Anyway, I just want to thank everyone that read my blog. And for anyone that I spoke to on my trip, if you are ever in Chicago, look me up! My email is jmdorfman@yahoo.com.

Cheers and g’day everyone,
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So I stayed on Oahu for all 8 days. I heard that the volcano on Big Island was interesting and that Kiwaii (sp?) is a beautiful rainforest, but I needed to relax a bit. So I checked out the beach in Waikiki and walked around a bit. Here is a picture of Waikiki from offshore. I took this while taking a boat to a submarine.

And here is a higher up view of Waikiki from Diamondback, an extinct volcano crater.

Here is a view into the Diamondback crater. It’s easier to see when flying over it in a plane.

While I was there, I also took a ride in a submarine! Here is a pic of the submarine diving.

Here are some pictures I took while in the submarine. The first is the wreckage of an airplane that was put in the water as an artificial reef.

And here are pictures of ships also used as reefs.

You can see a sea turtle in this one just down and right of center!

I also rented a car (a Mustang convertible cause they didn’t have anything cheaper) and drove around the island of Oahu! Here are some pictures.

I also checked out a couple of hula shows. Here is a picture of the stage of one right next to Waikiki beach.

And here is a short video.

Here is another video of a free hula show at the Marketplace I think in Waikiki.

This last dance is polynesian dancing at an expensive hula show, Germaine’s Luau. It probably was not worth the price, but this video is kind of interesting.

So that was pretty much it for Hawaii. It was then on to San Francisco for me.

So while I was in Auckland, I did take an aerial view of the city. Here is the pic.

At the first stop of Waitomo, I did the abseling (rappelling) activity. Here is a pic. Also, there was some nice scenery in this area (and pretty much through all of New Zealand). There is a picture of that as well.

That evening, I arrived in Rotorua, and went to this traditional Maori (the original locals) dinner. Here is a picture of their “village.”

The next morning outside of Rotorua, I saw this hot springs area similar to Yosemite National Park.

Here is more countryside in the Rotorua area. New Zealand in general is a beautiful country.

From Rotorua onto Taupo, then onto Wellington. On the way to Wellington, I took a snapshot of the Magic Bus that I rode so much.

And here is a bad picture due to clouds of the mountain that was Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

So I got to Wellington (my favorite city in New Zealand. It reminded me of San Francisco since it had hills, earthquakes, and a seeming progressive atmosphere.) and spent two nights there, the only place I would spend two nights! I used the one full day I had to take a Lord of the Rings tour. The tour showed various sites where the movie was shot and explained the heavy digital editing that took place.

Here is the quarry where they built huge sets of the some of the cities in the movies (it does not look like much now). The next pic shows photos of how the place looked when the sets were still up.

They also showed the spot where Orlando Bloom (Legolas) did a bunch of publicity shoots. Um, so I had one taken myself.

And we got to see the real boat that was used in the new King Kong movie by Peter Jackson. Here it is (sorry, couldn’t get full shot).

Let’s see, so the next morning, I took the ferry across from the North Island to the South Island. Here is a picture on the ferry with Jochan (hope I spelled his name right), a guy I traveled with a little. From the South Island, we caught the Magic Bus again.

Now, my memory is starting to run together, but on the way to Nelson, Greymouth, or Franz Josef, I got to see these pancake rock type formations.

Here are some pics in Franz Josef where there is a glacier. I was going to get helicoptered onto the glacier, but it was canceled due to bad weather that day. These are the pics I took walking toward the glacier.

Let’s see, then I went to Queenstown. I wanted to do some paragliding, but it was too windy, so no luck for me. The next day, I went on to Dunedin. Along the way, some people did bungy jumping. Here are two pics of before and after of one of the guys jumping.

Anyway, this was the world’s first bungy jump. According to my bus driver, business was very slow when they first opened. So they fixed this by giving people free bungy jumps if they jumped nude. Apparently, there were quickly long lines of naked people. They had to cancel the promotion eventually because it was too popular, but it did help start their business.

Once I get to Dunedin, I took a wildlife tour and saw albatross, sea lions, and penguins! Here are a couple pics.

And as the bus was leaving Dunedin, we stopped at supposedly the steepest street in the world! Here is a pic.

From there, the Magic Bus went to Lake Tekapo. In Lake Tekapo, sheep dogs where very important for herding the sheep before they started using fences. Here is a picture of the monument to this effect.

And here is a great shot of the mountains surrounding Lake Tekapo whilst standing near the top of one of them.

I also have some great video, but cannot determine which video is which on this computer. So I will try to update this post later with that. *Updated* Here is the video! Keep in mind we were pretty happy to get to the top after wandering for about 1 and a 1/2 in high winds. *Updated*

From there, I went onto Christchurch. Here is a picture of the war memorial there as well as an interesting river surrounded by trees.

The day after I arrived in Christchurch, I flew to Auckland. I then flew to Honolulu the day after that.

At any rate, here are a couple of thoughts about New Zealand.

One, like I mentioned in my Australia post, I met a girl who had been sick (seemed like fever on and off, bad upset stomach after eating, headache sometimes) for two weeks when I last saw her in Christchurch. She seemed to be getting better, but very very slowly. Hopefully, she is well by now. Anyway, this just seems to illustrate the interesting illnesses a person can get going to new places and just the stress of traveling.

Two, New Zealand is a beautiful country and I would like to see it again sometime.

Three, New Zealand is kind of like a large tourist trap (it is their largest industry), and I would try to get away from this next time.

Four, they have lots and lots of sheep. They have lots of hills as well which would be fun to hike over.

Alright, that is it for me. So the end of my trip draws near. I leave Hawaii on Friday for San Francisco and will be back in Chicago Monday evening. I am fearing very large reverse culture shock. sigh…

So, I flew into Sydney from Singapore. I relaxed for about 5 or 6 days and checked out the town a little bit. Here are a couple of pics of places / things I took while there.

In Sydney, I also got a haircut Asian style since I needed a haircut shown in picture below. It was just styled that one time and I have not bother to since then to do it.

So, after relaxing a while, I caught a plane to Adelaide. I caught a tour going from there to Melbourne partly along the Great Ocean Road. I left on the tour the morning after I arrived in Adelaide. One of the first spots was the continental divide. Here is a pic near the top of a mountain / hill.

Here is another pic somewhere in the area of the continental divide as well.

Once we got to the Great Ocean Road, at one point, we saw the Twelve Apostles
( see pic ).

I also took a helicopter ride in the area! Here are a couple of pics in the helicopter.

Um, and here are some kung fu poses. The first one in along the Great Ocean Road. The second one is further one feeding some sort of tropical bird.

Then I arrived in Melbourne. Here is a pic.

So, when I arrived in Melbourne, the next day I promptly became sick. I also stayed in this refurbished Victorian building. It was so well done that I it freaked me out since a person would expect Victorian ghosts floating around. It was also a bit interesting because I was the only person in an 8 dorm room. So, from this, I discovered that I have no love for restored Victorian buildings. After spending three days in Melbourne, I caught an overnight bus from Melbourne back to Sydney. I spent that night in Sydney and flew out the next day to Auckland, New Zealand! During this whole time from Melbourne on, I was sick. On the plane, I thought it was interesting that I was a disease vector (although other people were sick on the plane as well).

Let’s see, other things, unfortunately I did not get to the Outback. Also, I here that the west coast is pretty good to explore. So if I get a chance to get back, I would go there next time.

Anyways, that was my trip in Australia. Stay tuned for New Zealand adventures. Just to let you know in advance, my “flu” went away, and I meet someone who was sick longer and worse than I was.

Right, so I was only in Singapore for two days, so I did not see much. I would say that the two things that stood out to me was the diversity and Singapore fast rise in living stands. There are three distinct ethnic quarters which seem to indicate diversity. They are the Little India, Muslim Quarter, and Chinatown. I have pictures below. As for Singapore’s fast rise, a local was telling me it was mainly architected by Lee Kuan Yew of the People’s Action Party. He runs a very tight ship however. Opponents tend to get exiled. Let’s see, I went salsa dancing a little here as well which was pretty good.

Okay, so anyway, here are the pics. You can see for the most part that Singapore looks pretty modern.

Little India

Muslim Quarter

Chinatown - Unfortunately, it was raining when I was in this section, so pics are not as good.

Here is a pic of the tall buildings area in Singapore.

And that is the end of this post. Next I will blog about Australia and I actually leave for New Zealand this Wednesday. My trip is actually starting to come closer to the end…

That evening, I went to the Insadong shopping street / area and walked around. First, I will say that Seoul is big for shopping. I typically do not like to shop, but Seoul tempted me. There are at least 6 distinct shopping districts / markets. There is a huge market I did not even have a chance to get to that has everything from what I hear. There is another market for asian medicine that seems fairly large as well. There was a market for musical instruments! Everything from amps to drums to acoustic and electric guitars to violins, flutes, etc. See blurry picture.

There was a clothing district where they had custom tailors every 500 feet it seemed. In fact, I bought a custom tux with tails! It cost for pants, tailcoat, shirt, cumberbund, and bowtie and shipping to the US $400 dollars US which is more expensive than India or China, but I am guessing the quality is better. Lastly, there was an electronics market! I guess prices are fairly inexpensive, but you have to haggle. Someone was telling me that internet prices are now competitive with their prices, so they have suffered a little. I did not get a chance to go here either.

Okay, so anyway, back to talking about the first shopping street that I went to, Insadong. Especially during the early evenings, Insadong has a bit of a mysterious feel I thought. The shops are usually warmly decorated with lots of stained wood and warm incandescent lighting. There are more touristy things in this area. Fine pottery, traditional clothing and other things. Here are two pics and a video.

Apparently at one point, they were also giving out free hugs in this area as well.

So other things I did included visiting a famous reconstructed palace area,Gyeongbokgung, that also had a folk museum. Here are a couple of pics from that.

Old style military procession

Also went salsa dancing in the Hongik University area at a place called Dalia, I think, which was nice.

Also, went to hilltop with nice view of Seoul. Here is a pic.

Some thoughts on Seoul. People were generally quiet, but friendly. I guess this is because the people (more the older generation) have been very serious about building up their country which was devastated after WWII. In fact, they only recently went to a 5 day work week (I assume it was a 6 day work week before). That is how they have built up their economy so much.

Another fact is a lot of people follow Confucius‘ teachings. To very crudely summarize, he was for moral fiber and gave a hierarchy (husband head of family, etc). This has had an affect on Korean culture on where woman stand. It looks like the younger generation of women are starting to pursue careers, etc, but the older generation of men might disapprove of this… Here is a quote from Confucius to finish off this blog.

When A Country

When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition
are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed,
riches and honor are things to be ashamed of

Well, that seems about right, I guess… Okay, see y’all in my Singapore post!

Shanghai felt pretty safe except when I was trying to get a cab late at night from the airport. This one guy tried to get me in an unmarked “cab”. They may have delivered me to my location, but I pretty sure they were illegal cabbies. So, I said, no, I was going with a metered taxi. I managed to get said taxi which they ran ahead to “refer” me I believe to try to get a commision out of the cabbie (they argued a bit in Chinese which I could not understand). Since this cabbie was official and was willing to give me a ride, I took it since there was not another cabbie around. He delivered me to the hostel safe and sound (whew).

The next day, I slept in and then took a walk on the Bund, the waterfront area. Here are two pics looking to the other side.

Anyway, the next morning, this guy and I went to Fuxing Park where people do Tai Chi and other stuff in the morning! Here is a pic and a video of this.

This evening (Friday), some of us went out to a jazz club that was interesting, but ended shortly because it took forever to get everyone out. Large groups have much inertia. From there, it pretty much turned into taking taxies to various places and not finding this other club that we found out later had moved. Sigh, great fun….

Saturday, I went to the old town area of Shanghai with Ed (his picture is coming up). Here are some pics of the old town.

More touristy / renovated areas of Old town

More “real” area of Old town

Around that time, we ran into Tess (in upcoming picture) and we all went to see Yuyuan Gardens (great park) in Old town. Here are some pics.

Here is a semi-candid pic (haha) of Ed, from Ireland, (in forground) and Tess, from St. Louis teaching english in China (forget which city). I probably spent half of my time with them for a couple of days till they left town.

That night, people from the hostel went out again. We went to a different jazz bar. Then we ended up at this all Chinese club called K-Club that was playing what I want to say is typically Chinese techno music. It was quite a novelty and therefore, great fun.

Other stuff, visited Shanghai’s large shopping district. Here is a pic.

Here are some more pics.

Oh, and I went to Hangzhou, an area famous for its beauty about 3 1/2 hours from Shanghai. Here are some pics.

Famous temple there (forget name). There is a buddha inside that is 4-5 stories tall!

Here are are some pics of the famous West Lake in Hangzhou.

Lastly, I decided not to get a tuxedo in India because I read on the internet about dubious quality. It said China was better, but they needed a week. I did not have time to check right away, so I could not get a tuxedo…

So, that is all I have time to post. I just arrived in Australia and am still 2 countries behind in blogging! Sigh…

Until the next blog..

So here is my account of Bangalore. First, it took me two days to get to Bangalore since I had to fly through three connections (Tel Aviv - Amman - Delhi - Bangalore). Once I arrived in the airport, I took a pre-paid taxi to my hostel. The pre-paid taxi is more expensive, but is a bit safer for a clueless foreigner that sticks out.

So, the first thing I noticed about Bangalore is the traffic is insane. People say China has bad traffic, but that is nothing compared to this. Basically, the lanes mean nothing. There are a lot of autorickshaws (small taxis that are sort of like covered tricycles powered by a gocart engine, could probably hit 35 miles an hour I would guess) and mopeds as well as cars and buses. At stop lights (they do obey those when they are operational), mopeds weave around cars and bunch up as much as possible. While traffic is moving, people honk all the time to warn anyone just ahead of them (like when a bus is bearing down on a moped).

Almost simultaneously, I noticed the horrible pollution. In particular, the autorickshaws spew out blue exhaust when they excellerate. Basically, when traffic is present (which is often), there is a light blue cloud of smoke on the road.

Secondly, India is probably the cheapest place I have been. My hostel effectively cost just over 2 US dollars a night. Of course, the water pressure was horrible for a shower (water sort of dribbled out). Bangalore actually has a big problem with water. Their water table has dropped 120 meters.

Third, Indians really do rotate their heads side to side (like a clock face rotating back and forth) all the time! The best I could figure, they sort of do it to indicate that they are finished speaking and waiting for an answer or unsure of the answer they are hearing.

So, due to all the excitement in Jordan and Israel, I relaxed the day I arrived and the next day. After that, I went to visit Mohatma Ghandi Road ( or MG Road for short ). Bangalore is described as the IT capital of India, and MG Road is are where the more upscale shops and such are located for the people riding the IT wave. I felt a bit more comfortable in this area as people did not give a look indicating their wonder at how rich they thought I was (cause I was a westerner) which they did in other areas. Actually, I did not take any taxis at night or to very unknown areas just in case they would take me someplace to unload my “riches”. Having said that, everyone I met was very kind. When there is such a difference in the exchange rate though, I naturally get a little nervous.

Bangalore also has some gardens which I drove past a little. Unfortunately, I did not really take any pictures of the MG Road or gardens area as it seems few people have digital cameras in India and it would be a bit conspicuous.

But I did take a lot of pictures when I went on a tour to several sites including the city of Mysore with the Maharasha’s palace. Here is a bit of a rundown of the tour with the pictures.

Here are a couple of random pics as the bus traveled to Mysore and back.

Here is a picture in Mysore. If you look down the road, you might get a little idea how the traffic works (or doesn’t) Although it is not as bad as Bangalore.

Here was a Hindu temple that I saw. Unfortunately, I could not take pictures inside. When I went inside, people were praying and doing religious stuff.

Here is another Hindu temple that I saw.

This is a fortress I saw on the way to Mysore.

Below is some sort of Hindu cow / bull god out in the country.

This is the Maharaja’s palace in Mysore!

And here is a couple on the tour that I met. They “adopted” me as their son. For instance, I ate dinner with them on the tour, and they refused to let me pay. Two of their children go to college in the US.

So lastly, I have to say that the food in India was excellent! I did not have that much, but I can saw the curry was amazing. I also had a dosa ( a fermented rice pancake folded with vegetable filling. Delicious.

So that is it for that! I will try to get out my China entry soon ’cause I know I am behind. I am actually in Seoul right now and will be leaving for Singapore in two days.

G’day mates.