As much as things change some things never do!!

Being here in Korea has been a real blast to the past, as I left Korea 21 years ago. We took the subway to BongCheon Dong, the first area that I lived in Seoul. We walked from the subway station towards the church. There was not one recognizable building on either side of the street. They have literally raised whole neighborhoods and rebuilt new high rise apartments and shopping centers. And, the street was littered with Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Starbucks, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Red Mango, a French Bakery, and an Italian restraunt. I don’t think missionaries in Korea are suffering through 3 meals a day of rice and kimchi!!!! However I was able to find the little restaurant we ate at everyday for lunch, and it was hardly unchanged. A bowl of Ramen noodles that cost us 500 won is now 1500 won. It seems to me the bus used to cost 100 won, now it’s 1000 won, the taxi meter now starts at 1900 won, it was 600 won. And the vehicle traffic is beyond belief!!!! BOKCHAPHAYO!!!!! Very congested…for you non Korean speakers….:) But the subway still rocks, and is at least 3 times as large as it used to be.

All the men still wear a suit and tie wherever they go, but the ability to match tops w/ bottoms and a tie seems to be much improved. They still wear the surgical mask around when they are sick. I’ve not seen one baby strapped to a mothers back and a bag of rice on her head. I’ve seen no crippled people begging at the subway or bus stops. In fact I actually saw a man in a motorized wheelchair. They have handicap spots on the subway, ramps for wheelchairs and elevators. All things that were non existent 25 years ago in Korea. However, and even Maija made this comment as were were walking home in the dark, that it feels very safe here. No matter how dark the alley, you don’t feel like your going to get mugged, and that is the way Korea always was.

On Saturday we continued walking past Seoul National University, then onto another area that I used to live. We found the market street and walked up into the neighborhood. There are more grocery type stores, fewer street vendors, and I used to hold my breath for 3 blocks to get home every night. Which is one of the things that I’ve noticed the most about returning to Korea. It just doesn’t smell like it used to, not that it’s a bad thing. But I think that smell is one of your strongest senses, and it’s the thing I remember the most about living here. The strong smell of garlic, or red peppers drying on the street, raw sewage, the fish in the markets, tear gas lingering from the riot the day before all combined made for a real potent mixture.



I’ve been telling Maija that the best treat was HO DUK and it was everywhere. Well, it’s not everywhere anymore, but we finally were able to find it and it was still as yummy. It’s a small pancake sized, fried sweet bread w/ sugar and cinnamon in the middle. Everyday when we head out Maija says, lets find a HO DUK!!! And, it's been quite cold and windy while we've been here, hence the hoodies.

A few observations about Koreans....

What to say about Koreans? First thing I noticed as we were waiting for our flight in Sydney is that many of the younger people (20-30 y/o) traveling together wear matching outfits. Yes, it's true. I got great amusement out of watching this and tried to get some pics...

This couple actually had on matching jeans, white tank tops, a PINK shirt and a maroon jackets to go over the top. The only matching things they didn't have were hats (the hats where the same color but different logos) and shoes...although they both wore white shoes. We found this all quite amusing...no idea why...there were tons of couples all over the airport that were matched up. James is trying to convince me to buy matching outfits for the way home.

Second thing I noticed about Koreans in the airport is that they love to queue. They had not even announced ANYTHING about the flight and we had 10 minutes until we were supposed to board and they started trying to line up. The gate agents were telling people to sit down and not line up yet which resulted in a secondary line I called the pre-pre line...James says this normal for Koreans and that they love to get in a line, any line....it was crazy. The flight was never announced for boarding...almost everyone (except the Americans) were already in the line to get on board. Oh, and they love to push when they think you're not going fast enought in the line. We got on the plane and had to wait for some people putting luggage away and this TINY 4 foot grandma kept pushing into James' back to try to get him to move faster....

When you fly a Korean airline the food gets really interesting. Some was good like bibimpap but they give it to you with seaweed soup which tastes like rotten fish ( I tried it just to say I did). For breakfast they gave us a choice of a "western" meal with a disgusting looking omelet or pumpkin porridge, just as disgusting.

Yesterday we went to do some shopping at Itaewon. It is cold here and I didn't bring a winter coat since Australia was starting into summer. Here it is winter. As we looked through shop after shop I began to realize that NOTHING in this country will likely fit me, an "averaged" sized American women. Everything is a size 4...which is clearly not my size. In fact, we talked to one shop owner/lady about a coat and she summoned her co-worker. They were talking and pointed at me and said a word James didn't know but we clearly knew it was something about me being "too big" . Nice. But it made us laugh. Even James is not able to fit into a "normal" size here.

Last Day in Aussie

Happy Thanksgiving! (It is Thursday here in Australia). We are currently in the Sydney airport waiting for our overnight flight to Seoul. Today we spent the day looking around different areas of Sydney with a quick stop at Bondi beach. Sydney is a beautiful city with a lot to do.

We have loved Australia and feel like it is the 51st state. It is pretty much like America. For those of you who want to travel to a foreign country, but are afraid to...this country is for you. They speak the same language (well, mostly...there were a few Aussie phrases that we had to get someone to explain to us), they use a dollar, they dress like us, they listen to mostly American music, watch a lot of American TV and have a lot of the same stores...we even found a Target in most places. So, if you are wanting to do foreign travel but have concerns, come to Australia. Also, the people here were SO nice everywhere we went.

We have enjoyed our time here and are looking forward to the next couple of days in Seoul which will be a real culture shock for me as I have never traveled to Asia!

M

The Bridge Climb

This morning we climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We had great views of the harbor from 400 feet up. It was actually not as hard or scary as I would have thought (or as it looks). We also got to wear lovely gray jumpsuits....

Sailing in Sydney Harbor

Todays activity was a sailing around Sydney Harbor in a 33' Hunter!!

We made it to Sydney!

Last night we flew into Sydney from Melbourne, hired a car, and heading straight out to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains (about 1.5 hour drive). We stayed the night in Katoomba and then spent today in the Blue Mountains. They are called the Blue Mountains because there are so many ecualyptus trees that they emit a blue haze...and it was true, they did. We arrived back in Sydney this afternoon and we will be staying until Thursday night when we fly to Seoul. We have a serviced apartment on the ninth floor. This is our view of Darling Harbor from our apartment...pretty nice huh.

The Great Ocean Road

So, we’ve now traveled from Kangaroo Island in South Australia to Melbourne in Victoria via the Great Ocean Road. Which has got to be one of the most scenic coastal highways anywhere in the world. Also, one of the windiest, and today quite chilly. The locals are saying that the weather is unseasonable cool. We ran into a spot of rain and highwind, then the traffic came to a dead halt. Everyone parked just hanging out on the roadway. Evidently a fatality accident ahead, as we can see a helicopter has landed on the road. But, being resourceful we back track around on a country road and skirt the scene. It was still along day of driving, we started the day at 6:15am and got in about 10:30pm, and had 2 ferry crossings. We got into Melbourne, and only had the afternoon to look around the CBD (central business district) before we caught a flight to Sydney.

A word about the domestic airlines here in Australia. Though the are nice, clean and efficient, (they don’t even check ID, and you can carry water through security). They don’t give you a morsel to savor whilst in route. Not a water, soda or a peanut. If you want something, you buy it. So don’t be thinking that Southwest Airlines is all that bad!!!

Here are a few pics, most didn’t turn out so good. So windy, water spots on the lens….difficult day for good photography from an amateur photographer.








Proof that it was very windy!!!!!

The water just makes you want to go and jump in it, it was so beautiful











2 of the 12 apostles

















The Grotto
















Our first sighting of a koala joey







This is the view from our B&B in Apollo Bay

Ever seen a Was-A-Roo?

We have spent the last couple of days on Kangaroo Island which is 30 miles south of mainland Australia near Adelaide. KI has the largest concentration of native Aussie animals including wallabies, kangaroos, echidnas, and koalas. We stayed at the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Resort near Flinders Chase National Park.

Here are pics of some of the animals that we saw. Most of the animals were nocturnal and come out at dusk.



Koala—you can smell them before you seen them due to the pungent eucalyptus smell. The males also make the most interesting sound, kind of like a motorcycle. This island has 14,000 koalas.














Kangaroo—there are 3 varieties on the island and this one is extinct on the mainland








Wallabies – there are 800,000 thousand on this island. Some are very tame and will eat from your hand. They have interesting reproduction: one young joey, one in the pouch and a fertilized egg on stand by.







New Zealand Fur Seal—they are in breeding season now and are very territorial. These two males were fighting for their mating territory.






Australia Sea Lion-we were able to walk down on the beach and see them up close. This is the only place in the world where you can see them this close. They swim 75 miles out to sea for 3 days at a time then come to this beach to sleep. They just went on the endangered species list last month.








Ring tailed Possum—these are rare and we were lucky to see one.












We also saw some amazing scenery:






The roads on KI are littered with animal carcasses. As we were heading back to the ferry this morning 3 kangaroos jumped out in front of the car. I was able to avoid two of them but the smallest one went right under the car and became a Was-A-Roo. :(

We have enjoyed this island and wish we could have stayed longer. We are now on way to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road and will spend a few days on the road.

M

Kakadu National Park

On Monday we drove to Kakadu National Park which is 3 hours east of Darwin. All along the road to Kakadu there are these huge termite mounds. This was one of the biggest that we saw, there are bigger ones further east.

Kakadu has a good collection of aboriginal rock art and drawings. We toured two different places that both had several art sites. The amazing thing about these sites is that the art is done on sandstone and the aborigines used crushed rocks and other materials to paint the drawings. We saw drawings that were done 1,000 to 20,000 years ago. It is amazing that they are still preserved so well! We hiked up to a lookout for sunset and were able to see the wetlands and one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, which ended w/ a spectacular lightening show. It is the start of summer here and the end of the dry season so we didn’t go to any of the waterfalls as they have no water this time of year.

There are only 3 hotels in Kakadu and only one was available when we booked. Ironically, it was our most expensive hotel night so far on this trip and sadly the worst. The room was old and rundown and my "favorite" part was the two cockroaches that greeted us as we turned on the light. James promptly squished them as I ran out of the room (one was at least an inch and a half long!). It was a long night for me…I don’t really like cockroaches.

Tuesday morning we did a river cruise. This one was guided by an aboriginal clansman and he talked to us about their culture. He showed us different plants and tools they use and how to throw a spear. It was a very informational tour and I liked learning about the indigenous people of Australia who have been here for 40,000 years. As we cruised down the river we also saw birds, crocodiles and more crocodiles. There were crocs on the bank at least every 50 feet.
Kakadu was a very hot, but fascinating place and worth the drive out there to see the incredible art sites.

M

Food for thought

The hardest thing to do while traveling is to find food. Especially when you need 3 meals a day or at least 2. You never know where to go, whats good, whats bad and if you have a language barrier only adds to the complexity of the situation. China was Chinese food 3 meals a day that got real old after 17 days, Africa was totally disgusting all meals all days. Australia has been relatively easy, they eat what we eat. We’ve not even had to resort to MacDonalds, and there are plenty of those around. They do seem to love meat here, I realized yesterday when eating our cesear salad with bacon bits that Maija was having bacon for the 3rd time that day. Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast, bacon and cheese croissant for lunch, and then bacon bits on salad for dinner.

But, we’ve had kangaroo in Cairns, which was very delicious. I expected to sample it, and push it away. It was served as kabobs and was delicious. We both finished it all. Barramundi is “their” fish here, you can find it anywhere. It’s a white fish and very good, we’ve had that several times served in various ways. In Darwin we found a Sunday night BBQ buffet, which had bbq, beef, pork, lamb and chicken complete with fresh salad, vegetables, baked potatoes and rolls. One of the best meals we’ve had here! Darwin is in the very north part of the country, closest to Indonesia. So we’ve also had very good Thai food. They also have many varities of exotic fruit which we’ve tried all of them and most are good, soursop, mangosteen, dragon fruit. And, the usual pineapple, cantaloupe, mango, and watermelon.

So, really what I’m saying here is that Africa was a really good diet plan, and Australia is not. Do not expect us to come home 10lbs lighter.

See last 2 posts for new photos...

we finally got faster internet here in Darwin. See last 2 post for the photos that were supposed to go with them.

A Day in the Daintree Rainforest

Yesterday we left Cairns and headed north to Daintree, the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. They are in the far northeast coast of Australia.. The Daintree Rainforest is aworld heritage site, and the only place in the world were one site begins where the other ends (Great Barrier Reef). We stopped in Daintree and did a river cruise on the Daintree River which is home to hundreds of crocodiles. They like to eat people, in fact our guide told us that a local man was eaten by one just two weeks ago when he went out to check a crab pot. Needless to say, we got nowhere close to the water! We were lucky enough to see a 15 foot, 2,000 pound crocodile feeding on a dead cow on the river bank. It was HUGE and very fascination to watch.


After the river cruise we took a a ferry across the river into the Daintree National Rainforest. We explored the Discovery center which is an interpretive center for the rainforest. It was a great place to learn all about the rainforest and to see birds and other jungle/forest animals.

We then made our way up the coast to the town of Cape Tribulation and our accommodations. It was a B&B called the Rainforest Hideaway (google it if you want to see what it looks like). It is a small place with a couple of cabins in the forest. We had a little cabin that was the size of a hotel room and included a bathroom “out back”. The bathroom was completely outside, built onto the back of the cabin on a covered patio. It was the most unique bathroom I have even seen. It had complete plumbing, a flush toilet and an outdoor shower. Basically, when we were in the bathroom we were also in the forest. We had a great time and loved the room.





This pic is of Ellis Beach in Cairns. Today we arrived in Darwin where we will stay a few days exploring Kakadu National Park and several aboriginal sites. It is hotter than a motha”……think Miami in mid summer!!!!!

-M

Agincourt Ribbon Reefs diving……

From our digs in Cairns we drove up the coast about 45 minutes to a place called Port Douglas. When we turned off the main highway towards the Marina was a nice palm tree tree lined road. I said to Maija “this looks like were driving into Princeville on Kauai”. If you’ve ever been there, gives you an idea of the kinda place we’re hanging out. Real nice and tropical and touristy!!!!!

So we signed up to go out on a boat called Poseidon. There were about 50 people, only 13 of which are divers, so 2 small groups. The nice thing about diving the reef, is that’s all shallow diving about 60 feet was max depth. Our first dive we drop in, swim around the backside of this pinnicle we see 4 white tip reef sharks!!! Spectacular!!! We look off toward the open ocean and there sitting on the sandy bottom was a MANTA RAY!!!! Dive master says he only sees 1 every 3 months. I was so excited that I sucked all my air, and only got 43 minutes out of the dive. This was the best dive I’ve ever been on, tons of fish, great colorful heathly coral, crystal clear water. If you’re a diver, put the GBR on your list of must see places and make sure you go to the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs.

Here are the pics...although they don’t do justice to the size of the Ray or sharks due to distance, but it was 12-15 feet across.

J

We are now proud owners of Australian property.......

No, we did not buy a time share (Sherry). We are currently at the northeast corner of Australia in a place called Cape Tribulation. As we were driving home from a day at the reef yesterday we had a flat tire. (more to come on the reef in a later blog). Luckily, James' farm upbringing came in handy and he whipped the tire off, put the spare on and had us on our way in 5 minutes (literally). We had to get the tire fixed today. As part the the deal here when you "hire a car" (Aussie way of saying rent a car) is that you have to fix the flat if you didn't purchase extra insurance (we didn't). So we found a tire shop (spelled tyre here) and they told us that they couldn't fix it...so we had to buy a new tire. Thus, we are now proud owners of Australian property.

We will catch up on the last couple of days in another blog and upload pics, hopefully tomorrow from Darwin. Internet is not so great up here. We are in a remote place...in fact, our hotel room tonight has a completely outdoor bathroom/shower. It's crazy, but pretty cool.

Smurfs diving at the Great Barrier Reef!!!!

Yesterday we went diving at the Great Barrier Reef. We booked ourselves on a smaller boat called the SeaStar that only takes 30 people (most boats here take 75 people). We wanted to experience the reef without 75 other divers in the water with us. We were not disappointed as we were the only two divers on the boat so we had a dive guide all to ourselves. It is “stinger” (jellyfish) season here so we had to where stinger suits to protect us from the nearly invisible but deadly jellyfish. The suits are blue from head to and including attached mittens and a hood. We looked like two smurfs.

We did three dives at two different sites. The reef was spectacular and we saw incredible coral, fish, and all other types of sea creatures. We went to a place called the fishbowl and saw 3 foot bumperhead parrot fish. They had a white beak that looked kind of like two front teeth. We saw clown fish (nemo), butterfly fish, trumpet fish, coral cod, anemone and numerous other amazing fish. The coral gardens were spectacular and had many types, sizes, varieties and colors of coral. Some of the coral was gigantic.

We were lucky enough to see a white tipped reef shark. And no, it wasn’t scary. It scampered off the minute it noticed us.


Our guide was very knowledgeable and showed us the soft coral that we could touch. We were also able to touch/hold two different types of sea cucumber and a purple sea star.





We saw giant clams that would snap closed when we touched them.


One of my favorites was a three foot giant maori wrasse that they called “Wally” who hangs out everyday at the end of the boat. Wally was very gentle and would let you touch him and almost hug him.


The water here is very clear with good visibility for diving. This is a view of Michealmas Cay and part of the reef .



It is really almost impossible to explain how amazing the Great Barrier Reef really is. Everyone should experience this for themselves…..

Hei….Are you Finnish?

So you all know Maija is half Finnish, right? And she’s a Finn magnet. It doesn’t matter where we go she will find a Finn. A year ago on our honeymoon, we went scuba diving and the first people we met were a Finnish couple on holiday, we go to church, the first lady Maija meets is Finnish, we change wards in Seattle….yep another Finn. Today, we took a train ride up the mountain to Karunda, a touristy artist community. We’re standing on the platform to board and yep…..a Finnish couple chatting it up!!!!



Karunda is a rainforest community about 25km west of Cairns, we took a train ride up the mountain then returned via a sky rail tram, which had great views of the coastline. There are several aboriginal tribes around this area,. They have a unique style of painting, which had seen on a documentary back home. We had decided before we came that this would be something that we’ld like to purchase as our Australian souvenir. Today we found one that we both really liked. I hope we don’t find something we like better or cheaper elsewhere on our trip.

Here is a picture depicting the art style, as a mural on the wall outside of the art gallery.



PS. Maija successfully drove us to town tonight, it wasn't too scary...:)

PSS. We ate kangaroo for dinner and it was very good, could hardly tell it wasn't beef.

PSSS. The local news reported that they caught a croc on the beach inside the stinger net....the protective barrier for swimming.......YA RIGHT!!!!!!!!

Which Side of the Road?????

We have finally arrived in Australia. We are in Cairns and ready to start vacation living...but only after a good nights sleep. 33 hours of traveling has left us a bit tired. We arrived this afternoon to great weather, 80 degrees and sunny with a nice sea breeze. The most challenging thing so far has been learning to drive on the wrong side of the road....while trying to use a manual transmission. James has done a great job. I'm gonna wait until tomorrow to try it and hopefully I won't wreck. It's weird to be driving on the wrong side of the car, wrong side of the road and then trying to shift with the opposite hand. I've gotta wait for more sleep before trying it. Pics are James in the car (it's nice and roomy huh!) one of me at the beach where they post big signs about the "stingers"...they even provide vinegar just in case (YIKES!!!) and one of us in Cairns after eating dinner.