Thursday, April 22, 2004
After posting my journal that I kept during my scuba trip to Mexico in February, I decided to post my journal from the Australia trip in February of 2000..
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SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE VOL 1 of 5
------------------------------------------
"February 12, 2000, somewhere over Japan. 2:30 am Miami time Saturday morning -- 4:30 pm in Seoul Saturday afternoon. Endless carpet of cauliflower clouds finally punctured by mountains of northern Japan. Saw Mt. Fuji a little while ago, poking up through clouds like a majestic pimple. Tokyo must have been somewhere below, wish it were visible from this height.
====================
Hour & a 1/2 till Seoul. 600 miles an hour @ 35,000 feet. Left Los Angeles over 11 hours ago. Mountains of Japan were only thing to break the cloud cover since California. Haven't seen the ocean since. Now over Sea of Japan. Clouds starting to break again and a hazy blue melds with blue sky and borders fade. I have to admire these Korean stewardesses, this flight has to be a 14 hour shift for them, and they've been up & down the aisle every half hour since Los Angeles.
====================
1/2 hour from Seoul, and a video comes on the t.v.'s about proper stretching after a long flight. Cheesy Ace of Base music comes on, and on the video stewardesses do a dance/stretch exercise, while real stewardesses do synchronized dance to video. They have it memorized and are not looking at the screens. 90% of Asian passengers comply and dance/stretch along in their seats, and plane erupts in applause when video is done. All who dance clap heartily. Still cloudy, can't see Korean landscape
====================
On ground in Seoul. Can smell smog from inside plane. No bullshit, eyes are itchy. Extremely dirty, overpopulated city set into small, rolling Appalachian-type mountains. Every square inch is developed. Very crowded tenements all over city with hundreds of high rises. Packed in like I imagined a major Asian city to be.
====================
Layover in Seoul airport. Can't wander around much because of tight customs security. Just a smoking lounge, a gift shop, and 2 restaurants. And beautiful women everywhere. 80% of the Koreans are wearing American clothes (polo, nike etc.). 90% of that groups clothes have English writing prominently positioned.
====================
Just woke up from a nap into bad turbulence. Halfway between Seoul & Sydney. Will be crossing the Equator in an hour or so. 2600 miles to go @ 568 m.p.h. next land mass we'll be crossing is Indonesia (I think). I see cities of Jayapura, Madang, Raboul and Point Moresby on the map, but the island they're on isn't marked.
===============================
-----------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Vol. 2 of 5 (please click on the text for pictures)
-----------------------------------------
February 14th, 2000. Valentine's Day
2nd day in Sydney. City is beautiful. Cleanest city I've ever seen. Art museums, street performers, beautiful harbor views. All kinds of foreigners, especially Asians. A lot of Asians.
walked all over downtown Sydney , along the harbors (Sydney, Darlinghurst , Circular Quay , pronounced 'key"), toured the Sydney Opera House then walked miles through Boddington (gay & lesbian district), King's Cross (hetero & Greenwich Villagesque by day - red light district by night) and Darlinghurst.
====================
February 16th, 2000. Hunter Valley, New South Wales.
yesterday took 1&1/2 hour cruise through Sydney Harbor. Spent evening in King's Cross (called The Cross by locals) drinking with a girl named Michele from Melbourne @ Bar 111. Felicity was the bartender. She is fully aware of American propagandism & bullshit patriotism. She hears British & American music on bar's jukebox all night. That's all Australians listen to. Offspring's "Pretty Fly For a White Guy." is currently the #1 song in Australia. How sad is that?
She recommends living in a district called Gleeb is Sydney, which is mostly artists & schools & museums. The general public is fully aware if the American invasion and are observers, not participants.
====================
Today I eagerly immersed myself in a new paradigm. Not only do Australians drive on the other side of the road, but the steering wheel is on the other side of the car. To add to the extremity of the imprint, I got into the car and started driving in rush hour in downtown Sydney. It took 1 hour to get out of Sydney, then another 1/2 hour to Koolanga Astronomical Observatory - which was of course closed. So on to Pokolbin in Hunter Valley.
This place is straight out of Stealing Beauty. Incredibly lush wine country - vineyards everywhere in mountains that are a warm, 2000-3000 Ft. version of the Appalachians. On the way here the land & bluffs & mountains looked just like the Ozark Mountains, which gradually changed to warm Appalachians.
85 degrees in the sun, 70 in the shade - all screen doors open, kookaburas cackling , locusts buzzing & I'd love to have a hammock right now. It really is Stealing Beauty in real life.
Waiting for the stars to come out. I can't wait to see entirely new constellations. Even the Moon will be different. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, we're facing a different section of the Moon, different craters and dark spots - and an entirely new night sky. No familiar constellations. We're staying at a 6 cabin housing-hotel type thing in Hunter Valley in the vineyard property. Sorry to repeat, but watch Stealing Beauty again to truly appreciate the beauty of this land.
=============================================
------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Vol. 3 of 5 (please click on the text for pictures)
------------------------------------
We've been sitting out on the porch with our neighbors. Me, Casey, Rodney & Mom, Brendan & Alicia from Indianapolis, Ray & Leslie (Ray's from Yugoslavia and Leslie is from New Zealand - they live in Auckland), and Hanz & Oola from Denmark. We've been drinking local wine (4 bottles so far) and talking about cultures. Now the conversation is turning political. Ray (who is Croatian) is telling us about what was really happening in Yugoslavia when Clinton got involved. The U.S. media said there were 1 million dead people and hyped us all up to get involved. He says only 180 were killed.
====================
It's now nightfall. 10:30 pm Wednesday, 4:30 am Wednesday in KC, and I was mistaken. An epiphany has shown that the angle of view of the Moon is not such to reveal a different part of the Moon, the Moon is upside down. The face - the "Man On the Moon" - is transposed, with the eyes on the bottom.
I took a chair out into the middle of a field to view the sky, and was marveling at the new sky when I stretched and leaned backwards with my head hanging off the back of the chair when it all became clear. With my head upside down I opened my eyes, looked at the Moon and realized my mistake. When my upside-down view looked at an upside-down Moon and it appeared normal, I visualized myself standing on the bottom of the Earth, gazing out into the universe with a flipped perception.
Orion and Leo are still visible, but they are the only recognizable constellations. All the other stars except Sirius are foreign. And in the Southern Hemisphere, Sirius is not below & to the left of Orion's right foot, it is on the other side of Orion - above & to the right of Orion's left shoulder. Leo is Directly overhead instead of being low on the horizon behind Orion. The name Orion is unknown in the Southern Hemisphere. They (the Aussies and New Zealanders) call it the Porridge Pot.
====================
Thursday morning - Feb. 17th, 2000.
Up early to the sounds of birds and rifle shots. Compressed air guns (no bullets)used to keep birds away from the grapes. A bus picked us up 10:30 and took us to some horse drawn carriages (beautiful mixed breed horses , half thoroughbred/half clydesdales) for a 6 hour tour of area vineyards. Beautiful country - some areas look like southern Georgia with 2000-3000 Ft. mountains. Now sitting in carriage waiting for everyone to arrive so we can leave. Rolling valley hills with "Great Dividing Range" as a rim around the valley.
I was wrong about Sirius. I originally thought that Sirius was on the other side of Orion because a bright blue/white star that looks like Sirius was above Orion's left shoulder. There was only a dim yellow star where Sirius should have been, but just because we're in another hemisphere does not allow for Sirius to move in relation to Orion. Sirius is so close to a symmetrical constellation, that I didn't realize it was upside-down.
====================
Feb. 18th, 2000. Dad & Todd's birthday. Dad would be 56, Todd is 26.
Drove back to Sydney this morning from Hunter Valley. Now waiting to board a Qantas flight to Cairns on the northeast coast of Australia for our scuba diving expedition in the Great Barrier Reef .
=============================================
--------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE VOL. 4 of 5 (please click on the text for pictures)
--------------------------------------
Feb 18th, 2000.
Final descent into Cairns. Lush green 3000-4000 Ft. mountains. All of Australia we've seen so far has been browns & yellows. Cairns is like Ireland in comparison. Lush dark green farmland & mountains rimming a small city.
====================
1 hour limo ride north to Port Douglas . It's hot and humid and the a/c barely functions. Beautiful drive up the coastal highway, winding along tropical rainforest-covered mountains. Port Douglas is like a miniature Key West . 1/2 the size & 1/10th the tourist influx. Macrossan is the equivalent of Duvall Street. 1 grocery store, 1 post office, 1 bookstore, random shops & damn good seafood.
====================
First night after a hot, lazy day. Walked to beach , and the swimming area is roped off. Swimming is only allowed inside the big net. It's Coral Sea Stinger (known to the rest of the world as Box Jellyfish ) season, the most poisonous jellyfish on the planet. Click here to see what a Box Jellyfish sting looks like.
====================
Feb 20th, 2000.
Went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef yesterday. It blows the Florida Keys out of the water. It's the only living organism visible from space . Its 3 times as diverse and 20 times the size of the reef in the Keys. No sharks yesterday, but stuck my hand in the mouth of a giant clam and got it to close up.
====================
Feb 21st, 2000.
Did 3 more dives today. Sites so far have included Barracuda Pass, One Fin Bommie, Cathedrals, Outside North Opal & Keith's Bommie. Cathedrals was the most amazing site these eyes have ever seen. Sheer coral cliffs that drop down past 20 meters . All kinds of little caverns and swim-throughs . Only one shark in all of the dives, a 5 foot Grey-Reef shark who swam away when we approached.
Tomorrow is the horseback trip through the rainforest. Soon I will walk along the beach of Trinity Bay after moonrise and spread the portion of dad's ashes that I brought. I'm surprised no one even checked the zip-lock bag with the ashes in them since the kind of look similar to some drugs (white powder). Customs would love that.
====================
11:00 am Feb. 24th, 2000 (7:00 pm Feb. 23rd in KC).
Last day in Port Douglas, I'm in a bus on the way to Cairns Airport. I spread Dad's ashes in Trinity Bay, which feeds into the Coral Sea. Yesterday was a horseback ride through Mowbray Valley in Daintree National Rainforest . Hot, but very cool. I rode a 13 year old male horse named Buckshot.
Our bus driver just pulled over & stopped because a 1 inch baby lizard was on his side mirror and he didn't want him to fall of and get killed, so he stopped and picked him off the mirror and put him on the ground.
Most Americans would not have even noticed.
========================================
Ok, here it is, the final volume. I got about halfway through finding pictures for this, but now google is not working for some reason and I'm done trying. So, here you go, as is.
------------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE VOL. 5 of 5
------------------------------------------
Feb 27th, 2000. Now on plane back to Seoul, Korea .
Yesterday went to the Sydney Observatory . Looked at Venus & the Sun through their 16 inch telescope. They use a solar filter that reduces sunlight to 1 part in 100,000. The Sun looked like a dull orange ball with tiny black spots . Each was a sunspot the size of the Earth or bigger.
Met a girl named Chloe last night at a jazz bar around the corner from our hotel. She's a 22 year old art student @ University of Sydney . Ended up back at her apartment, split a bottle of wine and a few joints. Made it back to the hotel at 5 a.m., just in time for an hour nap, then everyone was up to pack and head to the airport.
====================
Just passed over Jayapura, Indonesia. Will cross Equator in about 30 minutes. 6 hours to Seoul.
====================
Now 3 hours from Seoul. Passing between Manila, Philippines & Guam . An enormous volcanic eruption has been taking place in Manila for the last week, I thought we might see some effects from here, but I see only the Pacific Ocean and white clouds.
=========================
41 minutes 'till Seoul. Just flew over Southern Japan - a lot of small islands. One is called Fukuoka, just south of Hiroshima & Kitakyushu . Now over Korean Straight headed for Pusan, Kimhae, Taegu, Tae Jon, Seoul, Inchon Osan & Won Ju. In the last 3 weeks we've been in or flown over dozens of historic battle sites from WWII and the Korean War, from Japan all the way down to the Coral Sea where we were scuba diving .
=========================
Just boarded the plane in Seoul, and then de-boarded. We had engine failure before we even taxied.
=========================
After a 1&1/2 hour delay, we got on another plane. We're now waiting to taxi and take off. Another crew of hottie Korean stewardesses, but these too wear way too much make-up. This airline must only hire attractive women, not one has even been average-looking.
I guess they don't have discrimination suits in Korea.
=============================
Just flew over Mount Fuji again - also Yokohama & Tokyo. It's night & we're at 30,000 feet, so I couldn't see much except that it is totally developed. Every inch all the way up to the water, it makes a perfect outline of the city & coast.
As Japan recedes through the window, it is the last land or light I'll see until sunrise over the coast of California.
==========================
2 hours from Los Angeles. On the way to Australia it took 12 hours to get from L.A. to Seoul. On the way back, Seoul to L.A. is a 9 hour trip thanks to an 80 mph tail wind.
===========================
Now in Salt Lake City. Sitting on a plane waiting to taxi and fly to Kansas City. However, this last leg of my journey has an interesting precursor: my flight # is 2012, as is my email address and the subject of many random events and theories. Perhaps 2012 is my own sychronistic prophecy.
We shall soon see if we make it home.
Flight 2012, seat 2D, gate C12. They sealed the door at 4:44 p.m. I'm surprised that in this possible numerological sign there isn't a 7 somewhere. As some know, my number is 27. What they don't know is that 0, 1, 2, & 7 have followed me in different combinations for years. Usually it is 1 & 2 together or 2 & 7 together, but occasionally I get strings of all or most like today.
But it's the 28th of February. If we were going to crash, it should be yesterday.
444 haunts John on a regular basis.
========================
It's a beautiful day in The Land of Dumb-Ass Religious Beliefs. About 38 degrees, partly cloudy. Rain clouds make way for the sun and move across the mountains whose tops are hidden in the clouds.
-The End-
------------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE VOL 1 of 5
------------------------------------------
"February 12, 2000, somewhere over Japan. 2:30 am Miami time Saturday morning -- 4:30 pm in Seoul Saturday afternoon. Endless carpet of cauliflower clouds finally punctured by mountains of northern Japan. Saw Mt. Fuji a little while ago, poking up through clouds like a majestic pimple. Tokyo must have been somewhere below, wish it were visible from this height.
====================
Hour & a 1/2 till Seoul. 600 miles an hour @ 35,000 feet. Left Los Angeles over 11 hours ago. Mountains of Japan were only thing to break the cloud cover since California. Haven't seen the ocean since. Now over Sea of Japan. Clouds starting to break again and a hazy blue melds with blue sky and borders fade. I have to admire these Korean stewardesses, this flight has to be a 14 hour shift for them, and they've been up & down the aisle every half hour since Los Angeles.
====================
1/2 hour from Seoul, and a video comes on the t.v.'s about proper stretching after a long flight. Cheesy Ace of Base music comes on, and on the video stewardesses do a dance/stretch exercise, while real stewardesses do synchronized dance to video. They have it memorized and are not looking at the screens. 90% of Asian passengers comply and dance/stretch along in their seats, and plane erupts in applause when video is done. All who dance clap heartily. Still cloudy, can't see Korean landscape
====================
On ground in Seoul. Can smell smog from inside plane. No bullshit, eyes are itchy. Extremely dirty, overpopulated city set into small, rolling Appalachian-type mountains. Every square inch is developed. Very crowded tenements all over city with hundreds of high rises. Packed in like I imagined a major Asian city to be.
====================
Layover in Seoul airport. Can't wander around much because of tight customs security. Just a smoking lounge, a gift shop, and 2 restaurants. And beautiful women everywhere. 80% of the Koreans are wearing American clothes (polo, nike etc.). 90% of that groups clothes have English writing prominently positioned.
====================
Just woke up from a nap into bad turbulence. Halfway between Seoul & Sydney. Will be crossing the Equator in an hour or so. 2600 miles to go @ 568 m.p.h. next land mass we'll be crossing is Indonesia (I think). I see cities of Jayapura, Madang, Raboul and Point Moresby on the map, but the island they're on isn't marked.
===============================
-----------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Vol. 2 of 5 (please click on the text for pictures)
-----------------------------------------
February 14th, 2000. Valentine's Day
2nd day in Sydney. City is beautiful. Cleanest city I've ever seen. Art museums, street performers, beautiful harbor views. All kinds of foreigners, especially Asians. A lot of Asians.
walked all over downtown Sydney , along the harbors (Sydney, Darlinghurst , Circular Quay , pronounced 'key"), toured the Sydney Opera House then walked miles through Boddington (gay & lesbian district), King's Cross (hetero & Greenwich Villagesque by day - red light district by night) and Darlinghurst.
====================
February 16th, 2000. Hunter Valley, New South Wales.
yesterday took 1&1/2 hour cruise through Sydney Harbor. Spent evening in King's Cross (called The Cross by locals) drinking with a girl named Michele from Melbourne @ Bar 111. Felicity was the bartender. She is fully aware of American propagandism & bullshit patriotism. She hears British & American music on bar's jukebox all night. That's all Australians listen to. Offspring's "Pretty Fly For a White Guy." is currently the #1 song in Australia. How sad is that?
She recommends living in a district called Gleeb is Sydney, which is mostly artists & schools & museums. The general public is fully aware if the American invasion and are observers, not participants.
====================
Today I eagerly immersed myself in a new paradigm. Not only do Australians drive on the other side of the road, but the steering wheel is on the other side of the car. To add to the extremity of the imprint, I got into the car and started driving in rush hour in downtown Sydney. It took 1 hour to get out of Sydney, then another 1/2 hour to Koolanga Astronomical Observatory - which was of course closed. So on to Pokolbin in Hunter Valley.
This place is straight out of Stealing Beauty. Incredibly lush wine country - vineyards everywhere in mountains that are a warm, 2000-3000 Ft. version of the Appalachians. On the way here the land & bluffs & mountains looked just like the Ozark Mountains, which gradually changed to warm Appalachians.
85 degrees in the sun, 70 in the shade - all screen doors open, kookaburas cackling , locusts buzzing & I'd love to have a hammock right now. It really is Stealing Beauty in real life.
Waiting for the stars to come out. I can't wait to see entirely new constellations. Even the Moon will be different. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, we're facing a different section of the Moon, different craters and dark spots - and an entirely new night sky. No familiar constellations. We're staying at a 6 cabin housing-hotel type thing in Hunter Valley in the vineyard property. Sorry to repeat, but watch Stealing Beauty again to truly appreciate the beauty of this land.
=============================================
------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Vol. 3 of 5 (please click on the text for pictures)
------------------------------------
We've been sitting out on the porch with our neighbors. Me, Casey, Rodney & Mom, Brendan & Alicia from Indianapolis, Ray & Leslie (Ray's from Yugoslavia and Leslie is from New Zealand - they live in Auckland), and Hanz & Oola from Denmark. We've been drinking local wine (4 bottles so far) and talking about cultures. Now the conversation is turning political. Ray (who is Croatian) is telling us about what was really happening in Yugoslavia when Clinton got involved. The U.S. media said there were 1 million dead people and hyped us all up to get involved. He says only 180 were killed.
====================
It's now nightfall. 10:30 pm Wednesday, 4:30 am Wednesday in KC, and I was mistaken. An epiphany has shown that the angle of view of the Moon is not such to reveal a different part of the Moon, the Moon is upside down. The face - the "Man On the Moon" - is transposed, with the eyes on the bottom.
I took a chair out into the middle of a field to view the sky, and was marveling at the new sky when I stretched and leaned backwards with my head hanging off the back of the chair when it all became clear. With my head upside down I opened my eyes, looked at the Moon and realized my mistake. When my upside-down view looked at an upside-down Moon and it appeared normal, I visualized myself standing on the bottom of the Earth, gazing out into the universe with a flipped perception.
Orion and Leo are still visible, but they are the only recognizable constellations. All the other stars except Sirius are foreign. And in the Southern Hemisphere, Sirius is not below & to the left of Orion's right foot, it is on the other side of Orion - above & to the right of Orion's left shoulder. Leo is Directly overhead instead of being low on the horizon behind Orion. The name Orion is unknown in the Southern Hemisphere. They (the Aussies and New Zealanders) call it the Porridge Pot.
====================
Thursday morning - Feb. 17th, 2000.
Up early to the sounds of birds and rifle shots. Compressed air guns (no bullets)used to keep birds away from the grapes. A bus picked us up 10:30 and took us to some horse drawn carriages (beautiful mixed breed horses , half thoroughbred/half clydesdales) for a 6 hour tour of area vineyards. Beautiful country - some areas look like southern Georgia with 2000-3000 Ft. mountains. Now sitting in carriage waiting for everyone to arrive so we can leave. Rolling valley hills with "Great Dividing Range" as a rim around the valley.
I was wrong about Sirius. I originally thought that Sirius was on the other side of Orion because a bright blue/white star that looks like Sirius was above Orion's left shoulder. There was only a dim yellow star where Sirius should have been, but just because we're in another hemisphere does not allow for Sirius to move in relation to Orion. Sirius is so close to a symmetrical constellation, that I didn't realize it was upside-down.
====================
Feb. 18th, 2000. Dad & Todd's birthday. Dad would be 56, Todd is 26.
Drove back to Sydney this morning from Hunter Valley. Now waiting to board a Qantas flight to Cairns on the northeast coast of Australia for our scuba diving expedition in the Great Barrier Reef .
=============================================
--------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE VOL. 4 of 5 (please click on the text for pictures)
--------------------------------------
Feb 18th, 2000.
Final descent into Cairns. Lush green 3000-4000 Ft. mountains. All of Australia we've seen so far has been browns & yellows. Cairns is like Ireland in comparison. Lush dark green farmland & mountains rimming a small city.
====================
1 hour limo ride north to Port Douglas . It's hot and humid and the a/c barely functions. Beautiful drive up the coastal highway, winding along tropical rainforest-covered mountains. Port Douglas is like a miniature Key West . 1/2 the size & 1/10th the tourist influx. Macrossan is the equivalent of Duvall Street. 1 grocery store, 1 post office, 1 bookstore, random shops & damn good seafood.
====================
First night after a hot, lazy day. Walked to beach , and the swimming area is roped off. Swimming is only allowed inside the big net. It's Coral Sea Stinger (known to the rest of the world as Box Jellyfish ) season, the most poisonous jellyfish on the planet. Click here to see what a Box Jellyfish sting looks like.
====================
Feb 20th, 2000.
Went scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef yesterday. It blows the Florida Keys out of the water. It's the only living organism visible from space . Its 3 times as diverse and 20 times the size of the reef in the Keys. No sharks yesterday, but stuck my hand in the mouth of a giant clam and got it to close up.
====================
Feb 21st, 2000.
Did 3 more dives today. Sites so far have included Barracuda Pass, One Fin Bommie, Cathedrals, Outside North Opal & Keith's Bommie. Cathedrals was the most amazing site these eyes have ever seen. Sheer coral cliffs that drop down past 20 meters . All kinds of little caverns and swim-throughs . Only one shark in all of the dives, a 5 foot Grey-Reef shark who swam away when we approached.
Tomorrow is the horseback trip through the rainforest. Soon I will walk along the beach of Trinity Bay after moonrise and spread the portion of dad's ashes that I brought. I'm surprised no one even checked the zip-lock bag with the ashes in them since the kind of look similar to some drugs (white powder). Customs would love that.
====================
11:00 am Feb. 24th, 2000 (7:00 pm Feb. 23rd in KC).
Last day in Port Douglas, I'm in a bus on the way to Cairns Airport. I spread Dad's ashes in Trinity Bay, which feeds into the Coral Sea. Yesterday was a horseback ride through Mowbray Valley in Daintree National Rainforest . Hot, but very cool. I rode a 13 year old male horse named Buckshot.
Our bus driver just pulled over & stopped because a 1 inch baby lizard was on his side mirror and he didn't want him to fall of and get killed, so he stopped and picked him off the mirror and put him on the ground.
Most Americans would not have even noticed.
========================================
Ok, here it is, the final volume. I got about halfway through finding pictures for this, but now google is not working for some reason and I'm done trying. So, here you go, as is.
------------------------------------------
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE VOL. 5 of 5
------------------------------------------
Feb 27th, 2000. Now on plane back to Seoul, Korea .
Yesterday went to the Sydney Observatory . Looked at Venus & the Sun through their 16 inch telescope. They use a solar filter that reduces sunlight to 1 part in 100,000. The Sun looked like a dull orange ball with tiny black spots . Each was a sunspot the size of the Earth or bigger.
Met a girl named Chloe last night at a jazz bar around the corner from our hotel. She's a 22 year old art student @ University of Sydney . Ended up back at her apartment, split a bottle of wine and a few joints. Made it back to the hotel at 5 a.m., just in time for an hour nap, then everyone was up to pack and head to the airport.
====================
Just passed over Jayapura, Indonesia. Will cross Equator in about 30 minutes. 6 hours to Seoul.
====================
Now 3 hours from Seoul. Passing between Manila, Philippines & Guam . An enormous volcanic eruption has been taking place in Manila for the last week, I thought we might see some effects from here, but I see only the Pacific Ocean and white clouds.
=========================
41 minutes 'till Seoul. Just flew over Southern Japan - a lot of small islands. One is called Fukuoka, just south of Hiroshima & Kitakyushu . Now over Korean Straight headed for Pusan, Kimhae, Taegu, Tae Jon, Seoul, Inchon Osan & Won Ju. In the last 3 weeks we've been in or flown over dozens of historic battle sites from WWII and the Korean War, from Japan all the way down to the Coral Sea where we were scuba diving .
=========================
Just boarded the plane in Seoul, and then de-boarded. We had engine failure before we even taxied.
=========================
After a 1&1/2 hour delay, we got on another plane. We're now waiting to taxi and take off. Another crew of hottie Korean stewardesses, but these too wear way too much make-up. This airline must only hire attractive women, not one has even been average-looking.
I guess they don't have discrimination suits in Korea.
=============================
Just flew over Mount Fuji again - also Yokohama & Tokyo. It's night & we're at 30,000 feet, so I couldn't see much except that it is totally developed. Every inch all the way up to the water, it makes a perfect outline of the city & coast.
As Japan recedes through the window, it is the last land or light I'll see until sunrise over the coast of California.
==========================
2 hours from Los Angeles. On the way to Australia it took 12 hours to get from L.A. to Seoul. On the way back, Seoul to L.A. is a 9 hour trip thanks to an 80 mph tail wind.
===========================
Now in Salt Lake City. Sitting on a plane waiting to taxi and fly to Kansas City. However, this last leg of my journey has an interesting precursor: my flight # is 2012, as is my email address and the subject of many random events and theories. Perhaps 2012 is my own sychronistic prophecy.
We shall soon see if we make it home.
Flight 2012, seat 2D, gate C12. They sealed the door at 4:44 p.m. I'm surprised that in this possible numerological sign there isn't a 7 somewhere. As some know, my number is 27. What they don't know is that 0, 1, 2, & 7 have followed me in different combinations for years. Usually it is 1 & 2 together or 2 & 7 together, but occasionally I get strings of all or most like today.
But it's the 28th of February. If we were going to crash, it should be yesterday.
444 haunts John on a regular basis.
========================
It's a beautiful day in The Land of Dumb-Ass Religious Beliefs. About 38 degrees, partly cloudy. Rain clouds make way for the sun and move across the mountains whose tops are hidden in the clouds.
-The End-
