Istanbul,Turkey (first time!)

One week after I got back from my big vacation I was asked to go to Istanbul for work, which would be my first time in Turkey. I was excited about this, of course, but I would only be there for about 24 hours so I knew I wouldn't have much time to see anything.

The flight was direct on Turkish Airlines, and when I came out into the Istanbul airport I was immediately hit with a terrible stench of body odor that made me visibly gag involuntarily. I waited for my colleague and we found our pre-booked taxi. The traffic was terrible from the airport to the hotel, and the taxi was such a jerky driver that I was practically stomach sick by the time I got there. The hotel was fine, one of the chains, with a beautiful outdoor terrace overlooking the Bosphorus, the strait which runs through the middle of Istanbul and divides the city in two, with one side residing in Europe and the other side residing in Asia. I was bummed I didn't have more time there - I could have gone to Asia and back in an hour, just for the novelty of it.

We had a short walk around in the area near the hotel, which was full of touristy places selling cheap jewellery and other handmade goods, then had dinner at the hotel. We chose the terrace under the roof, which was lucky because right after we sat down the skies opened up and dumped a ridiculous amount of rain on the city for the next 4 hours.

The following morning we left early to allow plenty of time to get to the office, but it turned out to be much more difficult that we had imagined. My colleague had looked up the address on our company's public website and it wasn't too far away. We got in a taxi at 8:15, figuring it would take us 20 minutes, or 30 at the max, to get to the office which was listed as 5km away. It took the taxi closer to the 30 minute mark, and he dropped us off at the back of the building, so we had to ask directions and traipse completely through to the other side of the building, up two flights of stairs, out a door and in another. 

When we finally got to the right place the front desk receptionists couldn't seem to understand what company we were with, but took our photo IDs, gave us building passes, and told us to go to the 6th floor. On the 6th floor we were greeted by another receptionist, who also had trouble understanding what company we wanted to see, until the moment of realization kicked in and she informed us that our company had moved 8 months ago and was no longer in this building. That meant our own company's website had the wrong address listed. For the last 8 months. 

The receptionist kindly found the new address and wrote out directions in Turkish for us to give to the taxi we would have to find because it was about a 10 minute drive away, "under normal circumstances". We found a taxi relatively quickly, but the problem soon became evident that he had no idea where this place was. We literally stopped every 100 feet so he could ask someone on the street how to get there, and then when we finally arrived he shut the meter off quickly and then tried to charge me triple what I knew the meter had said. I refused to pay him that, but gave him a little more than what he deserved. The nerve of him to try that, when he didn't even know where he was going.

We arrived at the office an hour and a half after we set off from the hotel, but saw a lot more of Istanbul than we had originally expected. The meetings were fine, and a few short hours later I was back in a taxi going to the airport. This time it was really fast to get there and I arrived with hours to spare before my flight.
As you enter the Istanbul airport you are immediately forced to go through a metal detector, before you even get to checkin. This startled me, and made me remember that I was in a country that is not always peaceful.  Then after checkin you go through security (again) in order to get to the gates, like at all airports.

Since I didn't get to see much of the city, I took photos of the food instead. Which was amazing.

Crossing the International Dateline - also known as the longest day Ever

When I booked the trip it made the most sense to head east first to see my friends before heading on to the US where I knew I could relax for a full week. Another benefit was that I would cross the International Dateline heading east, and would gain close to a day of time when I did it. For example, I was leaving Seoul in the evening to fly directly to Seattle, but after a 10 hour flight I would arrive in Seattle 6 hours earlier than I had left Seoul.

In reality, the experience was 1) really cool, and 2) very tiring and quite confusing. Since I already understood that it was going to be confusing I decided to actually keep track every hour of where I was and what I was doing to be able to understand the time travel compared to what time my body thought it should be. Hope you enjoy.

Hour 1
1am Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
In bed sending an email for work.

Hour 2
2am Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
Trying to fall asleep

Hour 6
6am Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
Alarm went off

Hour 7
7am Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
In a taxi to the USO (United Service Organization) next to the Korean War Museum to meet my tour group for the Demilitirized Zone tour. The DMZ is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. Upon the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in 1948, it became a de facto international border and one of the most tense fronts in the Cold War.

Hour 8
8am Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
On a bus to tour the Demilitirized Zone, which is 160 miles long and 2.5 miles and acts as a buffer between the two countries. It is the most heavily militirized border in the world.

Hour 9
9am Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
Still on the bus towards North Korea. There are guard stations every few hundred feet along the highway manned by soldiers with guns drawn making sure nobody swims into South Korea.

Hour 10

10am Wednesday, August 8th, border between North Korea and South Korea

Looking into North Korea through binoculars from the observatory point in DMZ. I can see white tall buildings that look like warehouses or factories, and one farmer tending a field of something resembling soybeans. Behind that is mountains with all the trees cut down (so attackers have nowhere to hide).

Hour 11

11am Wednesday, August 8th, border between North Korea and South Korea

Walking into the 3rd tunnel at the DMZ, which is 5,100 feet long and 1,150 feet deep. Since 1974, South Korea has discovered four tunnels that cross the DMZ which were dug by North Korea. Upon their discovery, North Korea claimed that the tunnels were for coal mining; however, no coal has been found in the tunnels, because they were in fact dug through granite. Some of the tunnel walls had been painted black by the North Koreans to give the appearance of coal.

The tunnels are believed to have been planned as a military invasion route by North Korea. Each shaft is large enough to permit the passage of an entire infantry division in one hour, though the tunnels are not wide enough for tanks or vehicles.

Hour 12 12pm Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
Driving back from DMZ

Hour 13
1pm Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
Our tour took us on a pointless tour of the Ginseng Center in Seoul, a small office building that wanted to sell us pieces of ginseng for $200.

Hour 14
2pm Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
Ditched the tour and did a fast spin through one of the palaces before popping over to Seoul Station to get cash and buy a thank you present.

Hour 15
3pm Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
In a taxi back to Nick and Nicki's house.

Hour 16
4pm Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
Took the 2nd shower of the day and packed the last things.

Hour 17
5pm Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul
On a bus to the airport, realizing halfway there that my flight was an hour earlier than I thought, and I was about to miss the plane to Seattle

Hour 18
6pm Wednesday, August 8th, Seoul Airport
Leaping off the bus as it pulls into the airport and running like mad for the ticket counter. Apologized and cried and pleaded to be let on the flight.
Hour 19
7pm Wednesday, August 8th, over the Pacific Ocean
Taking off from Seoul Airport after being given a boarding pass and making it through check in, security, and immigration in 14 minutes. When I arrived out of breath at the gate there were still 50 people in line waiting to board. I wasn't even the last person onto the plane.

Hour 20
8pm Wednesday, August 8th, over the Pacific Ocean
Watching a Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy

Hour 21
9pm Wednesday, August 8th, over the Pacific Ocean
Eating dinner, semi decent plane food. No one in the seat next to me.

Hour 22
10pm Wednesday, August 8th, over the Pacific Ocean
Watching Footloose
Hour 23
11pm Wednesday, August 8th, over the Pacific Ocean
Watching Moneyball

Hour 24
8am Wednesday, August 8th / 12am Thursday, August 9th, over the Pacific Ocean
Crossing the International Dateline

Hour 25
9am Wednesday, August 8th / 1am Thursday, August 9th, over the Pacific Ocean
Trying to get some sleep

Hour 26
10am Wednesday, August 8th / 2am Thursday, August 9th, over the Pacific Ocean
Sleep
Hour 27
11am Wednesday, August 8th / 3am Thursday, August 9th, over the Pacific Ocean
Sleep

Hour 28
12 noon Wednesday, August 8th / 4am Thursday, August 9th, over the Pacific Ocean
Breakfast on the plane

Hour 29
1pm Wednesday, August 8th / 5am Thursday, August 9th, Seattle
Landing in Seattle

Hour 30
2pm Wednesday, August 8th / 6am Thursday, August 9th, Seattle

Karyn, my cousin, picked me up at the airport in Seattle

Hour 32

3pm Wednesday, August 8th / 7am Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

Going to a farmer's market in Olympia

Hour 33

4pm Wednesday, August 8th / 8am Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

Going to Trader Joe's to get food for dinner

Hour 34

5pm Wednesday, August 8th / 9am Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

Arriving at Karyn's house

Hour 35

6pm Wednesday, August 8th / 10am Thursday, August 9th, Olympica

Making appetizer of cheese and bread

Hour 36

7pm Wednesday, August 8th / 11am Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

Watching Big Bang Theory and cooking dinner

Hour 37

8pm Wednesday, August 8th / 12pm Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

Watching Olympics and eating dinner

Hour 38

9pm Wednesday, August 8th / 1pm Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

Watching Olympics and fighting sleep

Hour 39

10pm Wednesday, August 8th / 2pm Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

Watching Olympics and losing battle against sleep

Hour 40

11pm Wednesday, August 8th / 3pm Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

Watching Olympics and losing battle against sleep

Hour 41

11:59pm Wednesday August 8th / 3:59pm Thursday, August 9th, Olympia

In bed and can't sleep.

Round the World - Seoul to Seattle Mad Dash

After a long hot day of touring the DMZ I figured I needed to be back to Nick and Nicki's by 3:30 or 4 and leave on the bus by 17:00 at the latest so I'd get to the airport by 18:00.

I showered really fast to be fresh for the 10 hr flight since I was so sweaty from the heat and humidity. Nicki walked me to the bus stop and I got on the 17:05 which would get me to the airport right around 18:00, leaving almost two hours, although I really should have taken a slightly earlier bus. 

As the bus pulled out of the station I pulled out my itinerary to double check the details of my flight and felt all the air leave my chest as I realized my flight was not at 19:40 but actually at 18:40, an hour earlier than I remembered and only an hour and a half from the current time with an hour's bus rode still to go. 

With that terrible, deflated, panicked, guilt-ridden feeling I realized I was not going to make that flight. There was no way I could show up 30 minutes before an international flight - they wouldn't check my bag through, and to be fair to them it would be surprising if it would be possible to make it through security and immigration in that amount of time. You can't even show up 30 minutes before a domestic flight and expect to get on. The only chance for making it on was if the flight was delayed, so I prayed hard that this was the case, knowing I was in a country that prides itself on its smooth and efficient transportation.

The bus crept along at 80 km per hour, an agonizingly slow speed when Europeans consider 120 slow. On the way there I considered my options and drafted my apology to Karyn. That was the part I felt the worst about because she had taken two days off to see me and I had blown it by my carelessness. The options I had were to try to get on the next flight to Seattle, which was probably 24 hours later, or ask them to route me through Portland if there was still a flight departing that night.

We pulled into the airport at 6:07 and I raced to the ticket counter and went straight up to the first attendant I saw who was free, who happened to be manning the first class line. In one breathless sentence I burst out that I was so so sorry but my flight was leaving in just a few minutes and I had to make it on and I would fly through security and please please please. The woman asked me where I was going and when I said Seattle she pursed her lips and intook an audible breath of air and said in a meek tone, "But there's no way your bag can get on, it's too late." I responded with more please please please and started to load my bag onto the weight belt. She pursed her lips again but called down to the gate, and from the "ne, ne" (yes, yes) I heard it seemed like positive news. She called one other person and repeated more "ne, ne" and then without saying anything handed me a boarding pass, threw the tag onto my suitcase and frantically enlisted some sort of bellboy to run at full speed through the airport to personally take my suitcase down to the plane. 

She ran with me to security and got me permission to cut to the front of the line. Within seconds I was through and a few steps after that was through immigration, which I cleared in under 5 minutes. By lucky coincidence my gate was only 3 down from the security checkpoint, and at a full sprint I made it there in under 2 minutes, arriving at the gate, with my heart beating wildly, at 18:24, where I joined a long queue of people who were still in the process of boarding. In total I made it from check-in to gate in 14 minutes, and wasn't even the last person on the plane.  Whether my suitcase made it on would be a question for later, but I had enough in my carryon to cover me for a day or two. God had been kind to me this day.


The flight was smooth, uneventful, and when I arrived in Seattle my bag was there to greet me, the 3rd bag out of the carrousel (as it had clearly been one of the very last to get put on). 

Asiana Airlines is my new favorite airline, because they went out of their way to help me make that flight when they could have just told me I was out of luck. Thank you, Asiana.

Round the World - Seoul - DMZ Border with North Korea

My last day in Seoul was one of the days I had looked forward to the most because Nicholas had managed to sign me up for a tour of the DMZ, the De-Militarized Zone that separates South Korea from North Korea. It's the closest most people can get to North Korea, a country so known for its privacy and secrecy that even the best spying countries in the world don't know much about it. A quick check online reveals that Google Maps only shows the outline of the country's borders but no roads, landmarks, or cities.
I had to wake up at 6am in order to make it to the USO at Camp Kim by 7:45 where the tour started. The entrance to the camp was very subdued, with almost no signage at all marking it as US property. I was the first person to arrive, and joined the receptionist as he unlocked the doors. When I stepped inside I felt like Dorothy falling back into Kansas. The reception looked like a large Midwestern living room, with dark brown tile, two huge worn-out brown leather couches, an ancient Lazy Boy, and a huge flat screen television which was soon piping Olympic sports at full volume into the empty room.

After a few minutes other people began to arrive and eventually our bus showed up, with guests already on board. They did a roll call and I could see that the other people on the tour were Filipino, Singaporean, Russian, and American.

We headed off to drive north out of the city, with nothing unusual at all around us. But as we drove farther and got closer to the border the highway began to be lined with barbed wire and had loudspeakers and cameras mounted every 200m pointed towards the river. In accordance with that there were camoflaged guard posts stationed every 1500ft with soldiers with guns ready. As we got closer the guard stations became more frequent until they were every 300ft. At one point our guide showed us North Korea directly across the river from us.

We kept driving and arrived at "observation point". From this little viewing station you can look directly at North Korea, and they even provide helpful pay per use telescopes for your convenience. At first I scoffed it but then relented to pay the quite small 50c charge it wanted, and was glad I did. With the naked eye you could see buildings and factories and grass. The view with the binoculars gave much richer detail and besides the large white warehouses or factories lining the edge of the North Korean side, I could even see one man moving around attending to some crops (apparently).The lookout point was actually really cool.  . The mountains sitting behind these buildings don't have any trees because the North Koreans cut them all down, supposedly to remove the possibility of hiding spots I suppose.

Next they took us to the 3rd Tunnel, one of the attack channels planned by North Korea during the height of tensions. There are 4 tunnels running from North Korea to South Korea which have been discovered so far over the last 40 years, and each one was clearly built by North Koreans. After discovery the North Koreans claimed they were for coal mining, however the rock inside is granite. Some experts estimate there could be a hundred of these tunnels running along the border. The one I visited was 5,100 feet long and 1,150 feet deep.

The other site we got to see was the "last train station in South Korea" which is literally, a train station, a few kilometers away from the border. It's more symbolic than anything, because the only people who get off at that stop are the handful of people who work at the DMZ and they all have to have gotten clearance before they can ride the train. The South, whether truthfully or just for show, is all about reunification. Everywhere the signs state how much they really want to be one country. North Korea, on the other hand, doesn't really seem to give a  --.

After the tour dropped us back off in Seoul I took a quick swing through the Deoksu-gung Palace near City Hall. It was hot and humid, like every day, but the cicadas didn't mind at all and were chirping so loudly they actually hurt my ears when I walked too close to the trees. I was very strange to have a dusty ancient deserted palace hiding underneath skyscrapers in the middle of the city. After that I made a quick stop through Seoul Station for cash and a thank you gift for Nick and Nicki before heading back to their house around 16:00 to get my bags in time for my 19:40 flight. I figured I needed to be on a bus by 17:00 at the latest so I'd get to the airport by 18:00.

As I prepared to leave Seoul I reflected on what I had observed. 1 ) Being in a foreign country, especially one where you don't even understand the characters of the alphabet, makes you humble because it makes you a child again. You have to blindly follow what people tell you and trust in what they say and do because you don't have communication tools to explain yourself. One of my favorite stories was Nicki telling me that as soon as she learned to pronounce the Korean characters a whole new world opened up for her. The Koreans adopted many English words but converted them into Korean characters, so when she could understand it she suddenly discovered that her local lunch shop had "st-r-aw-ber-ry sm-oo-thie" clearly printed in large type on its menu.

2) You can tell a country's history from what you see around you. For example, by its electrical plugs. Seoul had European style plugs, perhaps from the Russian influence. By contrast, Singapore had UK plugs, reflecting its former rule by the British Empire. You can also tell the history from the abundance of or lack of western influence. Korea, for example, was completely westernized with Taco Bell, Smoothie King, Domino's, Papa John's, The Coffee Bean, Starbucks, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts, Bennigan's, Outback Steakhouse, and even a YMCA. This perhaps came about because of the American occupation following the Korean War?

3) The small but thoughtful things a city does to help its residents. Someone (either companies or the city) had been passing out thousands of paper fans for people to carry with them, and boy were the Korean using them. I was at least happy it was hot for them, too. The subway was well-organized and made an effort to provide an enjoyable experiecne. For example, the overhead speakers played a little musical jingle to announce an approaching train.

Welcome to Kansas.

Guards with guns making sure no one swims in.

 Stay back and don't take pictures.

Promotion of reunification.

This is what I followed all day long.

You can't take pictures past the yellow line.

On the other side of this ledge is North Korea.

The last train station in the country has a gift shop, but no customers.

You can't get on a train here.

Geoksu gung Palace

In the middle of the city.

Beneath skyscrapers.

Round the World Trip - Seoul - Turning 30

My good friends Nick and Nicki met me at the airport and we took a bus back to their apartment, which was on the 12th floor of a 24-story building on a busy 14 lane road/highway in the Gangnam area of Seoul. If you've never heard of Gangnam, or if you have heard of it and are wondering why it sounds familiar, check out this music video by the artist Psy that went viral (almost 90 million hits on YouTube and counting).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Their apartment was large and bright with all wooden floors and sliding doors, and of course we took our shoes off as soon as we entered. I've grown more accustomed to this tradition the longer I live in Europe, and it is especially important in Scandinavian and Asian cultures. After we grabbed takeaway lunch of Bibimbap, a traditional Korean "salad" consisting of rice, ground beef, bean sprouts, mushrooms, carrots, lettuce, spicy red pepper sauce, all with a fried egg on top, we waited for a workman to come to their house to fix their internet. Coming from Switzerland, where businesses are not especially helpful and will laugh if you expect work to be done on a weekend, I was impressed that it was possible to get service on a Saturday. What I realized with a grin, however, is that if you're a workman in Korea it's very important to have clean socks every day because when you go into someone's house you have to take off your shoes.

We all showered for the 2nd time that day, becuase it was unbelievably hot and humid, and headed out to meet the rest of our friends at the restaurant they had booked to celebrate my 30th birthday in the Insadong area of Seoul. Insadong is a neighborhood in the Jongno-gu district of Seoul and began 500 years ago as an area of residence for government officials. Now it is one of the largest markets for antiques, craftwork, and artwork in Korea. According to Wikipedia, "Insadong-gil is "well known as a traditional street to both locals and foreigners" and represents the "culture of the past and the present". It contains a mixture of historical and modern atmosphere and is a "unique area of Seoul that truly represents the cultural history of the nation.""The main street is connected to a huge network of alleys that twist and turn behind and around the buildings.

Our restaurant, called Sanchon, was at the very end of one of those tiny alleys which jetted off on its course about halfway down the main street, and was clearly reserved for those who could make a strong effort to find it. It served traditional vegetarian Korean Temple cooking, and was run by a former monk who learned his cooking skills during his training. The inside was decorated in intricately carved dark solid wood mixed with a forest of dark green plants and bright tropical flowers. The food was served in a succession of individual portions in what seemd like hundreds of simple wooden bowls until by the end of the meal the table was no longer visible under the deluge of small vessels. As we ate dancers performed traditional Korean dances in heavy layers of colorful robes. It was the absolute perfect place to celebrate with friends, and the dinner ended with a lovely chocolate cake (brought in by one of my friends) which we ate, naturally, with chopsticks.

After the dinner we headed for, what else, karoake, at a place nearby. In most Asian karoake places each group of friends gets their own private room, which is wonderful because you get to sing all the songs for as long as you want to stay and don't have to suffer through terrible songs sung badly by people you don't know. It also helps the shyer people sing more because they are not standing in front of a large room of people. About a third of the available songs were American or British pop, so we had plenty to sing. After karaoke we ended up at a small sports bar where we watched South Korea play Great Britain in the Men's Quarterfinal Olympic football (soccer) matchup, while we debated American politics. Korea won the game, and would go on to win the bronze medal in that Olympics, becoming only the second Asian nation to medal in football.

The night ended in the early hours and we stumbled out of the taxi and into bed, gulping a large glass of water on the way. Turning 30 never felt so good.

Round the World Trip - Singapore

After many weeks of countdown the red letter July 31st came and it was time to leave for my round the world trip. I'd spent the last few days frantically emailing everyone I was going to visit to get addresses, local telephone numbers, best transportation advice from the airports, and to ask if there were any grand plans already in place I should know about. 

As I prepared to leave Lausanne to head to Zurich Airport to start my trip I got back all of the irrational fears I'd gotten over after so many dozens of flights, like reading the departure time wrong, or the date wrong, or getting on the wrong train for the airport. 

Zurich is a huge airport and I knew from having flown out of it before that it could sometimes take 45 minutes just to walk to your gate. So although I planned to arrive 2.5 hours early I was worried about the check in and security queues and getting there on time. However, I was checked in in under 5 minutes, through immigration and security in record time, and was left with lots of time to kill by window shopping.

My flight path put me through Bangkok on my way to get to Singapore, and when we did finally board, the flight was made up almost exclusively of Europeans, mostly Germans and Swiss Germans going on holiday to Thailand. When we were leaving Zurich the announcements were made in German first, then English, then Thai. During the flight they came in English, then German, then Thai, and when we arrived in Bangkok they were in Thai first, then English, then German. International airspace courtesy rules I suppose.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the Bangkok airport, but it turned out to be just as clean, modern, and well sign-posted as any of the best in the world, with staff who were much friendlier than anywhere in Europe.

My blackberry, which always struggles with time changes, recognized Bangkok time right away, while my IPhone, which usually updates immediately, took more than an hour to recognize the new zone. The plane from Bangkok was a full size long haul plane, an A330 with 2 aisles and a 3-3-3 configuration, even though the flight was less than 3 hours. The plane was nearly full and the route must just be so popular that they need the big planes to fly it.

When I arrived in Singapore I grabbed a taxi to my friend's house in the Novena area of Singapore. During the drive the taxi was flying through traffic at around 90 miles an hour, but most people around us were going nearly the same speed. Singapore is a funny mix of modern and old. There were lots of new cars on the road, but there were also a large number of very outdated work vans and trucks that reminded me of the chaos of Indonesia. We passed an open backed work truck with the name "Top and Safe Construction" that had 6 men seated in the bed hanging on to the sides at full highway speed. Clearly not safe by most union standards. Yet Singapore is considered to be extremely current and modern with some of the best technology and one of the highest Internet connectivity rates in the world.

When I got to the house and finished oohing and ahhing over the fluffy precious pure white kitten, we went for coffee and dessert at the local mall - the only place still open was Starbucks so that's where we ended up. Singapore is really a huge series of shopping centers, all with ice cold air-conditioning, allowing its citizens to be out in the 90 degree-60% humidity for as little time as possible. Fancy restaurants are often tucked away on the top floor of a multi-story mall, so saying let's go to the mall for dinner is not an invitation for fast food takeout but a serious offer for a nice meal.

I only had two real days of sightseeing in Singapore, but I'd been there once before so this time the only tourist thing I really cared about was getting to the top of the boat-casino-hotel "thing" that I had missed on the last trip. The real name of it is the Marina Bay Sands Casino Hotel, and it opened in early 2010 to much fanfare because it's a boat shaped platform perched atop 3 huge skyscraper columns. Craig and I discovered that there was no need to buy a scam 20 dollar tour ticket for the top, but instead could just go up to the restaurant and have a drink instead. And lunch in the end, which was not priced too extravagantly considering where we were. Beyond that, during the rest of the time we walked around, went to Chinatown, Little India, and had a fancy drink in a fancy terrace of a fancy hotel. And I took care of some pedicure and reflexology needs in one of the all-purpose malls.

My flight from Singapore to Seoul was a red eye that departed at 2:30 in the morning, the latest I've ever seen a plane take off. I was one of two non-Asians on the flight and it seemed designed to cater to the businessmen crowd, except that on a Friday night it was more holidayers than business people.

I was surprised to see that many shops were still open well after midnight and there was even a 24hr food court. Many of the free-standing shops that had closed had just pulled a small rope across the outside borders, with the goods still in plain view and easily reachable by leaning gently over the rope. It must be that either the people would never dream of stealing or the punishment is so harsh that no one does. I didn't check in until I got got to the airport because the round the world ticket wouldn't let me, and was given 42J, an aisle seat in the very back and was told there were no more window seats. However, when I got down to the gate I kindly offered that if someone else really wanted an aisle I would gladly let them have mine because I preferred a window. The nice looking man and woman conferred with each other and then with the system, and a few seconds later I was handed a boarding pass for seat 11A, a window seat very near the front of the plane. The seat was great, 2nd row of economy, and I managed to get a solid amount of good sleep during the 6 hr flight.

Summertime in (Rainy) Switzerland

(view from Lutry Beach)

Summer arrived in Switzerland in fits and starts in 2012, with teasingly warm weather early in April followed by many weeks of rain and cold in the middle of June. By July the rain was coming nearly every day but was arriving via thunderstorms instead of all day drizzles, and lasting only a few hours followed by long periods of sunshine. That made things much better, but I was still shocked by how much precipitation was coming down. It was like living in a tropical rainforest, in the middle of a northern hemisphere temperate climate, on nearly the same latitude as Montreal, Canada. This was by far the rainiest summer I'd seen yet.

In between rainstorms my friends and I attempted to have BBQs and parties down by the lake. About half the time they had to be postponed or moved indoors, and the other half of the time the ground we stood on was still wet from the previous day's rain. This was in stark contrast to 2011 when BBQs began in February and carried straight on into October with not a single cancellation due to weather.

The plus side of the stormy summer was that I got many more thunderstorms than I had heard yet in Switzerland. I normally got one semi-decent storm per year, but by July of 2012 I had already gotten at least four. including one really impressive lightning-flashes-so-bright-they-wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-thunder-that-shakes-the-house storm. However, there were more rainbows during 2012 than in any other year anywhere I'd lived.

Driving between Lausanne and Neuchatel

View from St. Sulpice.

View from top of hill in Neuchatel

View from Montreux just after a giant rainstorm

View from my office on one of the usual cloudy days.

View from the Beaux Rivage in Lausanne

View form Vidy Beach

Me at Vidy Beach

View from Lutry.