Jen and Dave

This recanting of our penultimate night in Korea before our Greece vacation could very well be a study in assumptions, communication gap, prejudice - or, another way to put it: How an Easy, Simple Thing Can Go So Wrong.

The second to last night of Korea found JJ and I standing on the sidewalk in front of our building with two of our friends and coworkers; Lisa, a teacher from England, and Rita, a Korean, but raised in Austrailia. Lisa was with us to take a lamp and to say goodbye, and Rita was there to pick up some items she had purchased from us. In total, we were all down by the street, as not only were Jen, Rita and myself trying to hail a cab to bring Rita and her two bags of purchased belongings to her apartment, but we were going with her, along with our one full-sized suitcase, and two smaller carry-ons, as she had graciously agreed to store those items for us whilst we were vacationing in Greece. Rita lives one and a half blocks away from us; the minimum cab fare is roughly a $1.90 in Korea, and it would have remained so at our destination's end, considering it was under two blocks. We were prepared to give the cabbie a whopping five dollars in exchange for doing nothing more than bringing us and our luggage to Rita's apartmentment, letting us load and unload the vehicle. And so, let the craziness ensue.

As the cab pulled over from the main street after we hailed it, the cabbie parked the car, got out, looked us over, and began to load our items into the car. He even popped the trunk, allowing me to lift the main luggage into the trunk myself. When I had placed the microwave into the front seat (Rita's purchase), and looked around and saw the last bag, I simultaneously saw something very, very strange - an exchange of words between the cabbie and Rita (since she's Korean, and can speak, read, and write the language), and then the cabbie walking over and beginning to UNLOAD our personal items. Um - huh? Wha..? Whazzit? I turned to Rita and asked what's going on, and she said, "It doesn't look good; he doesn't want to take us. Let's just get our stuff." Extremely confused, since this was the guy who, mind you, pulled over, opend the trunk, and loaded up our stuff ON HIS OWN, I again asked Rita what was going on. She said that the guy had turned to her and said, "What do I look like, a delivery service?" Hmmm. Well, now that you bring it up, you DO kind of look like a guy who drives a...oh, what's the word...TAXI, and yes, by definition, you look like a delivery service. But there he was, unloading our stuff - just like that. So I looked at him and said "Ahnio, no, NO!", hoping he'd stop unloading, and take us the 2 blocks, and make over double the commission. But no, he kept going. Now, at this point of the day, I had been moving, packing, lifting, shifting, unloading, and working hard all day long - I was in no mood for a random act of bizareness by some semi-drunk (possibly) cabbie, so, I'll admit - I lost my temper. I'm only human. I went into the front of the cab, took the microwave out, took Rita's purse, put them both on the sidewalk, slammed the door, and yelled at the cabbie, telling him to get the hell out of here! That'll show him. So, he did. We then stood there in shock, wondering why that happened to us, and why he decided to not take us, after he had almost completed the loading process. The only thing next was to hail another cab.

And boy did we try. We attempted to flag down FOUR FREAKIN' cabs, to no avail. They would see us, slow down, drive over to us...and then take off in a flash, as if we were straight off Leper Island. We were flabbergasted. We could not FATHOM what they were not stopping for, until I finally deduced (again, only a guess) that it must be that we're holding lugging, and they think we want them to drive us to the airport. So, after ANOTHER 15 minutes of then trying to call a cab company by phone and explain the "two block" situation, we finally tracked one down. All we had to do was move our stuff - to the other side of the block. Sigh. So, we did, and he picked us up, and we made it to Rita's, and we unloaded our stuff - no problems. Woo hoo! What should have literally been a 15 minute operation turned into the better part of an hour. Nice. I had had a few moments of "Arrrgh, Korea!" as I shook a fist before, but this was truly one time when I was utterly disgusted and fed up with the country. Thanks, cabbie, for giving me such a bad taste.

To relax, JJ and I had a drink, talked to Rita, and finally decided to head home, as we still had some packing to do. Just before the door shut us in the hall, Rita came running out, saying "Jen, don't forget your purse!" This is the one that I grabbed from the front seat, of course. Jen and I both turn and say, "Um, nooooo...that's your purse, Rita." To which she of course replies, "No, it's not." See where this is going? Needless to say, it was (wait for it) - the CABBIES. Yep, it was a "murse" - a man purse. Wow. So, one way to say it was, I yelled at the guy, then stole his purse. Hey, that's karma, baby. We look inside, and beholden to us was no less than 5 bank books, hundreds of dollars of cash, two cab ID's - and no phone number. Anywhere. Nice! Well, we could have financed a great part of our Greece trip with his illbegotten won, but instead, we trudge over to the police station, Rita in tow, and explain the whole situation to a rather perplexed, but understanding police officer. After we turned over the moolah, and sorted it all out, we said goodbye to Rita, thanked her profusely for helping us out in our tranlsation time of need, and then exited the station two walk home - in the pouring rain. By the time we got home, it was as if we had showered in our clothes.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, goodbye, Korea.

Just a quick update: bags are packed, the apt. is (almost) empty, and maaaaaaaaaan, Greece is sounding better n' better by the minute! I'll update more soon, but just to reiterate: WE'RE FINISHED WITH WORWICK! wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

D n JJ

It's unbelievable that it's been one month since my parents came to visit! Here is the last shot of them, as they anxiously await the luxury bus to take'em back to good ol' Incheon Airport. We'll be home soon, everyone! We miss you all!

Another shot I took in Insadong, same weekend. It was a near perfect shot of a little girl checking herself out in the "princess mirror". The only thing boneheaded about it is you can see the photographer's leg in the mirror's reflection - D'OH! Well, I'm only an amateur. Anyway, her mom loved the shot, and I emailed it to her. I love catching great candid moments like this!

It's Big! It's long! It's not a whale - it's a WHALE SHARK! Wooo hooo! Witness here, good people, the world's largest fish (not a mammal, like whales), the Whale Shark, swimming in bliss inside the world's larget aquarium, which is housed next door to the world's largest ferris wheel, all to be found in Osaka, Japan. Hmmmm - does Osaka have a complex or something? Enjoy!

Here now is proof-positive of The Pandemic Cephalopod's award for winning Trivia Night. Watch now as we prepare to feast on a succulently prepared breakfast on the beach. Weeeeeeeeeee!

Join me now, won't you, as I take you on a scintillating tour of our bure (pronounced "mm-boo-ray") hut on Fiji, down to the beach. Whoah - this is graaaaaand cinema in the making, folks! (Oh, and sorry for the somewhat wobbly effect - that's what happens when you "walk n' record".)

What can be said, other than this is how and what we woke up to on our second day of vacation in Fiji, Christmas Day. Glorious!

Well now - this blog is a long time coming, seeing as how we've been back from Fiji for a week and a half now! Kind of anti-climatic, I know. The reason being is, the second hotel we transferred to on the tiiiiiiiiiiny island of Waya didn't have available Internet (well, not for cheap, anyway!), so we did what anyone else on vacation on a Fijian island would do: we relaxed in the sand with drinks. So basically, the rest of the trip breaks down like this: On our third day, we woke up bright and early and headed out on an all-day tour to visit an authentic Fijian villiage nestled away in the middle of the highlands on the main island. The villiage is named "Navala", and it was breathtakingly beautiful. We met several clans who live there, had a great tour guide (a young girl named Seri), and even had another kava ceremony. Unfortunately, the chief wasn't there, but we met his family, and bestowed upon them our gift offerings of a bottle of soju (Korea), and a can of SPAM (Minnesota)! The day was long, as it was about a two-hour drive one way, but we stopped for lunch in a nice picnic area, and generally had a great time speaking with our guide/driver, Sanje. That day tuckered us out, and we needed to get up early, so we drifted off early, and then woke up on the fourth day to head over to Waya island, to stay at Octopus Resort for three nights. This tenure at Octopus can best be summed up as: relaxing! We honestly didn't do much at all, except read our books by the pool, by the ocean, and under canopys on the beach. We went snorkeling once, and saw some very cool, colorful fish and coral. We went on several gorgeous hikes on the white-sand beaches, watched several sunsets, and dined on some of the best food we've had on vacation! At night, there would always be an event taking place (Trivia night, Movie night, Game night, etc.), and we participated in all of them! On the trivia night, we grouped with three other couples, and we were the youngest. I came up with the name "Pandemic Cephalopods" (cephalopod the biological term for tentacled mollusks), and wouldn't you know it, even though I didn't want to play Trivia Night in the first place and Jen talked me into it, we ended up winning the Grand Prize! What was it? None other than our own private breakfast on the beach, with champagne, fresh juice and coffee, eggs, bacon, toast, crepes, cereal, and fresh fruit. Huzzah! :-) We also ate that Sunday morning, our last day at Octopus, and it was a perfect way to both start off a day, and end our visitation on Waya. After we checked out and boated back to the main island on Sunday afternoon, we spent one additional evening back at the Aquarius hotel in Nadi, simply enjoying the view, breeze, and pleasant company of the staff. The food was once again exquisite. Alas, the next morning saw our departure of Fiji, and return once again to the land of mini-skirts and crazy bus drivers in Seoul. Of course, the "during" part consisted of of another 10 1/2 hour flight, but this time, it was coupled with a head-cold for me, Dave (what else is new?), and proved beyond a doubt the veracity of the axiom, "Don't fly with a head cold." Never, ever again. Regardless, our entire week was one very well spent, as we enjoyed both spectrums of adventure that Fiji had to offer - both the "nitty gritty" involvement of tours, temples, bars, shopping, hiking, parks, and exploring, and the utter "picture this on a poster for a vacation" experience of sipping a Corona on a white-sandy beach reading a good book. It was fabulous! Hope you enjoy the tales, pictures, and videos from our latest excurion on this lonely blue planet of ours.

Hey hey! We've posted all of our fabulous, fantastic Fiji photos! Check' em out in the "Photo Galleries" section. (and, I'll finish posting the day-by-day happenings of our trip soon, I promise). ;-)