Adelaide & Perth Australia

This week I traveled to Adelaide, Australia for 3 days, then over to Perth for the remainder of the week. Traveling to Australia from KL wears me out, since both outgoing and incoming flights are all red-eyes. Some people sleep away the overnight hours on these long flights and arrive at their destination fully rested; I am not one of these people. I'm pretty much wrecked when I arrive. I will say that, after logging almost 300 hours flying time in the past 12 months, I am getting better at it.

I arrived in Adelaide at 7:00am and made it to my hotel by 9:30. After a 2 hr power nap, I was picked by a colleague and we drove an hour into the mountains to watch the "Rally-SA." (SA is the abbreviation for the Australian state of South Australia) Since July-Sept is Winter in Australia, the weather was a cool 12 C (54 F). We drove past rivers, small towns, lakes and even a wine vineyard. It was almost like being home in the Black Hills. Once into the foothills, we came around a corner and saw this road sign.

I said "Hmmm...that would be cool to see a Kangaroo!" To which my colleague relied "I sure the hell don't". I guess a kangaroo is just as much of a nuisance and a hazard to the Australian driver as a deer are to the US driver. But, still, I wanted to see one. So I kept my eyes peeled, but no luck.

We then arrived at the "Rally-SA". This was one stage of the Australian Rally Championship. This is one of those off road stage races where the driver and navigator make their way across hundreds and hundreds of kilometers on windy tree laden gravel roads; at really fast speeds. Sometime they catch some good air or even slide off the road on a mis-judged corner. The weather was cool, the air was fresh; burgers and hot chocolate were abound. Some families even had their own campfire.

We had a good spot right along a long straightaway. We could first hear the cars approaching (about 2 minutes apart), then they would jump into our view just over the rise. They'd accelerate through the straights and I'd think to myself there is no way this guy is going to make the corner. Just then they lock the brakes, drop a couple gears, pitch the car sideways and accelerate though the corner. At least that's what the good ones do. Once in while one will brake too hard, or too early, and simply drive around the corner. On a couple of occasions, they came in too fast and slid completely off the road. That really gets the crowd excited.

We drove back to town and had a nice dinner at a Greek restaurant, then I finally got some serious shut-eye. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. Work, work and more work. Tuesday night I flew from Adelaide to Perth, which is only about 4 hrs. Perth is located on the lower west coast of WA (Western Australia). Again, I spent most of my time working and entertaining customers. I don't have too many pictures from Perth, as I have yet to see anything really iconic about the city. If it weren't for the local accents or the cars driving on the left-hand side of the road, I really couldn't tell the difference between this Australian city and a typical American city. I did find interesting, however, the way they control pedestrian traffic at intersections. When you walk up to an intersection, like anywhere, you have to hit the crosswalk button to cross. After a few minutes, all the traffic lights turn red, stopping cars in all directions, an all cross walks turn green. This gives pedestrians right-of way in all directions, even diagonally. I thought to myself "hmmm...thats a pretty damn good idea."

I did learn to speak some Australian. Most of the time, just end the word with an "i" or "y" and you will be fine.

Uni = University
Sunnies = sunglasses

Footy = Australian football

Icy=Popsicle

Choci's=chocolates

Lollies= candy

Mozzies=mosquitoes

Dilly=small bag

Nappy=diaper

Shekou, China

Last week I went to Shekou, China for 3 days. To get there you fly to Hong Kong then take a ferry to Shekou which is only about a 30 minute ride. I checked into the hotel and was immediately greeted by a couple guys I work with and we were off to dinner.

(View from my room)

We walked from the hotel to a part of town that had a sea side boardwalk with numerous restaurants. Most of the restaurants were of the local Asian variety but a few catered to the western palette; Starbucks, Pizza Hut and, of course, the Asian favorite, KFC. We selected a local restaurant specializing in Schezuan Cuisine. Now one thing I’ve learned about authentic Chinese food is it is sometimes similar to American-Chinese food in the way it is prepared, it just contains a much wider variety of meats and vegetables. When I go out with these guys I have them order and I take my chances. I am usually pleasantly surprised. Its best for me to try first and ask later. When eating in China the dishes are typically served “family style” where the various entrées are presented on the table and everyone helps themselves directly from the main dish. I first sampled one that looked interesting. It contained cucumbers, meat and a fair amount of spicy red peppers (I like spicy!!) I dug right in and it was soooo good!! I then asked my colleague what it was and he replied “Pig Throat.” Had I asked first and then sampled, I might have been taken off. I have to admit it was really good.

(Pig throat..yummy!!)

We had another dish that was made with some sort of small foul, which I found pretty tasty. When I went to grab the last piece of meat with my chopsticks, I noticed it looked a little different from the rest. I said “hmmmm…What is this?” I was told “It is the head” I looked close and it had eyeballs, brain and a little tongue. I’m sure had I tried it would have been mighty tasty, but I just couldn’t.

On my way back to Hong Kong I was at this little tea café at the ferry dock. I was sipping my tea, sorting through my travel receipts and in walked in a nicely dressed man with an equally poised Indian couple. After they ordered, the man began raising his voice stating “Iraq just won the Asian Cup, we fucking rule!!” I recalled seeing something on the news that Iraq just defeated Saudi Arabia (1-0) in the Asia Cup championship in Jakarta, Indonesia. I remember thinking to myself how awesome that, in all the media frenzy covering the war effort, this man chose to verbally announce his pride for his country and deviate everyone’s attention away from current political events and focus on what’s really important…Football (soccer)!! Then, he started becoming a bit more boisterous….and loud. His friends were telling him to be quiet and it just made yell more. ”Fuck the world, they can’t touch me, do you know who I fucking am? I will kill them all, fucking bastards…” I did not know who this man was. I sat there, drinking my tea, and watched this guy make an ass of himself in front of his friends. I then thought, “So much for national pride, every culture has its assholes.” A manager type from the establishment came by and asked him and his friends to leave. His friends escorted him out. When he walked in, he did so under his own power. Ten minutes later, he stumbled out of the café as if he were drunk. Each of his two friends held an arm to keep him upright while he grumbled vulgarities all the way out the door. Hmmmm.

My World Travels

Since my blog will highlight my world travels, I thought a good start would be to highlight where I have been. In all I have set foot in 27 countries; USA, Canada, Mexico, Netherlands, France, UK(England & Scotland), Belgium, Norway, Germany, Austria, Algeria, Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Australia, Indonesia, China, Singapore, French Polynesia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain and Brunei. I dug through my photo archives and found photographs of most of them...here we go.


Lagos, Nigeria - Armed escort


Paris, France



Glacier Ice Fields - Alberta Canada


Red Light District - Amsterdam, Netherlands


Grand Place - Brussels Belgium


Luanda, Angola
(OK, I'm not in this picture. At the time this was taken, this communist country was still in a state of civil war; photography was illegal)


Munich, Germany


Austria Border - On the way to Salzburg


Dutch Windmills - Netherlands


At a wedding in Scotland


Snorkeling in Cancun, Mexico


Stavanger, Norway


Near Hassi Massoud, Algeria


Mazatlan, Mexico


London, England


Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia


On Honeymoon in Tahiti


Beijing, China


Sydney, Australia


Ko Samui, Thailand

Ho Chih Min, Vietnam

Hong Kong

Ahmedabad, India

Universal Studios, Hollywood, California

Mt Rushmore, South Dakota

In all my travels, this is still my favorite place in the whole wide world: the top of Little Devils Tower, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA