell you. The ship has a band, called MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble) that has been making computerized songs and playing them in different ports. Well, the University of Singapore heard that we would be in their waters tomorrow, so they have arranged an international drive-by concert. At 12:30, our ship will broadcast an interactive performance featuring all of us in the union on our laptops, and that broadcast will be picked up by the national radio station in Singapore, and broadcast all around the country! The University will, in turn, then play something for us. It should be a great time, and we were sent a copy of the fliers that they have put all around their city! It's so cool! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Talk to you from the end of the Strait tomorrow. That is if we don't get sunk by pirates.

Greg