China

I can upload photos now! So here are some taken before our trip to Australia.

I went to China in December, for work. I have never been to China, and when it all comes down to it I realised that apart from watching dragon festivals and eating in Chinese restaurants, I don't know much about Chinese history or the nuances of Chinese culture. Although I have seen Mulan and Mulan 2, which has to count for something.

We were supposed to go to Beijing and Harbin, way up north. A slight problem saw us only go to Beijing, but more of that later. Beijing seems to be brand spanking new, and with its wide, divided boulevards it is eerily like Melbourne in parts (I'm not just saying that because of the trams). Everything seems to be either just built, or under construction. The Olympics loom large, and the frenzy is to complete it all before then. But its not just the physical city that is undergoing 'improvement' - it's the people too. Apparently, the Chinese are not inclined to line up for things (I never knew they were colonised by the French?!). So, in preparation for the Olympics, Beijing locals are being taught how to queue. They are worried that impressionable Westerners will think the Chinese are rude if they don't queue properly. One day a month is designated practice day, and everyone has to line up for buses etc.. There are volunteers in fancy uniforms to enforce this rule. THe campaign slogan is "It's civilised to queue, it's glorious to be polite." I love it.

During the Olympics, every day will be queueing day. I have heard that the queueing practice goes very well, until the bus arrives, in which everyone falls out of line and shoves in the usual fashion. Oh well, they have a few months yet. Personally, I would feel ripped off if I was an Olympic visitor. Pushing is much more fun.

It was my dream trip - a 5 star hotel, 12-16 course meals for lunch and dinner, meetings in which I was not supposed to say anything. But boy, all that eating can really start to get to you. I managed admiably, but when I got sick on the plane on the way home, I genuinely believed it was because I was just too full to take it any more. Turned out to be a nasty stomach flu, but the bright side of my enforced 3 days in a Guam hotel room was that no one wanted me to eat.


Tiananmen Square/ Central Beijing / the Forbidden City.

A little bit of old China remains in central Beijing. I got about 45 minutes to run through the Forbidden city...... It is so beautiful, on an enormous scale... made me a bit sad for all the construction work ripping down the city's past.

One of the old gates to the City


These poor guards were everywhere. I felt so sorry for them, they all looked about 12. It was pretty cold, too. Lucky I had headed to Super Savers, the thrift store on Pohnpei, and got myself a nice warm coat!


Tiananmen Square


Big Hall in the Forbidden City


Terribly arty photos of details on buildings in the Forbidden City






Yes, I am immature.


Chopsticks. I'm quite fond of chopsticks.


One thing I never considered was how useless a moat is in climates with winters cold enough to freeze water.



Accomodations and Hospitality

We were taken to a very expensive Peking Duck restaurant, Quanjude, and treated to 14 courses of duck. Yum.



The hotel was getting into the holiday spirit, spreading cheer and gritings everywhere



The Great Wall

I was told there would be no time to visit the Great Wall. In fact, pretty much the only free time we got was to walk around Tiananmen square and 45 mins in the Forbidden City. However, we turned up to the airport to fly to Harbin to find that our tickets had inexplicably been cancelled. I was devastated, Harbin sounds so cool. But on the up side, there was enough time to go to the Wall!!!!

And, you know, you can't see it from space.



The Wall is actually really, really steep, and I felt very proud of myself being the only member of our group that climbed it. Especially due to the dry freezing air that made my lungs feel they were liabe to explode. But then a man with one leg and crutches headed down past me as I was going up, and I was overtaken by a lady with a very small baby. Oh well.

It's been a while

Whoops.

Well, prior to 2008 I encountered several technological barriers.... my computer just wouldn't upload images. It was proboably as overloaded on pre-holiday cheer as I was. And then Ben and I took a last minute surprise trip back to Australia. It was my Dad's 60th birthday, and we wanted to be there for that. And we go the bonus of Christmas and New Year!!

Unfortunately, Ben has the camera and I may have destroyed too many brain cells in the ensuing festivites to provide decent 'stand alone' prose...

But I'll give it a go, and maybe Ben will read this and upload some photos! (yes, he is still in Australia, earning his keep).

fingers crossed,

Jo

25/11/07

Yay! We might just get our country back into some sort of respectable state. Crossed fingers for Kevin and his Ruddites...

(this is one of Mark's photos from Woodford 06/07. I like it a lot.)

Gentleman coral farmer

Now that I have finished Uni for the year, I have even more spare time than ever. (Yay!)
Last week I began helping out at MERIP, the Marine Environment Research Institute of Pohnpei, which is directed by a couple of our friends. I volunteered to help them with their coral farms, and have spent a couple of days already herding and milking the little blighters...

Actually, it is an intriguing cross between working with animals and plants. The corals are seeded from cuttings taken from broodstock, and 'planted' amongst a substrate on racks submerged in the lagoon; but they are animals, sort of...
They get a bit scummy underwater, so the job of grooming them is important, and that is what I have been doing thus far. Normally you don't touch living things too much when you are diving, and it was a little disconcerting to find that these soft corals feel just like human skin, and are a slightly pink colour, and some also grow in hand/finger-like configurations.
The coral is also farmed independently by Pohnpeian farmers, with assistance from MERIP, and eventually sold to aquarium suppliers in the US. Fun!

Ben

Evening Wear at The Village

To celebrate a friends birthday, we donned our finest evening wear, (mostly courtesy of Super Savers, which is the 'reject outlet' for Hawaiian Goodwill stores), and went to the poshest restaurant in town, The Village.

I expect Jo has told everyone about her new tattoos? They are very tasteful.

I remember wishing I had one of those 'quirky' Disney vests for my Year 10 formal. I guess that's why I didn't get lucky...

Halloween

Halloween is a big celebration in Pohnpei. It brings out all the stars.


KISS performed at the Rusty Anchor, as part of their "No, we aren't dead yet '07" tour.

They have aged well, and everyone enjoyed the show...

Ant Atoll

Ben and I went to Ant atoll a couple of weeks ago with our friends Alison, Jeff and Elizabeth and their respective children: Sarah, Anya, Devon and Tess. Ant is located OUTSIDE the lagoon (near Black Coral) and went went by boat from our place, so it was a mighty 1 hr+ boat ride each way. Venturing outside the lagoon is a bit scary, lots of people are lost at sea here. And once you're out of the protective lagoon, there is an awful lot of Pacific Ocean out there. I briefly considered packing a 'lost at sea' survival kit, but when I could really only come up with soy sauce (to make warm sashimi more palatable) I realised I was not meant for survival at sea and might as well cast myself out of the boat as a sacrifice to Poseiden and hope he spares my companions. Turned out such altruism was not necessary this trip, I'll work on an emergency pack for next time.

The sea was really calm, Ant is stunningly beautiful, and we had lovely weather. We saw sharks, a turtle, more giant clams than you could poke a stick at, and ... yep. Lots of fish. No underwater photos though. I will continue to whinge about an underwater camera until I get one. Given the 24 year high the AUD hit last week, it's likely to be a while.





We had a pretzel tragedy, which we dutifully cleaned up and put the poor sandy pretzels in the rubbish bag. Then I noticed the hermit crabs going CRAZY and trying to tear the bag open... so I thought, what the hell. As if a bit more salt is going to hurt them..... They were so funny - turns out they can't eat the preztels, they just drag them around.

GSI: Gecko Scene Investigation

Upon entering my bathroom, I was shocked and a little frightened by the bloody scence that confronted me. Was it a murder? Gang warfare turned nastier that usual?

Then it hit me - it was pay back. Ben and I had spent half the day clearing out the spare room to make it more habitable - for humans. And we created many gecko refugees in the process. This was their revenge.

My favourite nail polish, gone forever. Callously pushed off a high shelf. They certainly knew how to get me back. It was the only expensive nailpoilsh I have ever owned. Sob. Back to the $1.99 K-Mart specials (when I manage to fly to Guam to get to K-Mart, that is).

But just when I was considering revenge, they sent out the child soldiers. So cute. How can I not forgive these little guys?!

Mmm mmm, mwar mwars

We've been here since January, but we're still not sick of taking pictures of ourselves wearing mwar mwars. I just love them.

This was at a reception for a visiting Chinese Parliamentarian delegation.

Captain Ben

Our friends have bought a boat - which is great news for us, too!!

Ben makes a good captain....



But fortunately he is not captain of this tuna boat.... although the tuna would probably be grateful. Can you believe they use helicopters on most boats now? Poor fishies, don't stand a chance.

Muu Muu Party

Muu Muu party
On Saturday I had a muu muu party for my birthday. It was lots and lots of fun, everybody dressed up, and I must say the men certainly knew how to pick the muu muu that most suited them. So stylish!

We don't put photos of others on our blog as it's open to the whole world, so I'll just post a couple of photos of Ben and I!







And cupcakes. I love cupcakes.


I also managed the ultimate birthday feat - a costume change.

Palau

I went to Palau for a conference - the Asia Pacific Parliamentarians Union meeting, to be specific.



Palau is a small tropical island, home to only 19,000 people. It is one of the youngest and smallest nations in the world, having come out of a trust territory arrangement with the US in 1994. It is doing quite well, despite the fact I think can lay claim to being the most goverened place in the world... it has 16 States! With the exception of Koror and Airai, there were more people in my high school that a state in Palau.... in some cases more people in just my year of high school!

This is their new capitol building. It rises up starkly from the landscape, and is situated at the other end of the island to where most people live (Palau is actually a series of islands linked by bridges). It is huge, very chilly inside and I think the power bills must be astronomical.

I didn't get a shot of the front of the building, but it does look very much like the US capitol building. It was pointed out that the huge white dome is not copied from the US, but from ancient greece and the symbol of democracy. I think it might be a bit of a sensitive issue.



The conference was very well organised, we didn't have a moment to spare and all the Palauans I met were simply delightful. Palau gets a lot of tourists, mainly from Japan and Taiwan, and it is much more developed than anywhere in the FSM. They really seem to look after the environment there, however, and it's a very beautiful place.

Some shells for sale


Easter island style stones at Balbeldaob.


The water in Palau is that gorgeous shade of aquamarine you can't believe you are really seeing. The dark spots under the water here are where they filmed a challenge for "Survivor: Palau". The contestants had to stand on them until they were the last remaining. I am such a nanna, but how could anyone stand there without SUNSCREEN? The sun is fierce here. I would have jumped in the water right away and spent the day sleeping in the shade. I guess that's why I'll never be on survivor.



The rock islands area is very pretty. I got to go on the President's boat for the day (I don't get much of a chance to be a shameless name dropper, don't judge me too harshly).







I have promised Ben we will return, and I hope it's sooner rather than later.

Jo

Yap

A while ago I travelled to the 3 other FSM States (Kosrae, Chuuk and Yap) for work - getting State input on all kinds of wildly exciting proposed legislation.

This is Chip (or, as the Micronesians and now I call him, Chips). He was my legal traveling companion, we staffed 4 National Senators for their committees.


Yap, unlike Pohnpei, has beaches on the main island. It's a tiny place, home to only 7,000 people, and is the most traditional of the FSM states. Some men here still wear the thu - a loin cloth. Looks fine in a village, not so sure about the supermarket.






I like this easy store volleyball net.



There are lots of traditional huts all over Yap.



Yap is the home of stone money. The value of the money derived from the difficulty in getting it from Palau and bringing it back to Yap in canoes. The more lives lost on the journey, the greater the value. It's really cool stuff, kept in people's gardens, or in 'banks' lining the sides of the street. The money is never moved, but the new 'owners' transcribe their names on it, or just remember which is theirs. US dollars work best for most transations though.





Yap was the last state visited, so I took some time off and went diving. Chips and I got to see giant manta rays, and lucky for you, we hired an underwater camera to record the spectacle. They are truly the most amazing creatures, so big and quiet and majestic. And playful- mantas have killed quite the number of skin divers, by floating over the top of them. When the diver swims sideways to get out from under them to surface, they follow on top of them, 'playing'. I guess the thought that some creatures don't 'breathe' water never occurs to them. So, the divers drown. One of the senators has had this happen to him - but he just punched the Manta and it got out of the way. Such a tough dude. Anyway, we had SCUBA, so we wanted the mantas to float over us!