Happy Times

Baggage handlers shut down airports

Massive power blackout brings Sydney to its knees

Guess which 2 lucky travelers where affected by the above headlines during their first 5 hours in Sydney, Australia?!?! If you guess Jason and I, you are absolutely correct!!

We arrived into Sydney Airport on March 30 only to be doused with a teaspoon of airline baggage strikers, and a dash of blackouts. The first news paralyzed us because we were given no information as to when we'd receive our baggage, other than "later". With no clean underwear, sleeping clothes, toiletries, and clean clothes for about 2 days, you can imagine how much I didnt love Sydney.

We finally got our luggage yesterday night-I have never been so happy to see my heavy backpack!!

So far, Jason and I have walked through Darling Harbour, Chinatown, Circular Quay, Sydney Opera House, visited the Sydney Aquarium (highly recommended) and met up with Diana, one of Jason's friends from Accenture. Sydney is one of the prettiest metropolitans I have been in, but unfortunately, it is as expensive as NYC, which was one thing I was realllly hoping to veer away from during our travels. Luckily we've got a rental car and will be driving up along the western coast towards Brisbane over the next 8 days.

Interesting things we've learned about Aussies from personal experience and from Diana (Chicago native, studying in Oz for past year)

- there is no such thing as customer service here. no one "can be bothered" to care about your problems, as demonstrated by our suitcase situation.

- Quay is prounouced "Key" and Cairns is pronounced "Canes"

- They abbrviate everything here. Instead of saying "thanks", they say " ta"

Nevertheless, still having a grand old time and eating lots of chinese food and blending right in with the rest of the Asian immigrants here :) We're told that as we leave Sydney, we'll be in redneck country so we're saddling up!

Jennifer

Last Day in New Zealand

Queenstown Hike - waterfall, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Today is the last day in New Zealand. We had such a great time and I finally fulfilled a 5 year dream to come to this wonderful country. I hope I will return very soon. We will be going to Australia for 12 days next. Some thoughts about New Zealand.

- the people here are genuinely very friendly...even bus drivers and gas station attendants
- once you get used to driving on the other side of the road, it's very driveable
- yes you will encounter scenery and landscapes that look like Lord of the Rings
- hiking and camping is so fun!
- old people and travellers stay at hostels, not just young college grads
- we need to start being even more "green" at home, people here genuinely care about being green
- work to live? or live to work?

- Kiwi rugby is intense and looks more demanding than American football

- the beer here is good, as are the kebabs

Jason

Being green

This country is both literally and culturally green. Public facilities are visibly outfitted with energy conserving bulbs, SUVs (frequently seen in USA) are eschewed for more practical, but equally spacious, hatchbacks/station wagons. Even our YHA (youth hostel) advertises that it uses chemical free detergent, although i'd prefer they bleach the bejeesus of soiled linens. The toilets here (and in Taiwan, suprisingly) come with the option of the full or half flush. It took me awhile to internalize this concept, but now, even when I wake for a midnight number 1, I unconsciously push the waning-moon icon. The full-moon icon is reserved for my duties after my cup of warm water in the morning. I wonder how much water this really saves, and I wonder why this phenomena isn't employed in the US?

I am in complete awe of the freedom allotted to livestock here. Jason and I have seen huge bulls running, yes running! Oh, to be a sheep in this country-! Sheep graze all day long and when they are full, they collapse with full bellies on the greenest hills and bask contentedly in the beautiful New Zealand sunsets. For some odd reason, we haven't seen any pigs, but I've seen them on the butchers block at the markets.

Jason and I have eaten a lot of lamb kebabs and New Zealand Gala apples, which taste SO much better than the imported rubbish we get in the states. Beyond apples, Autumn isn't such a great time for fruit here.

These are just a few things I've noticed. We are in Christchurch right now, it seems to resemble San Francisco mixed with the small English town-feeling. In case any of you decide to visit...So far, this is a list of the NZ cities ranked in order of personal likeability: Wellington, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland.

Arrived in Christchurch

Don't have much to report on Christchurch yet...it looks like a nice city and we only have one day here. I'll make sure to take good photos tomorrow for everyone to see.

Jason

Wet my pants in Quennstown!

Greetings from Queenstown. Today is our relaxing day as the past few days have been filled with roads, rides, and jumps. I am really enjoying Queenstown, a small town that is claimed to be the "adventure capital" of New Zealand. As Jennifer mentioned there are so many tours and sports to do here and so many cool REI-like stores. I'm loving it! So far, Jennifer and I have went luging (think Mario Cart), which was really fun, as we careened down the top of the mountain in little plastic luges. We also tested our will on the famous AJ Hacket Bungy where we did a canyon swing and bungee jump (videos will be posted when I return). Bungee jumping was by far the scarriest thing I've ever done, scarier than sky diving. The canyon swing was no tamer.

Yesterday, Jennifer and I took a BBQ bus ran by a Japanese and Kiwi couple to the famous Milford Sound. Sadly, I would have to say that Haloong Bay in Vietnam is much better but it was a nice day, even though I got a bit car sick. Anyways, hope everyone at home is doing great. Eddie and Janet, have a great wedding. We wish we could be there with you all but I hope you guys have a great time and post many photos for us to see!

Jason

XQueenstownX

Hello from Queenstown, NZ- home and birthplace to all that is X-treme. I want Jason to give you more details about our day since he's madly in love with this city and keeps threatening to move here :) In a nutshell, Queenstown is a full sized city in the likeness of REI; there are seemingly endless amounts of stores carrying sporting/camping/outdoor gear. Bascially, this is Jason's utopia!

I can't remember when we left the States, sometime in February, I think. Taiwan and Hong Kong didn't really feel like travelling because we were in our home countries, spending time with our families and busy doing wedding stuff. Now that creature comforts are hundreds of thousands of miles away, the idea of being away from home for 5 more months, at times, seems pretty daunting. I suffered my first bout of "homesickness" during my first week in New Zealand, missing "home" (wherever that is, at this point), missing my family/friends, missing my dogs, missing familiarity. I really have nothing to complain about, I'm on the trip of a lifetime, and I totally recognize and appreciate.

When we did our kayak through Abel Tasman, we met a girl who had spent the last 1.5 years in both India and Spain and was now couch surfing and hitch hiking through NZ. There must be hundreds of similarly situated people in NZ, and I regretfully acknowledge that I dont have the capacity to be so free.

No real point to this blog, just thinking.

I miss my dogs

Hello Everyone,

I'm giving Jennifer a break from the blog as she is asleep right now. Anyways, today we continued our drive down New Zealand's SH6. For anyone who will ever visit New Zealand, I recommend to skip Auckland and the North Island and come directly to the South Island and drive from Wellington to Queenstown via highway 6. It's has been absolutely beautiful. Morever, Wellington and Queenstown are far superior to Auckland (another big city!). Wellington is artsy and hip. Queenstown is serene, on the lake, sorta like big bear.

Today we visited the Franz Josef glaciers. We just walked to the observatory since actually walking on ice wasn't worth the hassle to us. Then we drove down highway 6 and passed through a few interesting towns and turnsoffs. One of them happens to be Fantail Falls, a 2 min hike to a waterfall that happens to be surrounded by little manmade stone statues. Very cool!

Anyways, off to nurse by bug bites. We'll be in Queenstown for the next few days relaxing and doing some excursions... will keep you posted.

Here are some pictures from today...in case you don't know, I've been trying to post pictures daily to my flickr account. Just go to www.flickr.com\ruchbum

Jason

My navigator

032109 - Drive down the West - New Zealand 018_19_20, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

I would be lost without my navigator

Driving in New Zealand

SH6 Road, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Here is a picture of the roads in New Zealand....they are mountainous and very green. They are fun to drive and have so many things to see when you drive. You just have to be careful because you are driving on the left hand side!

more traveling and life-thoughts

Not sure where to begin! We are currently hostelling in Franz Josef Glacier area, which is home to the reknown Franz Josef Glacier and ____ Fox Glaciers, which are significant for being the only glaciers which reside within waters surrounding tropical rainforests. We will be doing 2 hikes tomorrow to document these natural wonders, so please stay tuned for photographs!!

Since my last blog, we kayaked the Abel Tasman for 2 days (about 3 hours/day) with an overnight camping excursion at Anchorage Bay. Prior to this trip, I had always had romantic fantasies about kayaking along some remote coast. Most of my fantasies were dashed within the first 10 minutes of our trip, it is HARD work and the majority of my energy was focused on getting to the final destination rather than enjoying the scenery. With Jason as the row master, we searched high and low for tricks that would keep us motivated to keep paddling, and by the final hour of the last day, we were PLENTY ready for terra firma.

Last night we spend in Westport, a town that has little significance to me except that we did out laundry (finally), got hot showers, and acquired 10-20 more mosquito bites. Today we drove down along the scenic and beautiful SH6, with kms and kms of rocky shoreline, to our current location. We stopped to take a small hike to the Punkaiki pancake rocks (they only look like pancakes:) ) and got more mosquito bites and some gorgeous picutres.

Hopefully Jason will show me how to update some pics onto this blog, until next time...

Jennifer

Marlborough Sounds

Marlborough Sounds, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Hello All,

Here we are in Marlborough Sounds, a scenic area in the South Island. Today we did a short hike and drove to a town named Nelson. On the way we stopped by a town called Havelock, which claimed to have the world's best mussells. We tasted some and must agree! They were delicous.

Tomorrow we set off for our overnight kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman. We got all our groceries ready and we are excited to finally camp.

Wish us luck!

Jason

crazy hostels

We just landed into Picton, our first stop on the South Island. We were unfortunately only able to book a dorm (shared bunks with strangers) at Atlantis, which apparently is the mecca for this towns loons and crazed. The caregivers are nuts as are the residents, apparently. I'm hoping we make it through the night.. j/k..sort of...

More Pics!

Hi All,

Having a great deal of fun down here in Wellington and looking forward to posting many more pics when we visit Abel Tasman tomorrow.

I've uploaded some pics from our trip but in order not to flood this blog with pics, you can see them on my flickr.

www.flickr.com\ruchbum

or

Jason

Sweet Azz!

Greetings from Wellington, NZ. I previously wrote a long post when we got to Auckland but my computer minutes ran out and I lost it all. Because of pricing and timing, we weren't able to locate a camper van, but we ended up with a lovely "Nissan Sunny", which is approximately the equivalent of a 1991 Nissan Sentra. We drove south to Waitomo, which is famous for their km and km stretches of several caves, and opted for a 7 hour journey through one of the caving systems. It was quite an awesome adventure- 100m descent into the cave by abseil followed by hours of swimming, hiking, rock climbing and exploring. These caves are especially famous for gloworms, which are insect larvae that light up to attract prey, they look like little green stars and the hundreds of thousands of them that live on the cave ceilings look like constellations of stars.

Following Waitomo, we headed towards Turangi, which is close to one of the most famous day treks in all of NZ called "The Tongariro Alpine Crossing". This was an ~7.5 hour hike ascending an active, but dormant volcano, then crossing through several thermal lake/craters and then finally descending down through lush forest. I believe Jason's review of this day will be mor accurate and inspiring. I was in a piss poor mood for about 10 hours straight and after falling and twisting my ankle for the (literally) 7th time I said "I hate this place! It's totally overrated, I can't wait to get the hell out of here" Leave it to PMS to ruin a perfectly good tramp. Jason was a really good sport with my bitchiness, I have to give him 2 eprops...thanks dear!
Today Jason drove all day further south to Wellington, where I am currently blogging. I MUCH prefer Wellington over Auckland. It has a more laid back vibe and seems less pretentious than its sister city. Maybe I've done enough rural,desolate, rolling landscapes so I enjoy this city.
Overall New Zealand's scenery has lived up to its reputation. It is truly such a GREEN and lush country. My favorite scenes are seeing livestock in there "natural" habitat- munching lazily on acres upon acres of grasses vs jailed up in some pen, like in the States. If I come back in my next life as a protein source for humans, I'd like ot have lived my life in New Zealand. Needless to say, I'm enjoying the red meat here.

Our lodging has ranged from creepy, bug-invaded farmstays (Waitomo) to modern, ultra-green and super clean hotels (Wellington). Our average stay per night is about $30, but we're trying to keep it lower to account for the lengthy duration of our overall trip. To further decrease costs, we are cooking dinners in the hostels. One night we went vegetarian and ate a huge head of cauliflower and corn that we bought from a hwy farmstand. The next night I cooked my staple: broccoli, chicken and brown rice. Hostel life has taken some adjusting, but not too bad. I am not really looking forward to the rehydrated food I'll be forced to eat during our, possible, 4 day hike in Abel Tasman (next few days)

Hope everyone is doing well, we wish you were here with us!

Jen

Looking Down

Looking Down, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Jennifer looking down from the top of the sky tower. She is sitting on a 38mm thick piece of glass

Jennifer taking photos

Picture 003, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Jennifer has become quite an excellent photographers, often taking much nicer pictures than those of my DSLR!

Hiking in NZ

Picture 011, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Jetlagged in Auckland

Hello Followers,

It's about 430am here in Auckland, NZ. I'm jetlagged but for some reason Jennifer can sleep through the night unaffected. We are staying at the Nomad Fusion Hostel here. I'm really jealous that the hostel system here is so nice these days (at least compared to the ones we stayed at in Europe circa 2002). I wish I had come when I was younger, they are much cleaner and more social and seems like a lot of fun for yougner travellers. As for Jennfier and I, we are sticking to the doubles...the dorm rooms and social aras are just a bit too noisy for us (what old fogies we are). Right now some german dude is skyping next to me...seems like he is explaning what a "food court" is.

We have been in Auckland for a few hours and so far we've took a nap, visited the skytower (comparable tourist attraction to Taipei 101), and had a simple Japanese dinner. The skytower was cool because unlike Taipei 101, we got to go up on a clear and sunny day. Furthermore, the view of Auckland trumps Taipei as you get to see port, ocean, and mountains.

Auckland is a bit like UC Berkeley. At least the bit we are staying in which is close to a local univeristy (Univ. of Auckland...i dunno). Basically, there are tons of asian immigrants, Japanese, chinese, Korean. So to be honest, it doesn't feel like we left Asia yet...ha!

Our plan today is to take a ferry out to one of Auckalnd's neighboring islands to take a hike, picnic, and some photos...then to come back to organize some logistics (rent a van) and figure out where to head out.

I'll be glad to be heading out of the big city for some natural activities (finally). We'll be back in Auckland in a few weeksto finish off what we didn't see this first time around.

Hope everyone is doing well....please comment!

Hostel

Hostel, originally uploaded by jasonwmak.

Jennifer brushing her teeth on the bed of the Nomad Fusion Hostel in Auckland NZ.

Review of C&H wedding photography in Taipei

To all the newly engaged couples contemplating taking studio pictures in Taiwan:
We decided to forgo pricey engagement/wedding photographers in Los Angeles after discovering that the photographers we wanted started at ~$6K. Instead we opted to make a pit stop in Taipei at C&H Wedding Studio, which is apparently affiliated with a Taiwanese movie star. Jason's cousin, Patrice, was SO extremely helpful with helping us locate this studio and set up the photoshoot and I thought the experience was very positive and organized.

We were required to pick out our outfits before the day of the shoot; our pricing included a traditional tuxedo for the groom and 4 changes of clothing for the bride. I found the dresses to be fairly acceptable, considering I'm quite possibly in the birthplace of sequins, pastels, lace and all things ornate and gaudy.

On the day of the shoot, we started makeup/hair at 9am. As a self-proclaimed make-up artist, I give super mad e-props to the makeup artist at C&H. She was magic. I wanted to be her apprentice. She was lightning fast and super creative and the keebler elf of transformation. We did an offsite shoot in the mountains but cut it short due to inclement weather. In the studio I changed 3 times and called it quits before the 4th dress because I couldn't handle any more posing and changing and attention. The photographer was really casual and put us at ease, despite a zlight language barrier.

The following day, we were able to preview the pictures, select images for print and framing. Pictures will be completed in 2 weeks and both of our families will be "gifted" with uber large images of us. Neat, tidy, super organized and cheap- we ended up paying ~$2k, including additions to our initial package.

Please feel free to ask us any questions about our experience, we highly recommend it!

Jennifer

Dear Taichung

Today I write to you with a full belly from Taichung, Taiwan. We just finished a, what seemed like, 15 course meal with the family interior decorator who insisted on stuffing our faces with dish after dish. I can't handle much more of this gluttony. As much as I enjoy Taiwanese food, I'm looking forward to a bit more activity in New Zealand, which we leave for on Tuesday :) We left Tainan (my dad's house) on a stormy Friday night and roadtripped with my mom, dad and jason to Jason's mom's hometown. The following morning/afternoon was our "Taiwan banquet", which I consider a very sweet conclusion to our parade of nuptial celebrations. Here I have met Jason's entire maternal family- Aunties 1-4 and Uncle #1 and all the cousins. I can confirm that both Jason's maternal and paternal families are SO nice and hospitable and I feel so fortunate to have gained so many relatives who I now consider my own. My mom/dad/sister/brotherinlaw/niece left for Sun Moon Lake after the banquet and it was harder than I expected to say goodbye. I wont be seeing them for the next 6 months or so since we'll be on the road. :(

Following the Taiwan banquet, we were herded into a karaoke room and we listened to Aunties 1-4 and Grandma sing Mandarin oldies, but goodies. We have some highly entertaining videos and pictures to upload for the aunties' respective children.

We spent today wandering around Taichung city, visiting new and old territories. I expect tomorrow will be much more of the same except we will visit Jason's maternal grandparents' house. I <3 Taiwan very much, its going to be hard to leave.

I expect the next time I write, I'll be somewhere in the southern hemisphere wearing a backlava and chewing on some sort of marsupial.

Hope everyone is safe and sound, we miss you guys! I'd like to give a shout out to Mr. Brown and Hanna, whom I miss very very much...

Jennifer

Streets of Macau

Macau
Originally uploaded by jasonwmak

I dont remember much except the good things we ate:
- tender glazed pork jerkey
- chewy peanut brittle
- Taiwanese pepper bun (char grilled on a tandoori thingy)
- Flakey egg cookie with pork sung
- Portuguese egg custard (dan tat- so delicious)
- Netty's cafe- coffee and pastries

+5kg :)

401 Night Market

401 Night Market
Originally uploaded by jasonwmak

Hello Everyone,

Here we are in front of Taipei's "401" night market. Too bad we had a huge dinner prior to arriving or else I would have gone crazy eating the "hsiao tse" (little eats). The food in Taiwan is pretty delicous. Noodle soups, skewers, fried chickens, taiwanese wraps (burritos), and fresh fruit. One could easily put on a few extra pounds pretty easily here (as I am sure I have). I'm glad the wedding photographer can "photoshop" out a few pounds for me.

I am in the south of taiwan right now with Jennifer's dad. We'll be here for two more nights before we head to the middle of Taiwan to join the Maks. I'm sure there will be some more eating here and hopefully I will sneak a picture of the random roller skating rink on the blog in a next few days.

Jason

Dirrrty South w/ Lee's

Today started off with lunch with my relatives in Taipei at a delicious restaurant called Mitsui. I would highly recommend this place if you are ever visiting Taipei and in the mood for some good Japanese. My particular favorite (ate both Jason and my portions) was the durian wrapped in a fried taro nest (think tempura-style). Following lunch we headed back to C&H to pick our our wedding photos. To reiterate Jason's praise of Taiwanese wedding photography: save your money! take photos in Taiwan!! A package that would have started at ~$6K USD (for the photographer that I was interested in), we paid ~$2K USD including expert photoshop techinques to remove pimples and trim underarm fat!! :) We are both looking forward to getting our pictures back in 2 weeks, shipping our ginormous life-size photos is a separate feat...

After photo selections we trekked to Taipei 101, which had its brief 15 minutes of acclaim as the tallest building in the world. I believe this title has been usurped by some behemouth in Dubai? No large building in the Asias is complete without a shopping section, and floors 1-5 of 101 didn't dissapoint.

Even though I've lived in NY for 2 years now, I have never been to the top of the Empire State Bldg. I avoid that area like that plague and bite my thumb at all the tourists milling around, but when in Rome..The view from the top of the observatory was quite breathtaking and we were able to view Taipei in 360 degrees of gloriousness, taking in both urban densities and the lush foliage of Yang Ming San Mountain. Its a shame that this once-rainforest has lost so much of its greenery to overpopulation and development because the mountains of Taiwan are truly one of the most beautiful ranges I have ever visited.

No excursion to a huge mall is complete without a brief stint in the food court. Nina, David, Penny, Jason and I ventured to the ground floor to sample some mall food (much better selection than the states) then Jason and I headed to the main train station to catch the HSR (high speed rail) to the dirty south to visit my parents. Upon arrival to Tainan, we introduced Jason to the wonders of Tainan cuisine stopping at the famous Tainan peddler noodle hut then picked up a few kilos of fruit to last us the night.

We'll hang out here for 2 nights before heading back up to Taichung where our wedding festivities will conclude with a luncheon and maybe (hopefully) a dance show by Jason's mother and her sisters. I'm totally weddingd out and can't wait to stop trying to squeeze into my cocktail attire. I'm ready to get our traveling show on the road!!!

Oh, I got a perm in HK. I am quite fond of it :)

Mainlander Tourists

023009 - Macau - Macau 324
Originally uploaded by jasonwmak

The sea of mainlander tourists at the Wynn casino

023009 - Macau - Macau 021
Originally uploaded by jasonwmak

St. Paul Catherdral

023009 - Macau - Macau 147
Originally uploaded by jasonwmak

Photo shooting the Formosa!

Greetings from Taipei!

Prior to leaving HK, Jennifer and I made one trip to Macau to visit our cousin, Vicky, Netty's, and to tour Macau. We visited St. Paul's Cathedral and visited the Wynn hotel. This was the first time I have ever been inside a Wynn hotel and I was very impressed. Jennifer said that it was a duplicate of the Vegas hotel. I'm not surprised!



We are now in Taiwan. So far, we have been uber busy with getting our wedding pictures done. Renting tuxes, trying on dresses, and being shuttled around Taipei taking some good shots. Right now we are on our lunch break and Jennifer has just started to get her hair done.....again. For any curious soon-to-be weds, I would highly recommend getting engagement and wedding pictures done in Asia. Last night, we did get a chance to walk around the night markets. For those of you who don't know, Taiwanese night markets are truly to die for as they feature many small stands filled with interesting little foods including skewers, noodles, hot dogs, and desserts.

Tonight, we are meeting Jennifer's grandmother for the first time. This will be exciting!

Hope all is well back home,

Jason