Jinju Palace, Birthday Party, and an Evening out in Busan

What an eventful day, I learned that the Koreans invented Paper, the Water wheel and the cotton gin. Man am I writing a nasty letter to Haughton Mifflin letting them know that they have seriously gotten it all wrong.

got up early (again), and took the bus with Andrew and Brenda to visit Jinju castle...we were scheduled to go up to Seoul to visit the DMZ and the olympic park. Unfortunately due to the heightened tension with the north they had cancelled all the tours to the JSA, and Panmunjon. that was a high point for korea, but alas it just wasn't meant to be.

Jinju was pretty cool, a nice fort with lots of history, right or wrong, a lot of history...i was pleasently suprised by the prose in some of the display explanations, definitely not written by a Korean.

that night was quite the get together, andrew grilling out, and all the Hamyang english teachers gathering together for a nice get together, good food, good beer and of course Andrew's birthday, which didn't end for anothe 12 hours, and that was even after midnight.

Henry's arrival...so apparently andrews friend from Taiwan, Henry got married (not really), and headed to Hamyang to hang out with the Dullock Brothers. We all went out for Korean bbq and karaoke, the clean kind.

we had a blast at the resturaunt, with the polish prince, mr. korea himself in his shiny suit, the newlywed, and of course brenda and andrew...then of course the great singing of the biggest abba fan ever!

An afternoon tour of Hamyang with Brenda was nice, we took a walk around the entire city, seeing the big park, big ass tree, huge bell, and the carpeted sidewalks (still don't get those), Although i am confused regarding on of the signs i saw in the park stating that the US was defeated by the Koreans in a conflict in 1871...i'll have to do more research regarding that. After the walk we went for Gimbob, a type of maki roll. these were ok, although i'm not so sure about the canned tuna just dumped on rice, this seems to be the food of choice of most of the school children in the area, as its inexpensive and quick to eat. We also tried the Ramon, this was quite good, spicy, with that chef boyardee kind of sweetness to the sauce. it made me sweat a little from the heat.

Last night in Korea...a peaceful night of bar hopping with the fam...went to the first place and had some of the spiciest food i've ever had in my life. were pretty sure the proprieter of the bar did it on purpose, so based on the principle that koreans don't spea, english (which is true 99% of the time), i thanked him and recomfirmed that it was 32 for beer and shit food...

after that it was off to the Mafia bar, yep, the bar owned by the Yakuza...that was fun, and after that it was off to one of Andrew's favorite bars where we tried the same dish that we ordered at the first, this time it was much better and actually edible. after the third bar we were beat and decided and called it a night.

Korea Day 2

Jet Lag is trying to set in, but i'm fighting it worse than Pac-Man...

Up this morning around 6AM, no idea why, but I am...nothing to do but jump online and and try to find the necessary arrangements for Beijing...

Brenda and andrew got up around 8, so after way too many cups of nescafe i was ready to go. Jokingly, Andrew got Kim-Chi for breakfast, claiming he was only going to feed me rice and Kim-Chi... That plan backfired, I like Kim Chi. Of course andrew doesn't like that this has backfired on him, waking up to the smell of kim chi wafting through the house.

Breakfast was Egss, Kim-chi and rice compliments of brenda, a good start to the day. Just what we needed to make the journey to visit andrew at school and watch him teach.

This mornings adventure was new to both Brenda and I, with her never having made the solo trip to see andrew at work, this was evident by us getting on the wrong bus to start!

Watching andrew was fun, the kids brought him in gifts and even a cake. andrew was using the scategories game, in a modified version with the students, they had lots of fun, and really enjoyed themselves. It was fun to watch the interaction...he might just be as good as he says he is.
English teachers over for a gathering.

Andrew relegated himselft grill master, it being his birthday (as he constantly reminded EVERYONE ALL NIGHT LONG). Grilling up chicken, pork, mushrooms, lots of beer, pasta salad made with the dressing i had brought for him.

It was nice meeting all Andrews friends and being able to participate in all the comraderie!

My night ended around 11, it was all that i could handle, those youngins out partied this old fart!

Korea Day One

Korea Day 1

Landing in Korea and passing through Immigration was quite uneventful. A little rocky on the landing in Busan, Immigration was quick and painless, and baggage claim was super easy. Having paked two suitcases I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to identify them as they came down the turnstyle. Loaded on the cart they passed through with ease, one simple question "anything to declare?" with a prompt no I was on my way.

coming out into the arival hall I quickly b-lined to the forex and exchanged some cash, passed through the exit doors to see a giddy andrew and brenda. Heading outside we loaded the bags into the car...this was the first frightening experience in Korea...Andrew was driging the car!

The ride to from Pusan to Hamyang was good, Andrew had not forgotten how to drive. the road system was very developed. Every so often there were these speed camera's, the inboard GPS would flash as you approached the speed cameras notifying you that you were travelling to fast, you could tell that all the GPS's did this as the other cars on the road would slam on there breaks to make sure they did not get photographed speeding. As each car passed through it was like the start of the Indy 500, everyone seemed to slam on the gas until the next speed camera.

After arriving at the house, we caught up for a bit, had a few glasses of Hite and hit the hay.

Plane Ride Over

4.20.10

the trip has begun and slumber is soon upon m e....thanks of course to Japanese beer and lunestra....

I'm going to be taking a different approach to the blog this time, instead of typing posts as i find an internet connection i'm going to be taking my diary digital and transferrin to the blog. Just something new to attempt, we'll see how it goes.

the trip started out uneventful, with the exception of a little rushing to get home and showered and ready to go, but with no problems....made the bus, came close to missing my flght in detroit due to 20 minute early final boarding call, very suprised by that, as I don't believe they made a terminal wide first boarding announcement...

had lunch at the sushi place in the mcnamara terminal, don't think i'll do that again, had mold on Tako salad (calamari/ octopus), so i sent it back only to be presented with 2nd that had mold on it, so i changed to a seaweed salad that was just fine If your actually interested the main course for me was Eel and cucumber roll with a Kirin...

so now i'm on the plane and , and ready for slumber and ready to get woken by the breakfast cart....Next stop Narita, and after that Busan and the week with Andrew and Brenda

Asia 2010....the trip to close it out

All right, back again in the land of rice and heat....heres the itinerary i'm going to be working off of..

land Busan, travel to Hamynang
Seoul, for the DMZ
Beijing, China.... 18 hour free for all, the great wall, olympic stadium, T- Square, and the Temple of Heaven park
Ulaanbaatar Mongolia....sleeping a Ger....
Singapore....gots to have me some chicken and rice
Darwin, Land of OZ....not the most dramatic of places to visit but for the price it was WAY cheaper than Sydney or Melbourne or Perth
Singapore.....yeah...more chicken and rice, maybe i'll splurge and have a singapore sling at the Raffles
Yangon, Myanmar...will the Junta follow me? i can be a shady looking fucker
Manila, Philippines, 22 hours and then back to Detroit

Should be a good trip, who knows what will come about, just home it goes better than last time with no stolen camera's etc...

till later
Peace out and Happy Trails

A Quick Update, Summary of the last 2 weeks

ok, so that everyone can stop worrying, here has been whats been going on;

Landed safely in manila on the 21st with Mother, John, and Andy, the flight was made so much easie with the assistane of Luenstra, i'm pretty sure i slept almost 9 hours of it....once we landed in manila we were met by brenda and Andrew and whisked away to the hotel, it was late, but all of us were wide awake (this would be night one of keeping andrew up as much as possible)....we went out to the Cowboy Grill a place Brenda and Andrew had taken me before, they have great live bands there and cold beer, well, sufisive to say, the beer never has the chance to get warm when were together!

The next day it was tours of the ancient city Intramuras, we checked out the walled city, the manila cathedral and took a walk around the grounds, this is someplace i have not been before so it was nice to see (what little of it i was able to, spending 4 hours in the seamans hospital was not part of the itenerary)....oh yeah, and did i mention the 6 stiches (not me) and gauze tied to someones head?....

Thursday, it was off to bataan, oh what fun, after cherrie arrived, we piled everyone into a jeepney and headed off to the Genesis bus terminal to catch the two hour ride to Bataan, and the Crowne royal hotel...what a nice place... we went to dinner at a nice japanese resturaunt and then to the bar across the street for more livation and chocalate cake for my birthday, good job on the cake brenda, it was mighty tasty, although the next bar, the cake didn't mix to well with the birthday tequila shot.

Friday- relaxation in the morning, with a trip to Mt. Samat, much like the chient christ in Rio, this is a giant cross on top of a mountain memoralizing the battle of bataan, with a nice ww2 museam underneath, after the hot sun and fun day at Samat it was off to the rehearsal...the ladies that did the planning moved quite fast, and the maid of honor was a no show, so my part combined with hers was a bit shakey, i was still all set for the wedding, and ready to look gwapo in my barong (pictures to follow when i get back to manila) after the rehearsal, we all loaded back into the jeepney to head off to brenda's for more food than anyone can handle and karaoke...we were feed and watered well there....thank you brenda and your family for the wonderful hosptality that evening.

Saturday.... the wedding day, the festivities started around 10, with everyone all dressed up and ready to go., loaded in the jeepney to head off to the church, and andrew getting his last cigarette as a single man!!!! it was a great ceremony, and it was a wonderful experience to be apart of it...andrew looked handsome in his tuxedo, and brenda look ravishing in her dress....after the ceremony it was a mad dash back to the hotel for the reception where the food was good the beef somthing or other was mighty tasty and the shrimps had just the right amount of spice....after the wedding it was off to get changed, naps in, and if john and cam had there ways another trip to jollibee!!! that night it was gift time and an introduction to tanduay silver....mighty tasty!!!!

Sunday.... a relaxing day at the beach with everyone and brenda's family, the waves were huge and the food plentiful!!! we finished off the additional bottle of rhum we brought with us and then beat up on some koreans in volley ball (Korea number 1 no more!!!) after the beach it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest

Monday..... Manila for some shopping and last minute gifts in china town.....alvin, cherrie, and brenda has there work cut out for them keeping up with mom...damn she can shop!!!

Tuesday.... Manila again, with everyone gone it was nice for some rest without being pulled every which way....mom andy and john made there flights with no problem, cherrie made her flight no problem, and matt made his no problem, as did cam and john so everyone got to the skies with no issues.

Wednesday....off to Tacloban, got there late evening so just a night out to dinner and an early evening

Thursday....Tacloban again...went to the mcarthur park and other sites around, this is the historic "i shall return" landing spot for mcarthur after he left bataan, he landed again in tacloban to expel the japanese

Friday.... tacloban to ormoc, got in early afternoon and checked into the sabin resort, this place rocked for 1800PHP (35US) a night, right on the ocean, with great views, the resturaunt had a great view of the ocean so i got to watch the waves while having dinner and a few cocktails

Saturday....ormoc sight seeing again, not much here

Sunday..... Ferry to Cebu.....never again, i was one of maybe 3 on this ferry that didn't vomic continiously through out

Monday...Cebu, went to mactan island and saw the lapu lapu shrine, this is the cheif that beheaded magellen, then to the city center to see magellans cross, which was erected in the mid 1500's, and then back to the hotel for some dinner and a night out

Tuesday .... catching a flight to manila, where i will meet up with martin on the 7th....

hope this catches everyone up, i will upload pictures when i get to an internet cafe that allows me to!!

peace....i keep living vicariously through myself!!!

Planning for 2009 Has begun

The next trip has begun to move past the planning stages, with a tentative Itinerary set, and the round trip tickets purchased....This time around it will be just a month with a couple of special occasions mixed in, wheels up is July 20th, landing in Manila on the 21st!

The primary reason for this trip is the nuptials of my brother...this will be a special occasion, not only because I'm the best man, but for the chance to participate in this joyous occasion with him. The Clampets are going to Manila, I just hope no one packs with Igloo coolers and piggly wiggly bags!

The tentative Itinerary is looking as such;

Wheels up DTW - 7.20
Land Manila - 7.21
Brother Wedding - 7.25
Tacloban (Visayas) - 7.28 (Tentative)
Oromoc (Visayas) - 7.31 (Tentative)
Manila - 8.02
Bali - 8.08 (Tentative)
Sri Lanka via Singapore 8.11
Delhi, India 8.12
after India from 8.12- 8.20 is Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma, with an attempt to go to Bhutan, and possibly Thailand to enter Burma...

Visa's are all taken care of for India, got the 10 year multiple entry, and the 5 year multiple entry for Bangladesh, and Burma/Myanmar should be in my hands by the end of this week.

The good news is that Martin will be meeting me in the Philippines and the fun will begin, also will be meeting Joe (a friend from home) in Delhi on the 12th....

Let the fun begin.....looks like the Dos Esquis commercial was right...I'm living vicariously through myself!!!