http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/DWS/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from DWS en-us Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:41:39 +0000 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:41:39 +0000 Everything has to end I guess. I am back in Germany now. Let me quickly recap what has happened in the last three months.There haven't been any posts since the end of August. At that time I was in Hawaii and I actually stayed there until the end of September. Except for a quick trip to the northern most island of the Hawaiian archipelago Kauai I stayed put on my organic farm in Hawi. Life was g http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-350353.html Aloha from the Big Island. I finally feel to have arrived somewhere. Imagine eating papayas passion fruits and star fruits straight from the tree. To drink coconut juice swim with sea turtles and tropical fish a la Nemo in the warm ocean be blessed with abundant sun shine every day and you know where I have landed. The Hawaiian Islands consist of 7 islands of which the most southern and least d http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Hawaii/Big-Island/blog-316193.html After 10 horrible days I am actually starting to enjoy New Zealand now being on the South Island and having been virtually spared from rain so far. But just when it starts to get good I am about to leave. Tomorrow I am heading to Christchurch where I will board the plane to Hawaii on Sunday afternoon. Considering my next travel stop I am not too sad though. Anyways since coming to the South Islan http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-309669.html I jumped out of a plane today at 12000 feet. Was great experience. Check out the pics. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-309157.html That pretty much sums up what i have seen the first 10 days in New Zealand. When I touched down on Friday last week the weather was great and I was happy to have left Sydney where it had gotten colder and gloomier the last days. But colder and gloomier it was supposed to get in Kiwiland also. In the evening light rain started coming down developing over night to a full blown storm so bad that it http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/blog-308023.html I spent the last days in Sydney going up north towards Newcastle about an hour away from Sydney. There is a woman at my Hamburg church who happens to be from Sydney. She got married to a German guy and now lives in Hamburg. As it happens her family runs tomato greenhouse farms up north. An opportunity for me to go see that and spend some time with her brother Yeong Gi who is about my age but alr http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-306590.html I decided to stay a couple of days at the Christian Community House in Bundeena. I don't know if I had mentioned them but this is basically a group of Christians who have a big house in which they hold service but also have rooms for singles and groups to stay in. The mission of this church is to provide hospitality to other Christians churches youth groups but also to people with a troubled his http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-306571.html So I lost the keys to Nils' apartment. If that was not bad enough I also lost a letter which was addressed to his apartment. So any not so dumb individual with enough criminal intent would be delighted to find Adam's a room mate giant Plasma TV in the living room. So I decide to search the streets of Bondi at night of course in vain... At the end it's way past 8 pm and I decide to make one last http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Bondi-Beach/blog-306505.html After an uneventful 10h night flight with Asiana Airlines I arrived at the Sydney airport on Wednesday morning. Australian immigration is very strict on food items and other potential carriers of bugs which could bring unwanted visitors to this remote continent. I was quizzed on what kind of food I was carrying I only had snickers and a korean cake and custom officials inspected the dirt on my t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Bondi-Beach/blog-296438.html Long time no talk. Before I start with my current location Bondi Beach Australia let me give you a short wrap up of what happened the last few days in Korea. After leaving Gurye in the southwest of Korea I took a bus to Busan Korea's second largest city. Busan is a major port city in the southeast with a population of about 3.6 mil. This being my first visit to Busan I was pleasantly surpris http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Busan/blog-296424.html Just back from climbing Mount Jiri. This one was totally different from the Mount Halla hike. First of all it was a two day trip and then it was also much more demanding. Mount Jiri is more a formation of several mountains with several peaks which are connected with each other. So you are basically walking along ridges and peaks. The trip started at Seongsamjae and ended about 30Km later at Cheonw http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollanam-do/blog-286469.html So now I am back on the mainland in Gurye a small county in the heart of Jeollanamdo province southwest corner of Korea. The province gets abundant rainfall and is also home to the warmest weather on the peninsula. This helps to produce large amounts of agricultural produce mainly rice wheat barley pulses and potatoes. Vegetables cotton and fruits are also grown in the province. This I ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeollanam-do/blog-284916.html Pictures only http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeju/blog-283713.html This is my last night on Jeju. I will have spent 2 weeks on this island which unfortunately is not anything close to Hawaii with regard to the weather. It rained 50 of the time with 2 or 3 sunny days But who am I to complain It's a great island nevertheless. I will leave for Gurye southern part of the country near mount Jiri tomorrow taking the ferry to Wando and the bus via Gwangwon. I h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeju/blog-283685.html I landed Wednesday afternoon May 21st on Jeju International airport and was greeted by sub tropic temperatures and palm trees. Jeju Island the southern most island of Korea really seemed to live up to its nae Hawaii of Korea. This was the first time for me to be on this favorite vacation spot among Korean honeymooners as I would usually spend my time in Seoul on business trips. Jeju is of volcan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Jeju/blog-283195.html So finally 2.5 weeks after having left Germany on May 14th I am writing my first blog entry. First stop after taking off in Frankfurt was Seoul. I spend a week staying at my older brother SeungHun's house he's not a real brother but we are pretty close as he has known me since I was little and we actually shared an apartment for a while in Hamburg Germany in Ichon. Nothing exciting really http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-282840.html