Engage

Sorry for the late post here. I wanted to write about the rest of time in Thailand, which was too daunting of a task that I kept putting off. So I'll write about it in several smaller, manageable posts. I'll start with the big news...

My girlfriend Candice met me in Thailand after my work with the Air Force. On Valentine's Day, we were supposed to be in Cambodia at Angkor Wat, which is where I planned on popping the big question. But I came across trouble at the border. The Thai immigration officials wouldn't let me across the border. Because I flew into Thailand on a military aircraft, my passport had no Thai entry stamp. Even though I had a letter from the US embassy explaning my situation, and immigration spoke with an embassy liaison, they wouldn't let me across. So with a quick change of plans, we headed back to Bangkok.

The next day was Valentine's Day, and we went and visited the old palace and a couple temples which were simply amazing. I'll talk more about that later. That evening, we got a Thai massage and went to eat at The Breeze restaurant (http://www.breezebkk.com/index.php and http://www.bangkok.com/what%27s-new/breeze.html) which is on a rooftop terrace on the State Tower. With a call beforehand, I ensured we would have a nice table, and the Breeze pulled through with our table sitting on a private semicircle on the roof's edge.


After some romantic prologue and nearly knocking over the table getting to my knee, I opened the ring box and asked Candice to spend the rest of her life with me. She was shocked, and couldn't say a word but gave me a big tearful hug. She was looking forward to this day.

We plan to have our wedding in San Diego where her family lives. It'll likely be July 19th, which is after she finishes her internship and after I finish my year here in Korea. Right after, we'll move to JAPAN!!! I don't think I've posted this yet, but next assignment will be at Yokota Air Base, which is right by Tokyo. Candice and I are both really looking forward to this. She is half-Japanese herself (and half-Chinese) and even has relatives in Japan. After my assignment there, we'll probably move back to the West Coast and finish our residencies.

On the way out, the State Tower had this huge, sweet aquarium. In it, I saw the most beautiful fish I've ever seen...

Cope Tiger

Part of my squadron of A-10's went down to Korat, Thailand, to participate in Cope Tiger 2008. This is a joint Thai-Sing(Singapore)-US Air Force/Marine exercise. They brought me to be their medical support. So late February, I flew down there on a C-17 Globemaster, which is nice new big aircraft.


This was a awesome assignment. The US Marines brought a couple flight docs and several techs, so we were well staffed in the clinic. I only saw 4 patients a day average, but we were always ready for anything. I also got a chance to fly in a E-3 AWACS. The big platter on top houses a radar, and inside the aircraft are air/weapons control stations. It gets exciting in there when the controllers are informing all the friendly aircraft about approaching enemy aircraft.


Another incredible part of this flight was the in-flight refueling. Watching from the cockpit as 2 large aircraft approach each other to refuel was quite awe-provoking.


Korat (which is in Northeast Thailand) is one of the biggest cities in Thailand, but it doesn't offer much to see or do. In the evenings, I would eat dinner with the pilots, and sometimes we would hit a bar or club. We did get a chance to see a couple Khmer temples from the 10th century.


Above is the center of Phanom Rung, which is considered Thailand's largest and best restored of the Khmer temples (the same folks that built Angkor Wat).


After 2 weeks of flying, here's the A-10's preparing to fly back to Korea. I was able to take some leave afterwards, so I stuck around in Thailand. I'll have much more about this in my next post.

World Heritage Sites

After writing that last post, I reminded myself to look into the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Being a guy, I like to collect things, and I think a good one would be "World Heritage Sites I've Been To". Anyways, here's a little history of these sites.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been selected by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which is composed of 21 countries. The program aims to catalogue, name, and conserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance. As of 2007, a total of 851 sites are listed: 660 cultural, 166 natural, and 25 mixed properties.

I got this info from the glorious Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_site
and the actual UNESCO website http://whc.unesco.org/en/
So here's my collection so far.

Africa:
Zambia: Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls

Americas:
United States:
Carlsbad Caverns National Park - New Mexico
Grand Canyon National Park - Arizona
Independence Hall - Pennsylvania
Wrangell-St. Elias Park - Alaska
Mammoth Cave - Kentucky
Redwood National and State Parks - California
Statue of Liberty - New York
Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming
Yosemite National Park - California

Asia and Australasia:
Cambodia: Angkor (going there next month)
China: Historic Centre of Macau
India:
Agra Fort, Uttar Pradesh
Humayun's Tomb, Delhi
Qutub Minar and its monuments, Delhi
Red Fort, New Delhi
Taj Mahal, Uttar Pradesh
South Korea:
Changdeokgung Palace Complex
Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon
Nepal: Kathmandu Valley
Thailand: Dong Phaya Yen – Khao Yai Forest Complex (next month)

Europe:
United Kingdom:
Palace of Westminster
Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
Westminster School

I missed the several sites in Haiti, Canada, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica. Oh well. You should check the list out, because you might have one next door to you, like this one I just found. Jongmyo Shrine

India: other travels

I had a post about the Taj Mahal earlier, but we saw so much more in India. Here's some other highlights from traveling with Max Janosky.

Red Fort, Old Dehli, India. Used to be the palace grounds.


Itimad-ub-Daulah's Tomb, the "Baby Taj", Agra, India. This white marble beauty is just down the river a bit from the real Taj.


Another photo of the Baby Taj.


Agra Fort. This UNESCO World Heritage site is also an old Mughal Palace/Fort and is considered by many the 2nd most important site to see after the Taj.


Another from Agra Fort. This place is huge, and on top of that, it's composed of very ornately carved red sandstone and white marble.


Monkeys, like cows, are considered holy in the Hindu religion, so they just roam around wherever. So different from most of Africa, where the monkeys run for the lives.


Train toilet. We took the train from Dehli to Agra and back. Going there we were in AC 1st Class which was like an airliner 1st class with air conditioning. Going back we thought we'd try the cheapest class, which was so crowded I could stand on only one leg. And my one leg was standing by an open door. And then all these people would squeeze through selling snacks. And here is the bathroom. That is not a piece of doodoo, but it is open to the tracks below.

New York City

While out in Texas, I spent the 1st weekend of September up in New York City visiting Candice, a friend from medical school. The first night there we went to a trance show/rave by DJ Tiesto. This is one of my favorite DJ's; he has been rated the world's best DJ a couple times in the past few years; and he did the music for the last Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. Awesome show. Here's a clip from one of his other shows, which shows the enthusiasm of the audience well.

Tiesto's He's A Pirate Mix

Well this turn out to be an amazing evening with Candice, and I fell in love with her quick. She came out to Korea a few weeks later for the week of my ankle surgery. It was such a blessing to have her there. Here are some photos from our travels around Seoul.

Overlooking Seoul.

Palace grounds.

We've gotten the chance to see each other a few other times with my frequent trips out to San Antonio. I really enjoy the weekend trips to New York City. She has a beautiful apartment with the view below. (Photo courtesy of Scott)



New York City is an amazing melting pot. I don't think there is another city in the world with such a mix of cultures. Great ethnic foods... I've enjoyed delicious Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Peruvian food, and Vietnamese food. Plus great chocolate and coffee were partaken of! Another highlight was the chance be meet up with a couple of my best friends (Jeff and Scott) and their wives.

Janelle, Jeff, Jenny, Me

Scott falling with grace

A little more on Seoul

Sorry for such a boring blog for lack of posts. I'll try to catch up.

So Seoul is awesome. Love it. Glad I'm going to be there for at least at year. It's a big city (about the size of LA), and like Los Angeles, it doesn't have a downtown downtown. Instead it has lots of cool areas in the city, like a young professional area, expat area, university area, etc. Unlike LA, it has an excellent and cheap public transportation system which goes all the way to my base. The above pic is the Samsung Jong-Ro Building, Hanging Glass Façade.

The Wild, Wild West

So here's a short overdue entry about my roadtrip from Dayton to Seattle. First night was Chicago, but my clutch cable snapped a bit south of Chicago. Luckily USAA roadside assistance came to my rescue. At the time, I didn't know what went wrong, so I had it towed to the Evolution specialists at AMS in Chicago. They squeezed me into their very busy schedule with some extra money. That place is amazing. I got to see their shop's car, which is the most powerful Evo in the world as far as I know with over 1000 crank horsepower from the Evo's four cylinders. It's faster than almost all stock supercars. Anyways my brother Tom met me in Chicago, and we stayed at my friend Derek's place near downtown Chicago. So I was a good place for my car to break down.


We drove through the Badlands in South Dakota, which is a detour you must take if you're driving through the area.
We got there at a good time.

The beauty inspires Tom to do what he needs to do.

Another must see in South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore. Cool place.

And yes, I wore the same clothes the whole way.