A Lost Paradise: Lord Howe Island

Since moving here, it's been my goal to visit all 6 states and 2 territories of Australia. So when we were planning my parents trip to Australia during one of our Skype sessions, I suggested that we goto Tasmania the second week of their trip (our pattern has been that they spend a week with me in Sydney and then the second week we go somewhere - last year we went to Christchurch, NZ).

But Papa quickly chimed in that he'd watched some NHK travel show on Tasmania and he was uninterested as it looked rather boring. I tried to pump Tasmania up talking up Tasmanian Devils and the beauty of the island along with Cradle Mountain which is supposed to be beautiful but Papa was adamant.

I next suggested Fiji, but Papa was uncomfortable with the political turmoil there. I let him know that they left the tourists alone as it was a big source of the country's income but again Papa held strong.

So, imagine my surprise when Papa said "Masa, I want to goto Lord Howe Island. It's listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site". I'd never heard of "Lord Howe Island" and had no clue where it was nor did I realise that it was in Australia and more specifically in the state of New South Wales (state I live in).

Evidently, Papa has seen yet another NHK travel show about Lord Howe Island and was impressed by the natural beauty and the birds endemic to Lord Howe Island (meaning they're found only on Lord Howe Island).

I had to Google-search Lord Howe Island to figure out more about this place my Dad wanted to visit. What I found out was:
* It's a two hour plane ride from Sydney - heading East into the ocean.
* There are very few cars, most people ride bikes.
* There's a limit to how many visitors can travel to LHI at any one time (there's a max number of people who can live there as well)
* There's no mobile phone coverage on LHI. When we arrived I asked and was told that the LHI resident's don't want mobile phone coverage as they enjoy the freedom of not being reachable by mobile anytime, anywhere.

Now that I've been there, what I'd add about LHI is:
* It's like that 1980s TV show "Fantasy Island" in it's beauty and remoteness.
* There's an amazing "small town village" feel to LHI in that everyone knows everyone and there's incredible trust that you won't steal from your neighbor. This is seen in the fact that there were absolutely no locks or keys in our hotel - we stayed at the Pinetrees Resort. This made my Dad feel uncomfortable at first that there was no lock (and thus no need for keys) on any of the doors to our room (a one bedroom suite). Also, when we rented our bikes we'd ride around the island and just leave them unlocked in front of the stores (there were like 5 stores in total on the island) or along the path.
* It's incredibly friendly on LHI. You waved hello to everyone that passed you by (even when you're riding on your bike, you give a friendly wave to people cycling or driving by).
* LHI is like the place that time forgot. So many beautiful trees, plant life that's unpolluted and thus thriving.

Here's us arriving at Lord Howe Island's airport (Nov. 14-18, 2010).




After my first day of scuba diving, I rejoined Mom and Papa and we went to the beach in the lagoon, checked out the small town and rented our bicycles.



Just beyond our cabin at Pinetrees is a boat shed where we enjoyed watching sunrises and sunsets.



Since we rented bicycles and there was no phone or TV in our cabin, we typically went to sleep early and woke up early. Papa and I got into the habit of waking up early before breakfast and going bicycling around the island. On one such morning we went to Blinky's Beach.





After Blinky's Beach we cycled a bit further to the end of the airport runway where we saw a number of cows. Here's a FlipVideo that recognises that Papa is Year of the Cow.



One afternoon Papa and I rode our bicycles to the North end of the island and the ocean, green pastures with cows, sunset, and mountains inspired us to compose Haikus.



Two of the most remarkable trees found on Lord Howe Island are the native Kentia Palm Tree which LHI exports to Europe and Australia and the Banyan Tree with its many, many roots.



One afternoon Papa and I rode to Ned's Beach and saw a lady feeding the fish there. So the next afternoon we brought the left over bread from our airplane lunch and fed the fish. As you'll see in this FlipVideo it was TOTALLY UNREAL how many fish swam around our ankles to eat the bread we were tossing into the water.



On another morning, Papa and I rode to the South end of the island and on the golf course there we found more Banyan trees with multiple roots and the Kentia palms. Here's Papa having fun with these native trees.



I've talked a lot about the trees, but there were also many birds that are only found on Lord Howe Island. The woodhen was many years ago almost extinct (only 30 remained at one point) but thanks to a regeneration program on LHI, they were brought back and now there's a population of over 300. These woodhen don't have any predators on the island (pigs and cats and other rodents aren't allowed on the island which helps) and thus are very friendly and bold and so frequently approach people as they're relatively unafraid of losing their lives. So, I couldn't figure out why I was having such a hard time finding a woodhen.

One morning, Papa and I cycled around the island trying to find a woodhen. At one point we gave up and Papa insisted that we use these yellow signs as a substitute. As an aside, just before this FlipVideo was taken, Papa was slowing his bike as he reached me (I'd already stopped and gotten off my bike) and for some reason he didn't judge the distance correctly and ran into me and fell off his bike. So in the Flip you'll here commentary that I tried to hurt him when the reality is that Papa drove his bike into me!



And then wouldn't you know it, when we head back to Pinetrees for breakfast we find a woodhen right behind the lodge.

On our last morning as Papa and I were walking around Pinetrees Resort we found this gargantuan banyan tree that was horizontal, vertical and so huge that it's many "tree trunks" actually crossed the street! My brother - who loves interesting trees - would have been amazed at this tree!



On our last afternoon on Lord Howe Island, Pinetrees Resort arranged for us to have a BBQ at Cubby's Corner. And we could not have asked for a more perfect afternoon. We had this lovely BBQ spot all to ourselves, an amazing view, gorgeous weather and we even had friendly woodhens and a dog come by and play with us!



And Mom made a friend - this woodhen she named "Pecky" because he'd break up the bread she fed him into tiny pieces before eating them with a typewriter-like peck, peck head motion. You'll see it has colored bands on its legs - that's what the rangers use to keep track of and to count the woodhen population.

2nd Make Your Own Gyoza and Sushi Party

As many of my friends in California will know, my Dad makes amazing gyoza and whenever he visits I host a gyoza party so all my friends can also enjoy this homestyle "Horiuchi secret recipe" gyoza.

This year my Dad also came up with a fun game (and Mom and Dad also brought prizes from LA Japantown too) where you had to juggle chopsticks and to increase the difficulty we added more chopsticks!

Road Trip to Cowra (5 hours west of Sydney)

From his first visit to Australia in October 2008, my Dad wanted to visit Cowra which he'd read had a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp during WWII. And that in association with this POW Camp - there was this "Cowra Breakout" where on Aug. 5, 1944 over 1,000 Japanese POWs attempted a mass breakout from this camp making this the largest prison attempt escape in the world. Most of the Japanese POWs were either recaptured or committed suicide as they felt shame at being caught in the first place.

The deceased Japanese were buried in Cowra in a specially created Japanese War Cemetery. Considering Australian's were at war with Japan during WWII the fact that the residents of Cowra treated the Japanese soldiers with such respect by burying them in a beautifully constructed cemetery was acknowledged by all of us and Papa played his shakuhachi at the cemetery in recognition of this sentiment.

The Cowra POW camp was similar to the Heart Mountain Camp outside Cody. Wyoming where my Mom and her family were interned during WWII in that there was also a very tall guard tower, barbed wire fencing, wood-constructed barracks and in the middle of nowhere.



On our way to Cowra, we visited Lithgow and spent one night in Bathurst at the Winter Rose Bed and Breakfast where we stayed in this lovely cabin surrounded by a beautiful garden.



In addition to the Japanese POW camp and the cemetery, we also visited the Japanese Garden in Cowra. It reminded me of the Japanese Garden in Saratoga, Calif. in that it too had a lake, canopy of wisteria and an elevated part of the garden where you could rest and look down on the rest of the garden and the horizon beyond.

Winnings from Melbourne Cup

My strategy for choosing horses to bet on for Melbourne Cup (the world's richest and most prestigious "two mile" handicaped horse race which takes place every year on the second Tuesday of November) is not very sophisticated.

1. I bet Americain to win and to place as I found the irony funny that a French horse would be named Americain. And of course the obvious fact that I'm an American betting on an Australian horse race - and wouldn't it be amazing if a horse named "Americain" actually won this Australian horse race?

2.I bet on So You Think to win and place as it's a twist on a funny American phrase "ya think" that's a great come back to stupid things some people say.

3. And I bet on Tokai Trick to place because embedded in the horse's name is my "Kai" which is my oldest nephew and the horse is Japanese so I thought it'd be a solid nod to my Dad's home country.

And 2 out of 3 of the horses I bet on placed!

Americian won (my winnings were $70) and So You Think came in 3rd (my winnings here was $7.25). I only bet $40 total so at the end of the day I was up $37.25.

Here are my winning tickets... as you can see I'm not a big better :)

Border Security Australia: Case of the Toothpaste Tubes

I'm so excited to have my parents visiting me again this year. And what a trip it was! They departed Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, Nov. 4, arrived in San Francisco, California and then connected to a plane in LA. That's when they learned that due to recent issues with the A380 Qantas Planes they were bumped from their flight from LA-Sydney.

After a frustrating day spent going back and forth between the hotel, LA Japantown and the airport on Sunday they were booked onto a flight from LA-Auckland, New Zealand and then a connecting flight finally to Sydney.

They finally arrived today, Monday, Nov. 8 into Sydney. And when we arrived back at my place, I heard about how customs seemed to have a heightened interest in the 5 tubes of Aquafresh toothpaste my parents were bringing me over from the US (it's been my favorite toothpaste for years and for the life of me I can't find it here in Sydney).

Here's the FlipVideo with my Mom's discovery of Border Security's interest in my toothpaste:



Note: With all of my "Border Security Australia" experiences, I've hooked my Mom on the reality TV series which you can believe we'll be watching while they are here.

Halloween Party at My Place

On the eve of Saturday, October 30 I invited friends over to celebrate Halloween. This was initially inspired by Helen who has never been to a Halloween Party. While it's a known holiday here in Australia it's considered a holiday mostly for kids although a few articles I read reported how interest in Halloween was growing in Australia.

In my Evite I encouraged costumes but realistically didn't expect many of my friends to actually wear costumes. What a surprise to find that my friends had more Halloween spirit than I even gave them credit for!

Check out these creative costumes:



And to keep the guests spooked and scared I arranged a few fun games. This game had a premise - everyone was a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) and as there had been a murder their job was to identify the body parts found (fingers, eye balls, brain, liver and teeth). Their task was to put their hand into these boxes and by touch only identify what was inside. As you'll see I kept the room deliberately dark and all they could use was the light from their torches (or as we would call it - a flashlight).

It was funny watching how grossed out they got:



What would a Halloween Party be like without Apple Bobbing. Both Matt and Thomas did an incredible job bobbing for apples. Meanwhile Lisa and I need to work on our technique of either grabbing the stems with our teeth or using the walls of the container more strategically.



Now, for the coup de grace - the Halloween Pumpkin which I literally had to goto 4 stores before I found this ONE pumpkin. I swear it was the last pumpkin in all of Sydney! Here in Australia they are so hard to come by! And can you guess how much I paid for this pumpkin - AUD$40 and it didn't even have its stem! Can you imagine an Australian going to our big pumpkin patches where there are heaps and heaps of pumpkins?



I must have mentioned a hundred times how much I love my place in Surry Hills! And the only thing it was missing was a BBQ so I could invite friends over for an Aussie Barbie. I went to BBQ Galore at Moorepark on my own and with the help of a nice young sales guy purchased my first Weber BBQ (I didn't even own one in the US). And on the eve of Halloween, Captain Pat was the Captain of my BBQ and he did an amazing job BBQ-ing for 15 friends. Well done Pat!

Experience in Vietnam

Part of the adventure in moving to Australia was to explore more of this side of the world as other than Japan, I haven't been to any other Asian country. I have a pretty long list but candidly, Vietnam wasn't very high on that list. Yet as the Cisco Asia/Greater China/Japan Corporate Communications team was having an off-site in Ho Chi Minh (Oct.19-22), I decided to take advantage of this trip by adding a few days at the front- and back-end of the business trip to explore the country. And happily my friend and Cisco Japan PR colleague Mari agreed to join me for a side-trip to Hanoi.

I arrived on the evening Friday, Oct. 15 via a direct flight from Sydney to Hanoi (via Ho Chi Minh) on Vietnam Airlines. The first morning I took a personal "Glimpse of Hanoi" tour with a guide named Hai. Our first stop was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The guide Hai was telling me that typically it's open to visitors in the mornings (not the afternoons as that's when Uncle Ho as he's affectionately called by the Vietnamese is working in the garden) but from October-November it's closed as specialists from Russia are touching up the embalming of Ho Chi Minh so that his body is well preserved for when he comes back sometime in the future and they evidently do a beautiful job as he looks very natural and peaceful.

That's when what the guide Hai was saying actually hit me - the Vietnamese people believe he's going to come back (he died in 1969) - and had I gone in to see the coffin I would have seen Ho Chi Minh through a glass coffin (I was thinking it'd be like seeing Napoleon's coffin where you only see a short wooden coffin).

Here's the changing of the guard in front of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum:



Then we went to visit the Presidential Palace of this communist run country.



And saw the gardens Ho Chi Minh so enjoyed taking care of.



And here's the one-legged pagoda which looks like a lotus flower also on the grounds of the Presidential Palace.



Our next stop was the Temple of Learning which is dedicated to Confucius. In this FlipVideo you'll see the "stone tablets" that list the names of elite Vietnamese who passed several tests to achieve the level of "doctorate" and went on to become leaders of towns and villages.



Temple of Learning - Part 2



One of the most lasting impressions of Vietnam is the heavy and chaotic traffic - mostly made up of not cars but motorcycles (and I'm not talking about the Harley Davidson-type of motorcycles, but mopeds). In fact families of 4 would be riding on one motorcycle - the father, mother, 4 year old and a baby squashed between everyone. And more often than not - in Hanoi they didn't wear helmets. With Ho Chi Minh being more the commercial center, I not only saw new motorcycles but more people wore helmets. And when there was traffic or a hold up of some sort, these motorcycles would run up on the side walk or even go against traffic to get wherever they were going. And there was no appreciation of lanes - they would just travel on mass. In many of the shuttle vans, cars I rode in when the cars ahead weren't going fast enough, they'd move into oncoming traffic and just before a head on collision would swerve back into their lane. I must admit that one evening I even had a nightmare that a motorcyclist crashed head on into our tour shuttle van and died.

And did I mention that there's a LOT of honking! There were absolutely no turn signals used when passing or turning so everyone just honked when they wanted to pass, when someone was going to slow or no reason at all. You'd have these big trucks honking at motorcycles and from the look on their faces they were totally unfazed - if it were me on a motorcycle and a big truck was honking at me I'd move fast out of the way because in a crash I'd come out the worse.



The last stop was to Turtle Island where I crossed a red bridge to hear the legend of the green lake. Note to Papa: Take a look at the black ornamental metal gong that looks a lot like the one we have at home.



On the walk back to the Hanoi Hilton Opera Hotel I stopped off at the Hanoi Post Office where I purchased postcards and stamps to send to family and friends.



Later that evening, Mari finally arrived from Tokyo and we headed to the Hanoi Night Markets. That evening we sat down with the locals and had "chicken hot pot". Little did we realise that from the moment we ordered they sent a guy to kill the chicken and next thing we knew we heard a "chop, chop" behind us and voila out appeared a plate with the whole chicken - head, feet and all.



On. Sun. Oct. 17 we headed to Halong Bay which after the traffic, noise and pollution of Hanoi was beautiful, serene and like stepping into a Chinese ink painting. There are 1,969 islands in Halong Bay and on the Emotion Junket Boat we sailed through many of these.



Here's a little tour of Emotion Junket:



After lunch on the boat we headed to this cave and it was massive inside. Here we are entering the Caves:



Here we are in the caves:



In the Caves Part 2:



After exploring the cave we went to this other island where we climbed to the top of "Ti Top Mountain" (I call it "Tip Top Mountain" as we climbed to the tip top).



Then I went for a swim in Halong Bay which was quite warm. Here's a FlipVideo that I took and since I have a waterproof case I was able to take it into Halong Bay with me:



At 6:00 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 18 we did tai chi on the top deck of the boat. It was what I call a "Zen moment" where I fully concentrated on breathing in and out, stretching, relaxing and just being in the moment amongst these majestic islands, sailing on an ancient style boat in this place that feels trapped in time with no sign of modern buildings in sight.



After breakfast we headed to a fishing village where Mari and I rented a kayak and while everyone else was rowed around we kayaked ourselves into this Blue Lagoon-type area and around a fishing village.



There is actually fish in a fishing village:



On our last night in Hanoi, we went to see the Hanoi Water Puppet Show.



The morning of our departure to Ho Chi Minh (in the past it was known as Saigon) I took a run around Hoan Kien Lake. It was a 1.5 K around and I was going to take a second lap but the humidity and the bad polluted air was making it tremendously hard to take a full breadth so I passed and just headed back to the hotel.



We arrived in Ho Chi Minh on Tues. Oct. 19 and the team off-site started with an informal dinner that night and over the next two days. It was a great opportunity to meet many of the colleagues I've never met before and those that I hadn't seen in a very long time. There were mostly workshops and discussions so it was a very productive session. On the afternoon of Thurs. Oct. 21 we had a team-building exercise that took us on an "Amazing Race-like" jaunt around Ho Chi Minh. I led "Team We Rock 'n Roll" and we came in second place but won most spirited for our creativity and presentation.

That last evening we went to Cham Charm Restaurant which was this amazing buffet restaurant in what was like a museum.



On Friday, Oct. 22 those of us that were staying through the weekend went to the Ben Tahn Market for some shopping. Here's a Flip Video of me purchasing these flip flops for myself and my nieces.



On the way back from the markets we took a mini-bicycle tour of Ho Chi Minh.



In the afternoon, we went to a Vietnamese Spa. I paid about US$75 for a 70 minute massage and a manicure and pedicure. The massage was unusual in that rather than using a typical massage table, they use a low twin-sized bed. And the masseuse was a tiny Vietnamese woman who got up on the table to contort and twist my arms and legs in a few different positions while putting her foot in my back. It was uncomfortable and I felt like I'd suddenly found myself in a acrobatic training camp for Cirque du Soleil. Before it went too much further and because I'm definitely not as flexible as an acrobat, I asked her to stop.

On. Sat., Oct. 23 we took a tour to this religious sect called "Dai Dao":



Then we ultimately arrived at the Cuchi Tunnels located about 35 km outside of Ho Chi Minh. They are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels that were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.

I'd never truly understood the meaning of a guerrilla war, but visiting the Cuchi Tunnels gave me a glimpse of what American soldiers were confronted with in the Vietnam War (or as the Vietnamese call it - the American War). I found the tunnels and the traps the Vietnamese used to be ingenious and very simple yet vicious in the damage they inflicted. The jungles were hot and humid and it was pretty unbearable in the tunnels - very tight, pitch black, damp and hard to breath.

When we first arrived, we were shown a overview video from 1969 that many times referred to the "crazy, devil, bad Americans attacking the peaceful, tranquil Vietnamese villagers". It was intimidating to watch the video surrounded by Vietnamese soldiers who also demonstrated entering the tunnel entries and the dozen of traps that were used.



Here are demonstrations of the traps they made by hand:



Here's the soldier as well as me and my work colleagues Terry Anderson and Peter Witts entering the tunnels through this very small entry hole.

Vietnamese soldier's demonstration:



Terry enters the tunnel:



My boss Peter enters the tunnel:



And finally, here I am entering the tunnel:



Here's more on how they hid air holes in termite holes and the larger entry ways if you have to carry in guns and food:



There was also the option to purchase a round of 10 bullets to fire in the firing range (I decided not to). My boss Peter, however, wanted to fire an AK-47 as it's illegal to do so in Australia and asked me to take a FlipVideo of him shooting the AK-47s. Since only shooters were allowed into the shooting range (where they were provided with ear protections) I took this FlipVideo from behind and as you'll hear in the Flip, the sound for Peter firing the AK-47 was incredibly, ear-splittingly loud!



Near the end of the tour, we went into the tunnels ourselves. The first one was 30 meters and as you'll see it's very, very dark but you'll hear my narrative as we walked through the tunnel.



The second tunnel was 20 meters but had steps that went up and down (at one point I bump into Supriya who was ahead of me and had abruptly stopped to climb up some steps) and then just before we exited the tunnel there was a turn of the tunnel. The guide played a trick on me and jumped out from around the corner, totally catching me off guard (and yes, I scream in surprise as well). I'm glad I was able to give everyone a good laugh at my expense :)



Later that evening we headed back to the markets and Supriya had the option of purchasing the Weasel Coffee we'd heard about earlier from the tour guide (she politely declined). As an aside, I did very much enjoy the filtered Vietnamese coffee with the sweet condensed milk.



On Sun. Oct. 24, Terry, Veronica and I went on a private tour of the Mekong Delta. It was a cultural tour as well. When we arrived at the Mekong Delta we took a boat to the island where we had honey tea a few short meters from a honey bee hive. We also had other dried fruits as a snack. What was amazing is that with so many bees we didn't get stung!



Next we visited a coconut candy making shop. Check out the fast-wrapper lady packaging these candies!



We were also presented with local fruits, singing and music in the village alongside the Mekong Delta.



Then we jumped into these boats and were rowed along the Mekong Delta back to our boat for a refreshing coconut drink.



In the last afternoon in Vietnam, I took the opportunity to goto the Independence Palace which my team didn't get a chance to check out in the "Amazing Race" as it had already closed.



And then had my last Vietnamese coffee outside the American Embassy which is the location (although since rebuilt) where the Broadway Musical Miss Saigon took place.