While in Costa Rica, a group of about 12 family & friends went on the Buena Vista Rainforest Tour and this included a water slide that goes thru the rainforest and snakes its way around trees. It takes about 5 minutes to walk to the top of the hill but there you are greeted by a young Costa Rican filling a pool of water (that is chilly) and then opens up the dam to propel you down the slide.

You are given a helmet and an inner tube at the bottom of the hill. The helmet’s purpose is straightforward but the inner tube wasn’t right away. You sit with your legs through the tube and it keeps you inside the slide and also slows you down a little. Without it, you would fly down the slide, probably bruising yourself more than usual, and possibly fly off the track by going to fast.

Here’s a quick video that I captured with my waterproof GoPro helmet cam. Enjoy.

Rainforest Water Slide from Alan Amato on Vimeo.

On April 6, 2011 I ventured to the Buena Vista Rainforest tour facilities in Guanacaste, Costa Rica along with some of my family. Along with horseback riding, ziplining, and hot springs they also have a water slide that is very fast, somewhat treacherous, and goes thru the rainforest.

Music: 30 Seconds to Mars – This is War
Video: GoPro Helmet Hero HD camera shot at 720p/60fps
Copyright 2011 alanamato.com

Until about a month ago, I did plan on going to Costa Rica to attend my cousin, Natasya’s, wedding due to the fact that I didn’t know where I’d be in the world. But as my schedule became more clear I realized I could attend and tack on some more fun time before the wedding party arrived. I was expecting to pay through the nose for airfare from LAX to Liberia, Costa Rica but roundtrip via Kayak.com cost me $692. Little did I know that this price included business class seats to & from Liberia. Let’s just say that on the flight from Miami to Costa Rica, I was living it up and felt like royalty. I guess American Airlines was really trying to sell tickets since I didn’t pay for this upgrade and didn’t realize it until I printed my boarding pass. The coach passengers only got a drink but I had a three course meal that was actually quite good. Not a bad way to start off my trip.

It was dark when I landed in Costa Rica and after going through their rudimentary customs process, I was assailed by 30 cab drivers who wanted to drive me to my hotel. Now the hotel I would be staying at with my other cousin, Triny, and her boyfriend, Neer, is called the Hilton Papagayo. It is an all-inclusive resort about a 20 minute drive from the Liberia airport and right on the Pacific Ocean. Now all the cab drivers colluded together to fix the price to the Hilton because the cab fare was much higher than going other places. I had to pay $55 for a one way trip but I didn’t have much choice.

I arrive and check-in at the Papagayo and find my two roommates at the bar and proceed to have a drink for free. And I also started a saying that I quoted several times over the next few days, “I love a menu that has no prices.” This was my first time staying in an all-inclusive and being able to eat anything, anytime, and drink whatever I wanted is pretty awesome. It was funny to note that it seemed like there were some very “low rent” and seemed out of place at an expensive all-inclusive. Neer, Triny, and I surmised there must have been a GroupOn deal for this weekend. haha

The next day we decide to go whitewater rafting on one of the local rivers using a local tour guide and company. It turned out to be a waste of time and will warn anyone that you need to go further east to the larger rivers if you want to enjoy Class IV whitewater rafting. Firstly, the rafts only held two people, one of us in front and one guide in the back. Now I am aware that it is the dry season in Costa Rica but the rafts were child’s play and the river was only ~ a Class .75 and I never once was scared and barely got wet. The only redeeming quality about the rafting was when we stopped for a short break where a rope swing could launch you into a deep section of water and there was also a large cliff you could jump off. I had fun on the rope swing and Neer and I also jumped from 5 meters up into the cool water. One of our guides jumped from about 9 meters but that was too high for our taste considering the depth of the water and the distance he had to travel out in order to clear the rock wall. I did manage to get some decent video with my waterproof HD helmet cam (from GoPro) so our $80 wasn’t completely wasted. The rest of the trip I referred to this event as whitewater canoeing due to its rather tame conditions and lame watercraft. The rest of the day we spent back at the Papagayo relaxing poolside getting some sun and getting our money’s worth in food and drink. After dinner, the resort had a live band singing Latin music as well as two dance instructors to teach guests to salsa, merengue, cha-cha-cha, etc. All three of us had a great time and knew that things were looking up.

The next day we joined about 30 other resort guests on a bus trip to Arenal Volcano. Arenal is one of about 8 volcanos in Costa Rica and one of only active ones. Our bus ride took about 3 hours and Triny, Neer and I became the life of the ride and were given the evil eye by our Costa Rican tour guide several times. On the ride to Arenal, we met a lovely woman, Susan, and her son, Andrew, from Virginia and we carried on an ongoing conversation and jokes as we rode along. About 3/4 of the way to Arenal, we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant that made excellent food and then were taken on a boat ride (on a massive man-made lake) close to Arenal. It is illegal to hike Arenal or to go within the restricted zone and will have to come back to venture closer. The next event took us on a guided walk thru the rainforest at the base of Arenal and I was amazed at how much color and life there was. Even in the dry season, the rainforest will still be very green and luscious. We did see rubber trees, citronella, a tree that smells and works like Ben Gay, as well as a plant whose leaves you chew and can help with a hangover. I wanted to fill up my pockets and see if this really worked. After the rainforest walk, we were taken to some hot springs that are heated by the energy from the volcano. There were five different temperatures pools and they were all quite hot but felt very good after the long day. Follow that up with a nice dinner with a couple bottles of wine shared by our table and most people were out like a light on the 3 hour bus ride home. But the night wasn’t over…..at least for me. We arrived back at the resort at ~9:30pm and I went directly to the bar for karaoke while Neer and Triny went directly to bed. I had a great time singing my usual songs along with a couple new ones and interacting with a fun Italian family.

On Tuesday morning, we began to pack up our stuff in order to catch a taxi down the coast to Tamarindo where we would meet up with our incoming family members arriving for Natasya’s wedding. But first we decided we wanted to go scuba diving and were lucky no one reserved the dive instructor that morning and for $135 we received a 45 minute lesson in the pool, 2 twenty minute dives, and our gear rental.

Our instructor was Robert from Antwerp, Belgium and he was quite a character and we liked him immediately. He had a sense of humor but was also professional about how he handled diving and our safety. This was the first time that I have gone scuba diving and am kicking myself for waiting so long to experience such an amazing feeling. At first, breathing in and out of your mouth under water is an odd sensation and I caught myself holding my breath a couple times but after a couple minutes I felt like a fish in water.

The boat took us about 15 minutes away from land and towards two rock formations that were good dive spots. Diving on the Pacific Ocean side of Costa Rica is quite different from Caribbean water. It is not as clear and blue and it is more susceptible to getting churned up and having reduced visibility. I took along my GoPro HD helmet cam that can sustain 60 feet depths and although the camera worked wonderfully, the visibility was not the best. We did get to see pufferfish, huge stingrays, sea cucumbers, eels, and tons of other fish I don’t know the name of. After returning from diving, we checked out from the Hilton Papagayo and rode about 1 hour to the town of Tamarindo and the Tamarindo Diria hotel.

Let’s take a short break and I’d like to offer some fun facts about Costa Rica and it’s wildlife….
1. Costa Rica has no military since 1948 and uses that money to build up their country and protect their environment.
2. Sloths are so lazy that if they drop a baby from a tree, they will not go down and pick it up leaving it to die.
3. Sloths aren’t hunted much (even though their meat is edible) since if you shoot them, they will still remain gripping the tree and you’d have to climb up to pull them down
4. Termite nests in Costa Rica are in trees and I find this highly ironic.
5. Sugar cane fields are burned twice in order to kill venomous snakes and mice. But this also serves to purify the sugar.
6. I did not detect a single 3G data signal (using my Kindle) and as such you’ll need to rely on WiFi for internet access.
7. For a mostly Catholic country it seems odd that prostitution is legal.

After getting settled into the Tamarindo Diria, those family members and friends who had already arrived headed to the beach to surf and watch those people surf. The surf instructor’s class was full but I decided to try surfing (for the 1st time) without a lesson. What ensued was an hour and a half of torture and frustration while being battered by the ocean. I’m usually quite good at picking up new activities but surfing is different and I decided I would take a lesson before I left.

The next day was spent mostly relaxing, hanging out with my family, and taking a few pictures. Up until now, we had been very active and it was nice to downshift and just relax and not do much of anything.

Thursday was another story. We signed up for a tour at a place called Buena Vista. Our $160 would get us each the bus ride to/from BV, a canopy/ziplining tour, rides on a jungle waterslide, lunch, horseback riding, and a mud bath with hot springs. On the drive to BV, our guide stopped the bus and pulled off an odd looking piece of fruit. It was small, red, somewhat pear-shaped, and had a curved nut at the bottom. The fruit stunk and we were told it was edible but that the nut was not. If you ate the nut without roasting it first, you would go to the hospital. So I ate the fruit which wasn’t bad and avoided the nut. Can you guess what the name of this fruit was? A cashew. That explains why cashews are so expensive. It takes on piece of fruit to produce one single cashew nut (which become edible after you roast them).

Again I brought my helmet cam and volunteered to be the first one down the ziplines through the jungle canopy. The longest zipline was probably 100 yards long and we were about 60 feet off the ground. It was quite enjoyable and would love to do it again even higher up and over longer distances.

Then we all changed into our bathing suits for the jungle water slide. We had to walk up the same hill the ziplines were located on and carried up a small rubber inner tube. A large tank of water filled up from a mountain spring and was located directly behind the slide. You sat down in the slide with the inner tube around your waist. Once the tank filled up enough, a worker would lift a lever that would release the water (which was quite cold) and push you down the slide at tremendous speed. I did the slide twice and the video from this was awesome. I was surprised at how violent the slide was and felt I would be thrown over the edge at a curve at least twice. But it was completely worth it.

Next came a delicious lunch with traditional Costa Rican food of rice, beans, chicken, and a few other veggies followed by a horseback ride. This trip included many firsts for me such as: surfing, scuba, horseback riding, ziplining, hiked near a volcano, first all-inclusive hotel, and hot springs, and first time in Central America and Costa Rica. The horseback ride was a little dusty and Jerry Seinfeld had it write when he talks about how these horses do this route every day and that we are just along for the ride and have zero control. I could never manage to coax my horse to trot or gallop but it was still enjoyable.

A short walk from the horse “stable” and we entered the hot springs area. The process would be as follows: 10 minutes in the sauna, cover yourself with mud and let it dry, shower off the mud, and then spend about 15 minutes in a hot spring. Apparently, this routine will take 10 years off and it did feel quite wonderful. The sauna opens up your pores, the mud clogs them while open, and then shower washes away the grime and impurities in your skin while the hot springs rejuvenate you.

Afterwards, we changed back into our clothes for the 2 hour drive back to Tamarindo. The previous night while at dinner, the power to the entire city went out and we were left with only candles to see with while we finished our dinner. It was much easier to look up and see the starry sky with no lights anywhere to be seen and I almost preferred it.

I had setup a surf lesson at 6am with a local surf shop owner since the water would be great at this time especially for a new surfer such as myself. For $40, I received a 1.5 hour personal lesson with Rafie. He explained how things worked in the sand first and then we tackled the surf. The lesson was immediately effective and I was able to stand up on my board and ride the wave nearly to shore on my first attempt. As time went by, I got better and better and Rafie took me further and further out. Compared to trying to surf two days prior to this, it was great fun and I felt much more confident knowing how to get up and what not to do.

At noon, the 25 or so family and friends gathered on the beach to be ferried out to a catamaran for a tour around the local coastline. I’ve never been on a catamaran and this trip reaffirmed what I always thought, that I want to own & sail a catamaran some day. The crew of the Blue Dolphin were very professional and we were served drinks and snacks while sailing towards a private beach. Once there, I swam to shore with a group of others and was immediately in awe of the surf crashing into the shore. This was no normal surf. The waves were at least 8 feet high and could sweep you off your feet while the undertow could pull you back into the ocean on its way out. The group of us spent the entire hour trying to remain standing while the waves crashed down and it was an awesome display of mother nature. At one point, myself, Brent and two others were in about 3 feet of water when they felt something brush past their legs and bump up against them. Brent saw a fin and tail whip in the water and it turned out to be a 3.5 ft shark. Needless to say, the got out of the water fast!

Swimming back to the boat was much more difficult but we did have lunch waiting for us and it was a delicious spread of Costa Rican food. Everyone was pretty tired from being in the sun most of the day and our day ended watching the sun set while facing west on the catamaran. It was a glorious sunset and I can’t wait to see another one while on the ocean.

Brent (my cousin’s fiance) isn’t a drinker but we took him out for a “bachelor party” that night to a local bar that played Reggae music. The music was quite good and we had a few drinks before heading back to the hotel and the big wedding day.

Since I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to attend the wedding or not, I was not hired by Brent and Natasya to shoot their wedding photos. But I was more than happy to take some photos of them both getting prepped for their special day along with a few shots of the ceremony itself. The ceremony was held on the Tamarindo Diria grounds right next to the beach. The setting sun was in the background as Brent and Natasya swore to love one another forever. It was a short but beautiful service and after a few drinks we headed across the street to the reception. A delicious meal was followed by the highlight of the day. Lots of dancing. I danced so much that my feet ached but again, it was pain that was very much worth it.

Triny, Neer and I were scheduled to fly out the next day and after another delicious breakfast, we hopped into a taxi for the hour ride back to the airport. I didn’t realize it until I was at the airport but you have to pay a $26 departure tax when you want to leave Costa Rica. And speaking of the airport, this was the smallest one I’ve ever been in. It didn’t even have walls all the way around but was open to the elements on most sides. But that didn’t matter this day since it was clear and sunny. All I could think about was the great times I had with my family and the memories……that and the comfortable business class seat waiting for me on the plane.

I recommend view the photos in full-screen by clicking the button in the bottom right corner of the photo gallery window. Enjoy.

As Mark, Dave, and I emerged from our bus into the Seoul bus station, the bustle of the largest city in Korea and the energy it gave off hit us right away. Mark was heading back to Incheon and the US a day earlier than Dave and I and we quickly found the bus heading to the airport. Dave and I had a reservation at the Best Western Kukdo just western of downtown. A $7 cab ride took us there and we settled in and formulated a game plan.

We would do some sightseeing and chose the Gyeongbokgung Palace since it is one of those recommended in my guide book and it was fairly close by. As it turns out the Palace is closed on Mondays and as we rerouted to visit the Electronics Market in the Yongsan district, our eye was caught by a formal procession involving traditionally-dressed warriors. Just as I was reading in the guide book about another place we could sightsee, we told the taxi to stop and walked back to the Deoksu Palace. Our timing couldn’t have been better since the perform a ceremonial changing of the guard every day at 3pm and we arrived as they were marching up.

What followed was a fantastic display of garb, ceremony, and tradition and lasted for about 15 minutes. On top of that, admission into the Palace was 1000 won or about $1. Dave and I walked around the Palace buildings and gardens for about 2 hours and the artistry and history of the place is amazing. It’s such a shame to think that many of the original temples and palaces across Korea were destroyed by the Japanese during there many invasions. After we had our fill of the Palace, we then headed to the Electronics Market.

The Market is flea market of sorts that spans several buildings and includes small shops that sell every type of electrical component you could need but mostly are for computer parts. In one building, you can see used and new cameras from the last 20 years. I saw the first digital camera I ever owned in 2000 for sale along with nearly every other camera I’ve used or bought. And this was just the tip of the iceberg. An entire building holds companies selling computer components but also assembled computers. I don’t know how so many small computer companies can survive when they seem to be selling nearly identical products.

The next morning Dave and I checked out of our room and took a cab to the Seoul train station. We packed our luggage into a locker and then headed to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. I recommend that if you stay in a hotel that has a concierge to ask them to write down the name of your hotel and the places you want to visit in Korean on separate pieces of paper. That way you don’t have to wait for a cab that speaks English but can simply hand them the piece of paper and there is no confusion.

The Gyeongbokgung Palace was similar to Deoksu Palace but on a much grander scale and was worth visiting. Both Dave and I came away with plenty of great images of the sculptures, grounds, palace buildings, you name it. I can only imagine how much beautiful these areas will be when spring comes to Korea in a few weeks and the flowers and grass are in full bloom.

Walking out the main entrance to the Palace we continued south dowd the main street that has a large walkway between the north and southbound lanes of traffic. Here you can find statues and museums dedicated to two of Korea’s most important figures, King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sunshin. King Sejong is most well known for creating the Korean alphabet that has lead to nearly 100% literacy in South Korea. There is only one way to say each consonant or vowel and one can learn to read the language after only an hour.

Admiral Yi Sunshin created the “turtle” ships and used them and his superior strategy to defeat the Japanese with only 12 remaining ships when heavily outnumbered. Both these museums are located below street level directly below their statues and are well laid out and very detailed and are free to visit.

After this, Dave and I took a cab back to the train station and then rode the express train to Incheon International airport to catch our 11 hour flight back to the west coast. It was a whirlwind tour of South Korea but definitely want to come back again.

I recommend you view the photos below fullscreen (by clicking the button in the lower right hand corner of the window).

The origins of the South Korea trip were born from the imagination of my good buddy Mark. He would be traveling back from China and thought it would be fun to meet up in Incheon and go visit his old stomping grounds around Osan Air Base near the towns of Songtan and Pyeongtaek.

Mark made some calls to old Korean friends who owned businesses back in 2002 that he would frequent informing them he was coming back to Korea for a few days. I would meet Mark and our friend Dave at the Incheon International Airport (west of Seoul) and travel down to Songtan from there.

Incheon airport has free wifi and this makes staying in touch and getting those vital bits of information critical. Again, two iPhone apps were extremely useful here; 1) Google Voice allows me to receive calls and send texts for free to stateside numbers and 2) Talkatone allows me to call US and international numbers over WiFi for free.

So we meet up and take the 1 hour 15 minute bus ride to Songtan bus station where we are met by Mr Yi. Mr Yi is one of the managers of the Korea Hotel a stones throw from the Osan AB main gate. We pack into his van and are whisked off to the comfort of the Korea Hotel.

We unpack and Mr Yi informs us that we should visit his sister’s restaurant around the corner for dinner. We do so and are treated to a delicious Korean meal (one of 4 meals we will eat there over the course of the next two and a half days of which the spicy pork was my favorite).

We hit the town that night and Mark takes us around to places you would frequent of which several have moved or are closed. The most important of which is Mrs. Lee’s bar which has since changed names and locations but we track her down with the help of Mr. Yi. Hugs are exchanged all around as we have a few libations and enjoy her new club.

The next day Mark and I venture out to find his most important contact and a large reason for our trip, Mr. Lim the tailor. Mark purchased several suits from Mr. Lim back in 2003 and wanted to update and replenish his stock as well as add some sports coats, shirts, and pants. We get ourselves measured and then proceed to pick out designs and fabrics we like and those that Mr. Lim recommends. Mr. Lim has an immaculate reputation for providing suits et al to service members and everyone from the previous Secretary of the Air Force to 4 star generals rely on him to look great. And so I now do also. I ordered a fair amount of new clothes and know they will last a long time but also look amazing and fit me perfectly.

Over the next day or so, we walk around the area and make some other purchases for items that are much less expensive than in the US and where the quality is again excellent. After

Koreans love picking on the low quality of Chinese made goods especially those goods they are selling similar ones of. Mr. Lim loved showing us how cheap Chinese fabrics could not compare to the high quality materials made in Korea.

Korean authorities have been cracking down on the manufacture and selling of exact duplicates of name-brand purses such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, etc. But those who want these can still find them. One purse shop owner called us into his shop and when we showed interest in seeing the “nice” purses he proceeded to lock the door while his partner went downstairs. He came up a minute later and gestured for us to follow him. Behind a false wall and thru a door the size of a movie poster were the exact copies of the fanciest purses on the market. The prices for these purses were much higher than Mark paid in China for several reasons. 1) they shop here is located right outside Osan Air Base and many Americans will pay higher prices for the convenience of close shopping 2) Korean quality is higher and 3) most people don’t know how to haggle. So Mark and I are negotiating for a $65 purse that he paid about $15 for in China. Mark suggests a price of $30 and the owner flips out. He yells, “Get the f#$% out of here…..I don’t like your face.” So we laugh out loud and then crawl back into reality and out of his shop. When we told the story to other Korean friends they were appalled and said he was a bad man for cursing like that and treating us this way. Needless to say, we didn’t buy anything from that guy but did get a funny story out of it.

These photos are a smattering of images from Daegu, Osan, and Seoul and were all taken with my pocket digital camera and are more “touristy” in nature. My next post will include only photos from Seoul and will be my final Korea post.

Roughly a two hour drive from Daegu the port town of Busan (formerly Pusan) is located. Jon and I made the journey together on a sunny, crisp morning. Jon had heard there was a temple overlooking the water and wanted to grab photos of this and the Haeundae Beach waterfront. A stones throw from the beach we parked his car and headed towards sounds of the ocean. Unsurprisingly, it was much cooler in Busan but it felt invigorating and the smell of the salt water is something I’ve missed since living in Charleston.

The city has created a beautiful walkway that goes the length of the waterfront in Haeundae and it makes getting nice shots and overlooking the ocean easy. There were sailboats, ferries, and other boats out in the bay enjoying the beautiful sunshine as much as we were. At points, you can even walk down the rocks and right to the water’s edge but be careful of your footing. Plenty of local fisherman were huddled on rocks and appeared to be catching little. While managing the rocks, I noticed that lit candles had been placed in a small rocky alcove and we surmised it was an offering to the gods for good fishing.

The boardwalk ends and leads right into the beach area of Haeundae. Rumor has it that during the warmer months, there isn’t a spot to be had on the beach and sunbathers are shoulder to shoulder. But this day there were only a handful of people on the beach and most of those walking near the surf. While walking on the boardwalk, we notice one of the most clever marketing tools I’ve seen. The city has installed a large computer monitor with a camera in the top. You can have your picture taken and then email it yourself. Then you can opt in to receiving more information about tourism, events, etc. You get something and they get something out of the deal. Brilliant.

At around 3pm, we decided that we would search for the Seokbul Temple that Lonely Planet said is worth the trouble of finding and is located on top of one of the local mountains. A cable car can take you up the mountain and from there we could walk to the fortress and temple that live on top of the mountain. Using a combination of the basic map in Lonely Planet, our nearly useless GPS map, and my good sense of direction, we headed towards Kumgang Park just north of the city and Mt Kumjeong. As we got closer to where I estimated the cable car should be, we noticed the tell-tale brown cultural/tourist signs for Kumgang Park.

We found a small paid parking lot across the street at a local church (only 1,000 won) and hurried up the slope to the cable car ticket office. It turns out that the last cable car comes down the mountain at 6pm and we were heading up at 4:50pm. That would give us little time to walk to the temple and explore. But we decided to give it a shot and paid the 6,000 won (~$5) for the 5 minute cable car ride. This is where our day became very interesting.

Jon is not a fan of heights. And when I say that, I am understating this fact and wasn’t aware of this as I’m telling him about all the sites I can see as we climb higher and higher. He just calmly sat facing inward and looking out only when necessary. I applaud him for venturing up the (540m above sea level) mountain with me to begin with.

We begin walking towards the fortress and the signs indicate it is 1.6 km away. That translates to 1 mile and even over level ground walking one way would take about 15 minutes. We set off at a good pace and despite the crisp afternoon air we began to work up a little sweat and did reach the South Gate of the fortress walls about about 5:20pm. We did some quick arithmetic in our heads and determined that we wouldn’t make it the additional .6km to the temple and back to the cable car without it leaving without us at 6pm. We snapped a few pictures of the south gate and then hiked back the way we came, stopping at 2nd Watchtower for a few more photos. Just as we were walking down the hill, our day became even more interesting.

A small Hyundai passenger van with 5 Koreans inside pulls up and a man jumps out and starts asking us questions in Korean. He holds up a cable car receipt identical to ours and is motioning us to come with him. We pull out our own tickets and try to explain that “yes, we are taking the cable car and bought a ticket”. Jon deciphered from the man that perhaps that cable car was having a problem and that we should get into the van with him. We reluctantly climbed into the van and it slowly begins creeping down the mountain road that I swear is used to test tanks.

The gentlemen continues to explain (in Korean) the situation but we are at a loss for what he intends. However, he does hand two cable car tickets to us with the stubs. We assume that he is part of the staff and is picking up people who had intended on taking the last cable car but since it has an issue, is giving us two more tickets to ride another time.

Now I consider myself an analytical person but this is where some contradictions arose in our logic. As we near the bottom of the mountain my sense of direction kicks in and I realize we are approaching Kumgang Park from a similar direction we drove in and mention this to Jon. But the driver turns left away from the Park and my instincts tell me we should get out and walk the short distance to our car since there is no telling where this van is going. I tap on the man’s shoulder and do some quick charades of me driving a car and pointing back up the hill. We stop, they let us out with smiles all around and walk the quarter mile to our car.

One final piece of information arises that again throws our logic for a loop. Around 6:02pm we notice the cable car coming down the mountain and another one going up. Did the cable car indeed have an issue? Did the man offering us a ride down the mountain think we were someone else or that we might not make it the cable car in time? If so, why then did he take us back to where the cable car ends in Kumgang Park and keep driving into the city? If he was part of the Park staff and was giving us refunds for our tickets, he should know where to drop us off, correct?

We will never know the answer to these question and the enigma will remain unsolved since we couldn’t ask the staff and I won’t be going back for a while. Oh well, perhaps it’s a mystery better left unsolved.

On our drive home, Jon and I stopped at another rest stop restaurant and had one of the most delicious and hottest soups ever. It included vegetables, tofu, and shrimp and it was just the right amount of spicy to make my nose water but not be painful.

And thus ended another great day in Korea.

Daegu is located in the southeastern region of Korea and is home to over 3 million people. That is one astonishing fact that I was not totally prepared to see; so many people living in such large cities. Daegu is the second largest city (formerly known as Taegu) and is quite easy to get around especially by cab. Whereas in Europe everyone and their cousin owns a bicycle, here in Daegu many people get around by car or scooter. Koreans love to hike and to buy the apparel that goes with hiking but I saw few bicyclists. I swear I saw more outdoor clothing stores here than in any reasonably sized US city and randomly walked passed two North Face stores while seeing the city.

I spent a couple days walking around Daegu and the first took Espen, Jon, and I to the lively Seomun Market. You can buy anything from a new flannel jumpsuit to chickens to spices to fish. I was having a field day with my camera especially shooting from platforms above the market and capturing unique situations and poignant moments from a great angle. We walked around for perhaps two hours soaking up the atmosphere and breathing in the plethora of urban and rural smells brought together in a confined space. The older women working their booths were not accommodating to having their pictures taken but with a decent zoom lens (105mm+) and being stealthy, you can capture these distinguished women in action.

Randomly, my little brother was in Korea for work and even more fortuitously, in Daegu. Jon and I met him downtown for a Korean dinner and then a few drinks at a couple watering holes in the downtown area.

The other day walking around Daegu was spent preparing for me to jump from the 77th floor of the Daegu Tower. Jon and I grabbed some breakfast (Espen went back to Norway a couple days previous) and mentally prepared to freefall 123m straight down the side of the tower. It’s not a bungie jump but closer to a freefall rappel. Jon and I first grabbed a beer on the restaurant deck which slowly turns clockwise to give you a 360 view of the city and waited for the SkyJump floor to open at 1pm. Apparently, I was the first jumper of the season and signed in the 1st spot at the top of their sign-in sheet. I can honestly say that I was not nervous one bit until I started to walk onto the platform. Now there are 3 types of ways you can jump from the tower 1) they lock you into the cable and you hover over the ground while they take your picture, then you are dropped 2) you jump off the platform but are stopped about 5 feet down to get your picture taken and then are dropped from there, 3) you have your picture taken on the platform and then jump off. I am not necessarily afraid of heights but I do get a little nervous when my life is on the line, literally and figuratively. In order to heighten my experience and get the scariest possible jump, I chose option 1. I could feel a slight tightening in the pit of my stomach as I walked halfway out the ledge and was carabinered into the cable. It wasn’t enough of a feeling to cause me to turn back but it was there. Locked into the cable the true test of faith came. I had to grab two cables on either side of me and lean out over the edge of the building. If anything was going to go wrong, it would be now. I politely asked the “jumpmaster” if I was supposed to let go now and he said yes. So there I was, dangling 123m off the ground staring straight down at a bullseye that looked ridiculously small compared to seeing it from ground level. A couple photos were taken (free of charge as part of my jump cost) and a split second after he took the last photo he says, “Bye” and I plummet earthward. I did yell for the first second or two and an expletive may have slipped my lips but after that it was sheer joy and it felt amazing. About 6 seconds later, I land softly in the center of the bullseye and am being unlinked from the cable. I did find it slightly funny that the young guy releasing me from the cable was having a hard time with unlocking the carabiners. It wasn’t funny that he was struggling but that he admitted to me, “this is my first day, I’ve never done this before”. I sure am glad that he is working at the bottom of the cable and not at the top. So how much would you expect to pay for such an experience? $80? $60? How about 40,000 won (~$36). It was an especially good deal considering the two photos I received usually run about $10+ in similar situations.

Needless to say my blood was pumping a good deal but not as much as when I ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain in 2003. That still tops them all since my hands were visibly shaking from the adrenaline rush. If Pamplona was a 10 out of 10 for adrenaline rushes, the SkyJump from Daegu Tower was a 7.

After the jump, Jon and I decide to walk around the park across the street that is adjacent to the cultural arts center. Our walk takes us up one of the hills that pepper Daegu and we are pleasantly surprised to see 80 year old men and women hiking up the steep hill with relative ease. I believe the Koreans don’t worry about getting exercise to stay healthy, they just hike because they enjoy it and it comes naturally to them. We discover the Daegu Tourist Center and an open-air amphitheater that he had not been to before. As Jon was grabbing some brochures, I notice that the parks has benches set up for men to play baduk (also known as Go in Japan). There are perhaps 8 games being played with about 15 onlookers. Baduk is a highly strategic game even though it has few rules and is easy to understand. Perhaps that is why up until recently, baduk was taught in school to prepare the kids for thinking about war and tactics from a young age. I blend into the crowd of onlookers and happily snap several photos and am very happy with what I came away from. Most of the men were at least 50 years old and were concentrating intensely on the game board and did pay me any mind. But the few who did gave me a generous smile and continued to play. I could have stood, watched, and shot photos for an hour but am happy to have had the time I had.

For dinner, Jon recommended we visit a German/Korean restaurant downtown called the Hotel New Young-Nam Brau. From 5:30pm-9pm they host a buffet of Korean food and German sausage along with sushi, soups, and various seafood including octopus. I sampled the raw octopus for the first time and it was tasty if not a little tough. For 25,000 won you can eat and drink (beer they brew themselves on site) as much as you like. They also provide live entertainment on their little stage. Overall, it was a great dinner and a good night out on the town.

Side note: did you know that one of the acceptable forms of the plural of octopus is octopodes? Octopus comes from the Greek and if you don’t believe me check out Wikipedia. I was just as surprised as you are and will stash this fun fact away to pull out at dinner parties.

In order to keep my travel burden to a minimum, I packed only my REI hiking backpack and a small PacSafe backpack for my laptop and Kindle. My camera of choice for this trip was the Canon 7d and the 24-105mm F4 lens. This lens is quite good and the widest focal length is not very wide but is adequate for most situations and 105mm is usually enough to reach out and grab the scenes that are just out of reach. I really like the maximum aperture of F4 and this helps tremendously to give that low depth of field I love in my photos. There are many other travel lenses that offer much more telephoto reach (200mm+) but their maximum apertures are 5.6 or 6.3 and these lenses aren’t nearly as quick on the autofocus as the Canon 24-105.

There are always going to be small details or differences that stand out while traveling abroad and one I recognized were the elevators. The idea is the same but some elevators here allow you to cancel a floor choice after you’ve hit the button. Say you jump in on the ground floor and hit #5 but then you realize you really needed #6 instead. Just tap floor 5 again and the light turns off and you won’t stop there. Genius.

So long Colorful Daegu. Thank you for the memories and photos.

My flight from LAX landed in Tokyo for a 30 minute layover before continuing onto Incheon, Korea. I cleared customs at about 9pm and started getting my bearings. First stop, an ATM. FYI: be sure to look for a “Global ATM” since regular ATMs will not work with a foreign bank card. I contacted my buddy, Jon, bought a 10:30pm ticket, and then boarded a bus from Incheon airport bound for Daegu, roughly 4.5 hours southeast. The bus ride cost about 35,000 won which translates to roughly $32 (the exchange rate is 1110 won to 1USD). I rode the comfortable express bus with 5 other passengers and our driver must have been braking every speed limit since we arrived in Daegu 1 hour ahead of schedule. But I’m not complaining at all.

I hopped into the first cab and showed him my friend’s address (written in Korean) and he punched it into the fanciest GPS receiver I’ve ever seen. Not only was the screen at least 7 inches wide but the entire city was in 3D. Roughly 15 minutes later I arrived at my friend’s apartment building and borrowed the cab driver’s phone to inform him I was downstairs. A note about Korean taxi drivers; most have lead feet and are very smooth drivers who can buzz you around the city dodging and weaving in traffic like it’s an art form. Also, the cabs are so inexpensive. My 15 minute ride cost me only 8,000 won (~$7). There is no reason not to use them if you happen to go out to dinner and have a few drinks. Jon and I had an extended conversation about how they are so inexpensive, readily available from almost any city street corner, fast and comfortable and why American cabs are the exact opposite.

We walk upstairs and I’m greeted by an old friend from my days living in Belgium, Jeff, a former Dutch AF officer who was a work colleague back in 2001-2003. He was in town visiting with another former colleague, Espen, a retired Norwegian AF officer. Thanks to the power of Facebook coordinating their trip was seamless. We crack open a few beers and catch up for about an hour till we head to bed around 3:30am.

On my flight over, I used a jet-lag remedy technique that involves your body’s energy centers and I can tell you that it worked wonders on this trip and when flying to Europe in January. I had zero hangover on both trips. I wake up around 7:30am and am ready to tackle the day. We decide to visit a small town about an hour southeast called Gyeongju and known for having more ancient ruins, temples, you name it than anywhere else in Korea. On the drive there we stop at a highway rest area and grab an early lunch of Korean food. The bulgogi and kimchi (the national dish of Korea) were delicious and very spicy, just the way I like it.

Gyeongju is home to many ancient tombs from the Shilla dynasty where the kings were buried in huge mounds of dirt along with their large fortunes. Only a few of these mounds have ever been excavated and the intricate goldwork and treasures found inside are staggering to behold. Who knows what other fortunes lie below the 20 other tombs in Tumuli Park.

FYI: roughly 10 years ago, South Korea decided to standardize the spelling of many of their towns and as such Gyeongju was known as Kyongju. Many towns that started with a “K” were changed to a “G”. This is only a problem if you use an old guidebook, your GPS device doesn’t have these changes, or if some signs have not been updated. It turned out to be an issue since our Lonely Planet guide was up-to-date but the Garmin GPS was not.

The tombs are fascinating to walk around and you can even walk inside one that has been excavated. It is still winter in Korea and in a few short weeks Gyeongju will be very beautiful when the color and flowers return.

Afterwards we visit the Gyeongju National Museum (which is closed on Mondays btw) and walk around the grounds observing the ancient artifacts. It’s interesting to note that Korea ranks its national gems and we saw several in the top 10. The #1 treasure is apparently in the closed museum we couldn’t enter.

One of the eye-opening (and slightly funny) events would then befall me as we drove to our next destination. Across Korea many bathrooms still use old toilets that are not much more than a porcelain rectangle about 1ft x 2ft set right into the floor. There is no seat and you squat over the hole to go #2. They have been dubbed squatty potties and I used one for the first time. It is slightly uncomfortable to stoop above them and it becomes increasingly difficult the longer you take to finish your business as your legs can start to cramp up. Here is where it gets slightly funny. On entering the bathroom, I chose the first stall and as it turns out the other 3 stalls employed regular western-style toilets with seats and all. Oh well, at least I got a good story out of it.

A short drive up the mountain takes you to the Bulguksa Temple that was built 15 centuries ago. Much of it (and many other temples and historical sites around Korea) were burned to the ground by the Japanese invaders throughout the centuries. Here the buildings that were burned down have been rebuilt in their former glory and are impressive to say the least. An entrance ticket for the Temple costs 4,000 won and is money well spent.

Bulguksa is a Buddhist temple and one of the ancient symbols of Buddhism is the swastika. It is startlingly to see the symbol that the German Nazis “stole” to represent their movement painted on temple buildings all over Korea.

We worked up an appetite after walking around all day and wandered into the small town just below the Temple’s parking lot. We chose a small restaurant randomly since it looked inviting but was also called the “Good Restaurant”. We had to make sure that their signage was accurate. And we were in store for a mass of delicious Korean food, mostly spicy beef with an assortment of mountain veggies. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves and the old grandmother taking our order and making our food was a trip.

When she brought our food to us she gestured with her hands how we should take some rice and veggies, put them into the large bowl in front of us and mix in some of the beef stew. She did this a couple times and then simply came up, grabbed Espen’s bowl, dumped the entire rice bowl into his large bowl and the grabbed one bowl of vegetables and put one into each of our bowls. Apparently she became slightly exasperated that we were being too slow and scraping in small amounts at a time and not just dumping it all in at once. She did it good naturedly and we got a good laugh at this grandmother taking care of us youngsters and teaching us how to eat this unfamiliar dish.

I ventured down to New Orleans on a two-prong mission; 1) visit my older brother and his fiance’s family and 2) help prepare the “farm” for the wedding and reception.

The fact that it happened to be Mardi Gras during my visit was purely coincidental and I did witness my first Mardi Gras parade with a drink in hand.

The wedding will be held about an hour outside of New Orleans at the family farm. We spent several days painting, cleaning, and doing anything and everything that needed to be done. I had a fantastic time meeting new family members and remeeting my brother’s soon-to-be inlaws.

All of the photos below were taken on their property including at the edge of their 30 acre lake. They have a beautiful family and farm and I can’t wait to go back in May to serve as my brother’s best man.

While skiing in the Alps in Grimentz, going on several hikes, and visiting Zermatt and the Matterhorn, I was able to capture many photos of the Alps. I decided to create a specific gallery of photos of my favorites taken at altitude and have named it the Alps Mountain Collection.

I chose to make many of these black & white since the mountains and the high contrast between the sky and snow were begging me to turn them into b&w.

Enjoy.

As they say all good things must come to an end and my trip was no different. After arriving back from London and Paris, I had one last day to travel to a Swiss city I’ve never seen. Fribourg was recommended to me by Sarah and it is a short 20 minute train ride from Bern. Fribourg is located on a river and on a hillside that makes for some good walks all day long.

I did zero research before arriving in Fribourg and it worked out wonderfully. I picked a random road to start walking down and even though it didn’t lead into the city center or near any tourist sights, I came away with some great photos I would never have taken.

I then took another random road that led me towards the center of town and by a local farmer’s market. I didn’t end up buying anything but did come away with a sense of the local foods being grown and a few nice pix.

Perhaps the most memorable and unique sight in Fribourg is the “train” that can take people from the lowest part in Fribourg up to the city center area. It is essentially a small train car set on a track right on the hillside. I took numerous photos of it and you can see them in the gallery below. I didn’t ride the train but walked the staircase next to it taking photos along the way.

The main cathedral reminds me of many others in Europe and especially the one is the small town of Tongeren in Belgium (where I lived back in 2001-03). The sky was overcast most of the day but luckily it didn’t rain as I walked across the main bridge taking me just outside the city but closer to the ancient wall and fortifications.

I can imagine Fribourg being overrun with tourists in the warmer months but I nearly had the streets to myself here in February. Fribourg is a college-town and even though I didn’t see many students, the energy that they bring would only make this beautiful city that much more fun to visit and walk around.