Camp Mu Juk, South Korea Work has taken me to Camp Mu Juk located in Pohang, South Korea. There isn't much to do on this base except browse the small PX and grab some food in the ROK Hard Cafe. Last night it was exceptionally cold (36 degrees) and I was actually sleeping on a beach. Thankfully I had my down sleeping bag with me. Some other folks in my group didn't bother to bring cold weather gear ashore with them and they sure were miserable. Right before going to bed, a huge bonfire was made and the group I was [View Full Entry]

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Halloween off the eastern coast of South Korea This turned out to be a Halloween I will never forget. Because I was currently living aboard a ship, my roommate and I tried to have some fun with the other people who were there as well. Since we had lots of candy, a pot of freshly brewed coffee, and several grilled cheese sandwiches (these are delicacies on ship) we told our guys to come up to our stateroom and neither dress up in a Halloween costume or provide us with some sort of entertainment. In doing so, we would allow them access [View Full Entry]

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Mall of Asia, Manila, Philippines My last day in the Philippines was spent exploring The Mall of Asia, the fourth largest mall in the world. I didn't really have anything I was looking to buy (I did want to demo a new camera that came out) but I had several friends going so I decided to tag along with them. We ended up spending the majority of the day checking out the camera / computer / sports equipment shops, playing in the video arcade, and watching a movie. I was able to curb my appetite for sushi by eating in a [View Full Entry]

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Scuba Diving - LST Wreck in Subic Bay, Philippines I finally got the opportunity to scuba dive in the Philippines and the experience was mixed. The first site I dove was LST-959. We began the dive by going down to a depth of roughly 80 feet and proceeded to swim to the aft of the wreck. We then swam into a large opening at the back and went forward to the bow. It was pretty dark inside so I didn't really see much. Having a flashlight would have been really helpful in exploring the inside. Neverthless, it was fun to swim [View Full Entry]

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Scuba Diving - El Capitan / USS Majaba in Subic Bay, Philippines My second dive in Subic Bay was at El Capitan (also known as USS Majaba). This dive was much shallower than my first... aorund 15 feet at its shallowest point and 50 feet at its deepest. Unfortunately, the visibility wasn't nearly as good at my first dive. I pretty much spent this dive just trying not to get seperated from the rest of my dive group. I was at the back and didn't see much because of all the silt that they had kicked up. Nevertheless, diving is diving [View Full Entry]

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Chatuchak Market Even though I came out to Thailand for work, I was given the opportunity to spend a few afternoons touring around the city. Because I had visited the main sites before, I decided to explore the different markets around the city. Based the the bit of internet research I did Chatuchak Market was supposed to be the largest and most diverse market in all of Bangkok. On Saturday afternoon I made the trip to Chatuchak market and it was absolute madness! There were thousands and thousands of different vendors selling just about everything imaginable...furniture, artwo [View Full Entry]

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Cha Yen (Thai Tea) Recipe If you want to make this yummy drink from Thailand, try Nancie McDermott's recipe from Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking, Chronicle Books, 1992 Ingredients * 4 cups water * 3/4 cup Thai tea * 1 1/2 cups Sugar Syrup, recipe follows * Crushed ice or ice cubes to fill each glass * 1 to 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk or half-and-half (3 to 4 tablespoons per glass) Directions In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a rolling boil, and place a heatproof 1-quart pitcher in the sink. When the water boils, [View Full Entry]

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Jim Thompson House Museum This afternoon I decided to visit the Jim Thompson House and Museum. I'm glad that I went because I finally got to see Thai architecture! Even though I've been driving all over Thailand for the past week, I haven't seen any traditional Thai style houses. I paid 50 Baht (discounted because I'm under 25...oh yeah!!) and that included access to the house and a 30 minute tour. While on the tour I learned several interesting things. First thing I came to find out is that Thai houses used to be always build on stilts. Before modern transportation [View Full Entry]

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River Kwai While attending a planning conference for work in Thialand, I was able to make a visit to the Bridge over the River Kwai. It was pretty much a tourist trap, but I went ahead and had my photo taken on the bridge. There were huge holes on the bridge and if someone wasn't careful with their footing, the could have easily fallen off the bridge. The group I was with joked that tourists would not have been allowed to walk on the bridge if it were located in the United States...a lawsuit waiting to happen. After getting the classic [View Full Entry]

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Australia Zoo I was able to visit the Australia Zoo while making a port visit in Brisbane, Australia. The main attraction of the zoo was the crocodiles (of course). I went to a show in the "Crocoseum" where these was a demonstration on elephants, birds of prey, reptiles/snakes. Of course the finally ended with a crocodile demonstation. My favorite part of the whole show was probably the bird of prey. At least 100 birds were released in the crocoseum and they flew all over the place. I thought for sure one of the birds would crash into me because they were [View Full Entry]

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