Category Archives: Travel

Asia, Family, Travel

Singapore

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Spring                                                            Wedding Moon

sinaporeSingapore. Landed at Changi airport last night around 6:45 pm after a 4 hour flight from Hong Kong. Up at 4:40 am. We’re early risers so this is not unusual, but it did make a long day. We caught the shuttle to Incheon, threaded our way through the airport lobbies and elevators, found Cathay Pacific and got our luggage and boarding passes with little hassle. All three airports are easy to navigate with the usual (outside the US) free luggage carts.

Kate was ready for bed around 5 pm. Unfortunately we had landing, immigration, baggage, customs and a taxi ride ahead of us. When I pull up Singapore weather on my cell phone, the bar across the top is a bright red. Hot! 93, feels like 100. 88, feels like 102. Those of you who know Kate will know this is not Norwegian friendly weather. The taxi ride was, for her, hot. She also gets car sick. Tired, hot, nauseated. Kate hell.

raffles town clubThe good news was that Mary, sister Mary, who lives in Singapore, has a friend who is a member of the Raffles Town Club. The Club has a floor of suites for members and guests, so Mary graciously offered to treat us to lodging there. The room, suite, is outrageous. High ceilings, a huge living room, spacious bedroom and an outsize bathroom. And, most importantly last night, it was cool. Made us feel like honored guests.

Mary also prepares a welcome kit that includes mass transit passes, maps and brochures. We’ll look at those over the course of the day. Today will be what Kate and I call a travel day. Rest and rejuvenate. Get oriented.

from the Air Conditioned nation.

Asia, Travel

Traveling

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Spring                                                                   Wedding Moon

incheon to Hong KongAt Incheon Airport on our way to Honk Kong, then Singapore. This airport is phenomenal. So easy to use. Again, why, oh why, can’t the U.S. get it? We have a lot to learn from these polite, organized cultures. Of course, they could learn a few things from us, too.

We leave Korea with a certain sadness joined with great happiness. Looking forward to relaxing in Singapore.

Well. Didn’t get this sent. No internet available on the plane. Now in Hong Kong, waiting on our flight to Singapore.

Both Hong Kong and Incheon seem oriented (ha) to the luxury shopper with Bulgari, Vuitton, Ferragamo and many other upscale shops. Hardly anyplace to eat unless you want jewels or duty free liquor.

20160412_123610I’ve read stories about landing at Honk Kong, but it was smooth. You do come down right after the water. I also read Taipan awhile ago. Peaked my interested. Another trip. Maybe include that visit to Taipei. Decided against that. Too complicated after a week of wedding. Wonderful, but tiring.

Clouds cover the mountains rising up from the sea, so Hong Kong itself is shrouded though we have fifteen, twenty foot high windows at our gate area. A new bridge across the bay is under construction and its bones are visible, no roadway yet. Chinese, Malay, Caucasians, Indians and many more make one vast source of income for Cathay Pacific. Capitalism, in this sense, is a great leveler. If you have cash, you can participate.

 

Asia, Family, Travel

And so

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Spring                                                  Wedding Moon

wedding1

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Kate and Seoah’s mother after lighting the candles symbolizing the unity of the families
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The bride’s side. Her mother and sister in traditional wedding attire.

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Seoah’s father, mother and two sisters

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Fellow Air Force officers: Kevin (L) and Daniel (middle)
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Asia, Family, Garden, Mountains, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Third Phase, Travel

Living in the present, surrounded by the past

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Spring                                                         Wedding Moon

Ellis and Jang
Ellis and Jang (Mary’s photo)

Yesterday we took a trip to the past. To Seoah’s family home and the village of the Jang family for at least four generations. The neighbor women sat at a low table eating from dishes and dishes of food. They looked up curiously as we came in the small traditional house, then went back to their meal.

(Kate took all the rest of these photos.)kids

The house had little furniture, mostly low tables and one chair, a massaging recliner that Mary (my sister) says is common in Singaporean households. Often the only chair in the house.

We met many black-haired children who ran around, curious and a little uncertain, Seoah’s two sisters and her older brother. Seungpil, husband of her younger sister, has been our taxi driver in a sleek, well-maintained black Hyundai, a Grandeur.

finding conifer
finding conifer

Seoah’s mother had charge of a compliment of women in the kitchen which had food plates and bowls and pans on all of its surfaces. Her father, a trim man, 71 moved with the grace of a 30 year old. He farms a large number of plots, some vinyl greenhouses, a rice paddie and several fields. I asked to see it and we walked around it all.

He proudly pointed to a tractor and said, in clear English, “John Deere!” He had a combine, a grain drier and a second Massey-Ferguson, older. He grows vegetables, hay and some fruit. Like any good farmer in the spring, after we left his home for the Bamboo Museum, he headed back into the fields.

john deere

Seoah’s home village nestles among low mountains that look (and probably are) ancient. They’re very beautiful, often mist covered and extending in ranges for some ways. Sangkuk is well beyond the metro region of Gwangju, in the country. As nearly as I could tell, the area around Sangkuk is only agricultural, no folks living the country life and commuting into the city.

fields and tombs
Jang family fields. Note tombs in forest clearing toward the right

 

Asia, Family, Travel

Songtan

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Spring                                                                          Maiden Moon

Ancientrails posting now from Songtan, South Korea. Pics, later words. Sorry about the inverted picture. I’ll fix it later.

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Asia, Family, Travel

Almost

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Spring                                                                            Maiden Moon

The last or next to last North American post until the end of April. My laptop rests between layers of clothes in its foam sheath in the big red suitcase. Due to arthritis I’m making my carry on, a backpack, as light as possible and the laptop adds too much weight. So, I may not post anything until Korea after this one.

Nothing says I’m getting ready to go like a medical conundrum. Over the last couple of days my blood pressure has chosen to go up and down, labile. If we were staying here, I could just go in and get it dealt with on Monday. But, no way am I staying home, especially this trip. So, we’re going to have to do something today. Not sure what yet. We’ll decide when Kate gets up.

I woke up this morning wondering when Santa Claus was going to come. That’s how excited I get before a big trip. Everything’s packed, arrangements are made. All that remains is this untoward medical insult. Sigh.

 

 

Family, Third Phase, Travel

Going Away

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Imbolc                                                                   Maiden Moon

I’m in pre-big trip mode. My sibs, Mary and Mark, have made international travel something like grabbing the Greyhound from Chicago to New York City, but I’ve done far less, so each time I go there seems to be a lot to consider. Here are a few.

What to pack? Always, less is more, but still even the less has content. Less of what should I take? Solved one problem by having Seoah find me a place to rent a tux or a suit. Still. The plan right now is to take what can fit in the big red suitcase and one carryon. The big red suitcase we bought for the Latin America cruise. There are some packing tips that I have saved and a checklist of necessities I made several years ago and update from time to time.

How to get money? In olden days cash or traveler’s checks. Now there are options. A debit card for a cash draw each day gets a good exchange rate and eliminates the need for protecting a large stash. A credit card is useful for bigger expenses: hotel bills, fancy meals, tuxedo rentals. One site I read recommended keeping one one-hundred dollar bill somewhere apart from everything else. Think I will.

(the wedding will be in Gwangju, near the southern tip of Korea.)

Jet lag. Easier going east to west than the reverse, but still a factor. Melanin. Change sleep patterns in advance. Get sunlight as soon as possible in Korea. Helps the inner clock reset.

Illness, even death. Aging adds another frisson to international travel. Have to get up and walk during the long flight to avoid deep vein thrombosis, not to mention oiling up the creaky joints both of us have. A supply of medications. Travel insurance. In the past I would avoid this, but repatriation of a corpse is expensive and, well, death happens.

Emergency preparedness for home. We live in a fire-prone habitat, so it’s not impossible that our home could burn down while we’re gone. Unlikely, yes, but not impossible. So, we need to gather the documents necessary for modern life, including photos of all of our stuff. Once they’re in one portable file holder we’ll ask Holly and Eduardo to keep them for us.

The car. I know about the park and ride services in the Twin Cities, but not here yet. We have, once again, positioned ourselves in the furthest point away from the airport while still nominally in the broad Denver metro. Far cheaper to park near the airport, but those sites have to be found.

And of course, as Donald Rumsfeld famously said, there is, too, the unknown unknown.

 

Asia, Dogs, Family, Health, Travel

Today

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Imbolc                                                                                        Valentine Moon

Tai chi finished up today. Just in time, I think I got it. Still plan to use the form I’ve learned as a mid-morning break from work. Gotta get it into my routine though. Not yet.

Vega continues to get better, move around more. She’s not drugged up and that helps a lot, but she’s also determined to get things back to normal. Her spirits are wonderful, tail thumping, her signature move.

Kate and I have sleep deprivation from the last week plus. Long nap this afternoon, more sleep tomorrow, too, I imagine.

Beginning to get an Asia focus, thinking about Korea, Singapore. Mary has found a place for us to stay at the Raffle’s Town Club. This is an offshoot of the larger, historic Raffles Hotel in downtown. The Town Club is close to her home.

 

Aging, Beyond the Boundaries, Faith and Spirituality, Quotes, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Third Phase, Travel

Live in the Whole Ocean

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Yule                                                                         New (Stock Show) Moon

 

 

“Kay Cottee AO is an Australian sailor, who was the first woman to perform a single-handed, non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation of the world. She performed this feat in 1988 in her 37 feet yacht Blackmores First Lady, taking 189 days.”    Wikipedia

When Jessica Watson, in 2009, set sail for her southern hemisphere circumnavigation of the world, she was 16. I don’t recall how, but I found her website on which she posted as she sailed alone in her boat, True Spirit. There was something about her, something fresh and brave, youth, yes, but something more, perhaps it was true spirit.

Since then, I subscribed to her facebook page so I can keep very loose tabs on her as she grows older. Just curious about how true spirit manages adulthood. Wonderfully, as it turns out. She’s inspirational to Australian girls, an advocate for sailing and a modest celebrity down under.

She posted this quote from her idol, Kay Cottee. She means us to take it, I think, as literally intended, a comment on the nature of voyages alone. It is, however, too, a way of understanding the ancientrail we call life.

 

Friends, Minnesota, Third Phase, Travel, Woolly Mammoths

Where They Know My Name

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Mabon                                                                           Moon of the First Snow

Lonnie and Stefan came to Shadow Mountain yesterday. We had a nice visit, showed them around the homestead and had a deli lunch Kate gathered at King Sooper. In correspondence with Stefan later I gave a voice to a recent recognition about friends:

“I’ve been thinking about making new friends out here. At first, it was a high level need. I jumped into a sheepshead group, tried to connect with the Sierra Club and a group called Friends of the Mt. Evans Wilderness. Then I realized that the friends I made in Minnesota like you and Lonnie have a depth, a history that I will never replicate here. Not enough time.

So, a high priority for me is to maintain face-to-face contact with as many of you as I can. The Woolly retreat is one way and I hope to make it back for the Nicollet Island Inn dinner in December. That way, combined with trips like yours and Lonnie’s, I can stay in relationship with those I love in Minnesota.

I’ll make new friends here, too, eventually, but these will be third phase friends. They can’t share the second phase time I spent with all of you in Minnesota.”

This might sound dismal. But it simply recognizes the truth of the friendships I found in political work with the Sierra Club, among the docent corps at the MIA and in the Woolly Mammoths. These are not to be left behind, but nurtured still. The times of being with many of these friends was episodic even while in Minnesota. So the duration between face-to-face moments may increase, but it also may not.