Skydive Pics

This is probably the coolest thing I have ever done. And I've done a lot of things...

Don't Worry Mom, I Didn't Go Bungee Jumping...

OK, confession – I have always wanted to jump out of a plane. I remember being a student at UF and looking longingly at the flyers for the “Falling Gators” skydiving club. I’m not sure why I didn’t do it. Money? Fear? Whatever the case, it never happened much to my regret.

So, as I arrived in Auckland and sought activities with which to occupy my time a brochure for Skydive Auckland caught my eye. And I thought about it. And I checked out the website. I had no real intention of actually sky diving. Until I called the number and booked an appointment for this morning. I was told to meet my driver at the base of the SkyTower to await my delivery to the airstrip.

I arrived and was greeted by Stacy the driver from Wales and Allison and Liam from Australia, my skydiving companions for the day. Stacy related that he came to Auckland 13 years ago on his way to Australia, jumped out of a plane, was hooked and never left. He’s been working for Skydive Auckland ever since. Allison and Liam were teachers from Oz on a two week break. They had been out the day before, but it was too windy and had to re-schedule for this morning.

There was surprisingly little paperwork when I arrived. I wrote down my parents’ number (just in case the chute didn’t open) and signed that I realized there were serious risks involved like death or being flattened by the rapidly approaching ground should something go wrong. I signed happily. I also bought the DVD and picture package. How many times do you sky dive for the first time? Once…I needed proof.

Within 20 minutes we were on the plane. There were two benches in the back parallel to each other, no seatbelts. We all squeezed in. There was also a handle above the windows to hang on to. I wasn’t strapped to Sam from Brighton yet (the guy that I trusted my life to; I wouldn’t jump out of a plane with just anyone…I have my standards) and we continued to climb. After 7 or so minutes he announced that we had reached 9,500 feet. You know 9,500 feet doesn’t really seem like a big deal on a commercial flight. It’s a lot higher when you know you will be exiting through the roll back door on the side of the plane. At this point, as Sam strapped on my oxygen mask, I thought about my breathing. Meditation, I decided might be good in a situation such as this. I thought about the irrationality of what I was doing. It was comforting that if I decided not to jump, I still had to pay the full price. It was good incentive not to chicken out.

Quickly we reached our altitude. Liam and his dive guy went first. Then it was my turn. I thought as I slid off the bench and onto the edge of the plane that it was much less scary than a lot of things I have done. Easier, say than jumping off the high diving board. Perhaps knowing that I didn’t really have to do anything made it easier. I knew Sam was going to do all of the work. It was a rush sitting there on the edge of the plane with my feet dangling three miles above the ground. And, before I knew it we were falling.

You only get about 6 seconds of free-fall feeling when you skydive. Once you hit terminal velocity, that falling sensation goes away. Then you are just flying. For 75 seconds. And words fail to describe what that feels like. The feeling is simply impossible to label unless you have experienced it, which I highly recommend, by the way. And, as we sailed through a cloud at 5,000 feet, Sam pulled the rip cord and we soared back to the airstrip.

Suffice to say I am in one piece after the experience. Apparently it’s safer than a host of things, probably safer than getting in a car or using a toaster. But, you definitely don’t get that kind of a rush from making toast. At least not in my experience; maybe if you make toast while taking a bath and accidentally drop the toaster into the water, but that I am not willing to try. Skydiving…I’d do that again in a minute.

Auckland Pics

Just a few snapshots from my trip. I spent some time this afternoon on a lovely hill in Devenport overlooking the harbor. It was quite the spot. The other, more rugged picture is from my jaunt up the volcano. It's certainly a beautiful city.

Auckland Observations

One thing that I have noticed while here in Auckland is that things are on the expensive side. For example, here are a few items from the hotel restaurant menu:

Toasted Muesli with honey, yogurt and milk - $12.50

Fresh Fruit Salad $12.50

Delicious Omelet on Toast with bacon and cheese $17.00

I realize that the prices are in New Zealand Dollars, which is worth about

$.80 on the dollar, but it’s still pretty pricey. If I’m going to pay $17.00 for an omelet, there had better be gold flakes in it.

One thing I have enjoyed is catching a couple of movies. I have yet to go to a movie in China as I generally find DVD man and watch things at home. A movie costs about as much as an omelet, but that is a price I am willing to play. I’ve seen the Hunger Games and a British film called The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It was delightful – Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and a bunch of other British actors tell the story of a group of British retirees that move to Jaipur, India as an inexpensive retirement solution. It doesn’t make me want to visit India, but I enjoyed the flick. Worth seeing.

Yesterday I decided to take a ferry to a volcanic island here in Auckland for a little hike. It was about a 30 minute ride to the island and all of the signs told me that it would take about an hour to climb to the summit. There were all manner of ill dressed tourists with handbags and impractical shoes. I blew past all of them, as I wanted the trail to myself. I kept passing signs and noticed that I was well ahead of pace. All in all, it took me about 30 minutes to climb to the top. I made it down in time for the early ferry. When I got to the bottom, I noticed an Arab family that were on the ferry over. Two parents, three boys. One of them, he looked to be about seven, was crying inconsolably as we waited for the ferry. I thought about asking him what was wrong, but he was clinging pretty tightly to his mother. The boat stopped at Devenport on the way back to Auckland to let off passengers and as we disembarked, I heard one of the crew members say to someone up the stairs “have you lost your family?” The boat turned around. I was expecting to see the crying boy. The crew member came back down and I was surprised to see not the boy, but the mother. Her family was waiting for her on the dock. The crew member said to her as she got off, “Next time stay with your family.” It was amusing.

Life's Little Ironies

I decided today that I would get a haircut while in Auckland, as it’s an English-speaking city. I’ve avoided getting a hair cut in China as my Mandarin is good enough to get a double cheeseburger without mustard, but not good enough to explain how much to take off the top and the sides. So, I found a little salon and booked an appointment. When I arrived Tom greeted me. He was obviously Asian. Chinese, in fact. We started chatting and I was relieved that his English was much better than my Mandarin. I asked him how long he has been in Auckland and he told me “7 weeks.” He just moved here from Beijing. What are the chances? He was awesome. Great head massage, fantastic clipping skills. I’m sure I could get a great cut in China if I learned some haircut words. I’ll make Kevin teach me a few of those when I get home. Until then I guess I’ll be flying to Auckland for haircuts.

But I Don't Even Drink Coffee...

Ever just have a whim to travel to New Zealand tomorrow? Ever act on it? Well, I did yesterday. I was in Bangkok for a teachers’ conference and as I headed home I realized that I didn’t want to spend a week hanging out in Guangzhou or Hong Kong. I wanted something a little different. So, sometime after lunch yesterday, I started scouring hotwire for travel deals. I looked just about everywhere and decided that I wanted to spend a week in Auckland. What exactly I would do during the week I wasn’t sure of, but I knew that I would figure it out as I went along and have a great story to tell about my spur of the moment trip to Auckland. At 3:30 as I was about to board my flight from Guangzhou back to China, I clicked purchase and thought about what to pack.

I rushed home from the airport so that I could swap a few things out of my suitcase and put in fall clothes rather than summer fashions. I don’t own a printer, so I was unable to print out my ticket, but I figured in a day of e-tickets, it wouldn’t be a problem. By midnight, 4 hours after landing in Guangzhou, I was up in the air again on my flight to Auckland. For the most part it was a good flight. I was in seat by myself, I had a movie screen to watch. I did wake up at one point to find that a woman had moved into the seat next to me and was practically sitting on top of me because her friend had laid down in the whole row she was in. I did some pretty wild gesturing to get across the point that it was not OK for her to sit next to me. She had her own seat. I stood up and pointed at it. She got the hint and sat somewhere else (although she sat in at least three more seats that weren’t hers taking pictures as we were getting ready to land).

As I got off the plane, I figured the fun would begin. My space invader was nowhere to be seen. I went to customs, and it was gratifying to know that they spoke English. The agent asked me what my plans were in New Zealand. I explained that I had only purchased my ticket a few hours before and I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do. I told him I may bungee jump. He asked if I had my return ticket. I told him I didn’t as I don’t have a printer and I literally had an hour at home to pack before my flight. He typed in a few more things and waved me on. I got my bag and as I approached customs guy #2 I got waved to the special line. This was getting interesting.

I went over to the guy in line 4 and he asked me the same series of questions. I explained my story again; I had been in Thailand for a conference and decided on a whim to travel to New Zealand. I was beginning to think that not too many people travel on a whim here, as he didn’t seem to think it was a romantic or amusing idea. He looked at me like I had swallowed 50 condoms filled with cocaine, as, in his experience, people who leave Thailand, fly to China and then head to New Zealand are generally drug mules. I explained again about the printer and sitting in the airport in Bangkok deciding that I didn’t want to be in Guangzhou for spring break and that maybe I would bungee jump and that really, I did just decide a few hours ago that a trip to his beautiful country was a good idea. He asked me where I worked. I told him. At this point, I was trying to open my e-mail so that he could see that I really did have a return ticket booked for Saturday night. It was taking forever. He asked if I had a work ID or something from the conference. I told him that I took it all out of my backpack when I went home for an hour between flights. I showed him my insurance card from work. I laughed a bit and explained that I’m a Mormon. He told me everyone says that in these situations (perhaps much like Americans pretend to be Canadians so that everyone will like them…tell them you’re a Mormon so they won’t think you are trafficking drugs, didn’t work). I told him he was willing to search my bags and my person, as he wasn’t going to find anything. He said he was working hard to avoid that. I complimented him on doing his job, as he was fantastically thorough. If had swallowed a bunch of drugs to sneak into the country, I would have been sweating bullets at this point, but fortunately only thing in my stomach was a terrible sandwich courtesy of China Southern Airlines. I told him he was welcome to open my e-mail as the airport Wi-Fi still had not opened, but that was against protocol. Finally, I managed to fish a business card out of my wallet. I was really glad I didn’t give the last one away at the conference as I sensed a body cavity search in my future. He looked up the address of on the card and just like that he told me to gather up my stuff and took me back to the second line and told me to have a nice trip. I’m still not convinced that someone isn’t following me around Auckland just to see if I do turn out to be a dealer, as they will be sadly disappointed. The craziest thing I have done so far is to sit in Denny’s for an hour eating a chocolate peanut butter lava cake. It’s amazing how appealing Denny’s is when you haven’t seen one in almost a year.

Moral of this story: if you are travelling to New Zealand from Thailand via China, don’t expect immigration to give you an easy time. And, even if you don’t think you need one, buy a printer. You never know when your itinerary might come in handy.

A few pictures from my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. There were temples, reliefs, palm trees, cultural sites including Ho Chi Min's Mausoleum and the "Hanoi Hilton", and nothing captures the spirit of Asia like a guy on his cell phone holding an Angry Birds balloon. Great trip!

Chinese New Year by the Numbers

Chinese New Year by the Numbers

I just got back from Chinese New Year trip last week. I have compiled some statistical data from the trip for the historical record:

2 – Countries visited (Vietnam and Cambodia)

23 – January, the first day of Chinese New Year and Tet (Vietnamese New Year)

45 - Dollars, the cost of a taxi in Hanoi during Tet festivities. It’s usually 15

30, Number of hours spend walking (roughly)

2 - Visits to Ho Chi Min related sites

1 – Number of cruised booked (To Halong Bay)

6 – Number of dog meat restaurants passed on the way to and from Halong Bay

2 – Number of hair dryers not working in the hotel

3- Number of dishes ordered that could not be delivered on the same day (banana bread, carrot cake, chocolate brownie. It was not a good day for dessert).

8 – People seen urinating on the streets of Hanoi and Siem Reap (yes, they were all men).

19 – Number of silk lanterns purchased

2 – Bowls of Pho eaten (I know, I should have had more, there was just so much great food).

20 – Hotel room cost per night in Hanoi

35 – Hotel room cost per night in Siem Reap

0 – Number of quilts I bought from Mekong Quilt, a project designed to help impoverished women by teaching them how to make quilts. Next time…

40 – Dollars Spent for a 3 day pass at Angkor Wat

4 – Hours spent taking a cooking class at Le Tigre Papier (delicious Cambodian food)

30 – Minutes spent with fish nibbling on my feet at a fish foot spa

2 – Foot massages received

5 – Average number of temples visited per day in Cambodia

4:45 – When I had to wake up to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat

2 – of February, the day I came back to Guangzhou

It was a great trip! I highly recommend visiting Hanoi and Siem Reap. Much to see, much to do, much to eat. I wouldn’t be surprised if I return to both locations soon. But, I have to go to Malaysia on Wednesday, so it won’t be this week. So many places to visit, so little time…

Things I Saw

As I was walking to the store this morning, these are the thing I saw in the space of about 30 seconds:

1. A woman clad head to toe in what looked like pink and black fleece cheetah patterned pajamas. They were hooded. They were fuzzy. They were incredible
2. A man on a bike with about 20 stalks of 15 foot high sugar cane.
3. A man carrying a dead rooster. It had feathers, and every time he took a step the wings flapped. I’m not actually sure it was dead. It was upside down…it’s possible the it was still alive and its blood had just rushed to its head.

Never a dull moment…

Rat on the Bus

I wouldn’t say that I’m afraid of many things. I’ve jumped off the side of the mountain tethered to a Venezuelan and a parachute, I work with teenagers; it takes a lot to rattle me. So, I didn’t really think there was much that could scare me on a simple bus ride. Until I saw a rat under run under my seat.

I’ve been riding the faculty bus to work for the last six months, and nothing even remotely eventful has happened. I’ve listened to music, read magazines, studied Mandarin, tried to nap; it’s all been pretty routine. But yesterday was different. We were about 20 minutes into the 30 minute ride when I saw it. A big, fuzzy brown blur scurrying under my feet. And I did something I never thought I would do in the presence of a rodent. I screamed like a little girl. The rat continued its journey under my seat to the back of the bus, one seat behind me. It had nowhere else to go, and after a minute or two, it ran back under my seat and up to the front of the bus.

I can think of little worse than having a rat run up the leg of my pants. So I sat with both of my feet pulled up onto my seat on rat patrol. He didn’t come back, but I don’t quite trust the bus anymore. Who knows where he is lurking. I’m going to have to sleep with one eye open from now on. And I’m going to have to accept the fact that mice really do make me scream and jump up on chairs. Who knew?

I'm Cold

Technically, Guangzhou is below the Tropic of Cancer. And while it doesn’t really ever freeze here, I can tell you that 50 degrees with no heater in your house is far from pleasant. I have spent a lot of time since I returned from Christmas break huddling under blankets, layering sweatshirts and socks and generally feeling cold. There is very little heating in this part of the world, generally speaking. I was reminded of this on the faculty bus to work the other day. I sat down, and noticed that I could see my breath. Busses…no heat. Could I buy a heater? Sure, but I keep thinking about news stories about people that snuggled to close to their space heaters and burned to death. I don’t want to burn to death. Ever. So, I guess, until I learn how to read the characters on my air conditioner remote control to discover if they provide heat, or until it warms up again, my green fuzzy blanket is my new best friend. So much for the tropics.