Today we hiked to Kokoda - about a 50 minute walk. Our host family in Beleni village walks this every day for vegetables and fruit as that is the main method of transportation here. They said this is very short walk for them; I hate to see what a long walk would would be like! There is a concrete slab where ladies walk from nearby villages and sell mostly vegetables - small bundles are tied up neatly and are displayed on their plastic sheets. … [Read more...]
Hanging out in Belini Village
Taking survey of our trekking injuries so far, we decided to spend a rest day around Beleni Village. Still recovering from falling against some sharp rocks in Australia a week ago, open sores from hiking, a nasty sunburn, a piece of a thorn stuck in the finger, flu like symptoms including a fever and back spasms from riding the sides of the PMV for three hours on a brutally bumpy road. As we've experienced before, its hard to decide on … [Read more...]
Popondetta Arrival
Our 25 minute flight on Air Nuigini from Port Moresby was nearly empty and we arrived 20 minutes early, landing on the rough landing strip that is surrounded by jungle. We thought we were going to overnight it in Popondetta but the lady who was meeting us persuaded the driver to wait for several hours - along with all the passengers. Talk about patience and being way cool! A terrible cyclone six years ago destroyed all the bridges from … [Read more...]
Our First Introduction to Papua New Guinea
It is only fitting that I found myself in an airplane to begin the dawn of the new year. This past year was a whirlwind of travel, airplanes and airports. With 28 countries and territories visited in 2012 (including my home country) - 2013 is off to a good start! Papua New Guinea has long been on my list of countries to visit for a number of reasons: incredible array of wildlife ranging from the untouched marine environments to colorful birds, … [Read more...]
Benxi Water Cave
Today we visited the Benxi Water Cave - the temperature was about -9 Celsius outside while the inside of the cave was around 12 C - much more pleasant! This is the world's largest underground water cave system accessible by boat. Thousands of stalactites hang from the ceiling and the interior is lit up by both under water lights and lights near the ceilings. Beautiful eclectic pieces of stone line the riverbanks. The water is super clear and not … [Read more...]
Dandong, North Korean Border
We arrived in Dandong - in the mid afternoon. This tiny community of 1 million people line the banks of the Yalu River directly across from North Korea. This river divides the two countries. After a lunch of "meat" in which we cooked chicken heads, other entrails and beef over a gas powered stove built into our table - we headed out to the Broken River Bridge. This iron bridge was built over the Yalu River in 1911 by the Japanese. It was the … [Read more...]
Dalian China Greetings
Greetings from Dalian China. This and the last city we visited of Shenyang would EACH be the second largest city in all of the USA! Here is a stat to chew on that I read in the latest issue of Conde Naste Traveler, not sure if its true or not, but it read something like this, "China has 370 cities with populations of between 1 and 5 million, the United States has eight - nineteen China cities have populations of more than 10 million - more than … [Read more...]
Magic Slope and Magic Meal
The weather is slowly getting colder and colder this week. Today we headed out of town to the "magic slope" where you can seemingly sit on a bike and move "uphill" without peddling. It took about an hour to get here. Once we arrived we parked at the entrance as they wouldn't let us enter because of all the black ice covering the steep road up to the 'spot'. Our driver exited our vehicle and walked over to purchase tickets at the booth. As he … [Read more...]
Antiquing & Wine Tasting in Shenyang
Today was another fun filled day in Shenyang. The group that is hosting us owns a number of incredible antique stores - featuring some of China's finest wood furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties. A couple of pieces certainly stand out: the largest ancient sandalwood closet in all of China, an amazing large piece of amber with a million year old scorpion preserved perfectly inside, and a huge quartz crystal rock with a number of partially … [Read more...]
Shenyang Cold Weather
Shenyang, where we are currently, is considered just a small to medium sized city in China; it has a population of around 9 million people. Ummm, this would be the second largest city if it was located in the USA, behind NYC and ahead of LA! This is a very wealthy city; we counted 5 different Louis Vuitton shops, a Maserati, Ferrari and Bentley dealerships. Several streets have major name brand after name brand lined up. Cold is the name of … [Read more...]
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