In the fall of 1964, Stanford University’s R/V Te Vega Cruise 5 crossed the equatorial Indian Ocean from Mombasa to Singapore, one of many ships participating in the International Indian Ocean Expedition. The cruise achieved two goals: (1) it provided hands-on oceanography training for graduate students in marine sciences, and (2) it documented the deep scattering layers of the Indian Ocean, only poorly known at the time. Taking place on the other side of the globe from the United States, the cruise also exposed students to cultural and personal experiences that shaped their lives and professions. It demonstrated the importance of experiential learning for future ocean scientists.