Merry Christmas

Lori arrived in St. John's over a week ago and we are all ready for Christmas.We have our tree up and decorated. It's twice the size and half the price of the tree we bought in Paris last year.

We've been enjoying lots of Newfoundland delicacies like Jiggs Dinner, Pea Soup and Toutons (fried bread dough). I've also been drinking lots of seasonal beers from local craft breweries.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm taking a break from the blog for a few weeks. I'll post again around mid-January, once we are back in PNG. Take care.

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Ontario

I had a great week in Ontario, visiting family and friends. I was able to relive my days as a Sears catalog model with my cousin Steve.

I even made a new friend.

The highlight of the week was the day we spent in Toronto.

First, we went to the Ripley's Aquarium at the base of the CN Tower. It was impressive.

I wouldn't want to live in Toronto, but if I did, I would want this guys job. He gets to feed the Rays by hand.

Then we went to watch the Bruins-Leafs game.

Luckily, the Bruins won in a shootout so everyone was happy. Well, everyone I was with was happy. I'm in St. John's now and I have lots of appointments and tasks to keep me busy until Lori gets here on Dec. 11.

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Flight to Canada

I've been getting a lot of questions about how long my flight was and where did it take me and how did I feel by the end, so I thought I would let you know how it went. There are several ways to get from Port Moresby to Toronto, but the best option this time was to go through Sydney Australia. I left Thursday afternoon and flew to Brisbane Australia and that is a 3½ hour flight. I stayed in Brisbane overnight and then flew to Sydney the next morning and that was just a 1½ hour flight. 

I changed planes in Sydney and then flew to Vancouver for 14 hours. We landed at dawn. 

Once in Vancouver, I had to get off the plane, pick up my luggage, clear customs, drop my bag off so it could be loaded back onto the same plane, then I had to clear security so I could also get back on the same plane and sit in the same seat I just left. Then we had a 5 hour flight to Toronto.

I picked up the rental car and drove through rush hour traffic for a couple of hours to get to my brother's place in Cambridge. From the time I left our apartment in Port Moresby until I arrived here, I was traveling for 47 hours and in the air for 24 of those hours. I'm sure there are longer flight paths in the world, but I wouldn't want to do them. Lori will be flying the exact same route in December, but once she gets to Toronto, she'll change planes and keep going to St. John's, so her trip will be even longer than mine.

Other than the length of the trip, things couldn't have gone better. Every connection was smooth, the lines at customs and security were short, the staff of the 3 different airlines that I flew with were wonderful. All in all, it was pleasant experience, just really really long. I expected to have terrible jet lag, but I feel pretty good actually. Fingers crossed.

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Christmas

Even though it's only the middle of November, I'm sure the Christmas shopping season has emerged back in Canada. No doubt the TV is full of Christmas commercials and stores have Christmas music playing on an endless loop. Even here in Port Moresby we've seen Christmas decorations at the yacht club and displays in the grocery store. I love Christmas, but I'm not a fan of celebrating it so early. I usually get in the spirit around December 10 or 11. This year however, I am in the Christmas spirit early and that's because Lori and I are coming home. I leave on Thursday and Lori will follow in a couple of weeks. It's been 3 years since we've spent Christmas in Canada and we are both excited. I'm stopping for a week in Ontario to see my family. It's been far too long since I've seen everyone. I'm going to watch the Bruins play the Leafs in Toronto with my dad, brother and nephew. Then it's off to Newfoundland for a good old fashioned Newfie Christmas.

This past Friday night, Lori and I were discussing what we are looking forward to the most about Christmas. Things like turkey and cookies and snow. This led to a discussion about our last 2 Christmases in Paris and the things we'll miss this year. Things like chocolate and champagne and Christmas markets. When I looked at the calendar, I realized the markets will be opening very soon and I was a little sad that I won't be there this year.

Then on Saturday morning the news of the events in Paris brought us back to reality. We see tragedies on TV all the time and then move on with our lives. This one however, feels different to us. We know these places and these people. We drove by the Stade de France every time we went to the airport. We've shopped in Les Halles. The restaurants in the 10th and 11th Arrondissements are close to our first apartment in Le Marais. We have friends and co-workers there. Paris is not our home, but after living there for 2 1/2 years, it is part of who we are. Happiness and excitement have been replaced with sadness and desperation. We have serious problems in the world and I don't know what the solution is. Some days I worry that there isn't one. At one point in my life I wore a uniform and put myself in harms' way. I thought it was important and I thought I was helping, but when I look back on it now, it feels like I was trying to put out a forest fire by pissing on it. It keeps you busy, but it doesn't make a difference.

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Cairns

Lori and I had a quick get away last weekend to Cairns. The first thing you need to know about Cairns is how to pronounce it. The i and r are silent (sort of). The closest I could get is pronouncing as Canz. Anyway, it's a lovely resort town in Queensland and it's only 90 minutes away by air.

We had nothing planned and no objective to our mini-vacation except to getaway from our restrictive life in PNG. We went for walks, did some shopping and ate in some great restaurants. It may not sound like a thrilling vacation to most, but to us, it was heaven. You don't truly appreciate safety and freedom until you don't have it anymore. I also got to enjoy some really good Australian craft beer.

It's not everyday you see a kangaroo playing guitar outside a McDonald's. This wasn't even Halloween, just a Friday night.

We got to see some real wildlife as well. These pelicans were hanging out along the shoreline.

I didn't get any pictures of them, but we saw some enormous bats at night. I thought they were pretty cool, but Lori wasn't too impressed.

Cairns is a great departure point to get out to the Great Barrier Reef. We took a day trip out to Green Island to do some snorkeling.

The island is fairly small, you can walk around it in about 40 minutes, but there is a resort on it. There is a strong chance we will stay there in the future.

I don't have an underwater camera, so I couldn't get any pictures of the incredible fish we saw while we were snorkeling, but this guy came to check us out as we were leaving.

It was a great weekend and I have a feeling we will see a lot of Cairns over the next few years.

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Drought

Yesterday marked 14 weeks since we first arrived in Papua New Guinea and we've only had one day with a small amount of rain. The hills surrounding Port Moresby have all turned brown and look nothing like the lush tropical island we first saw in July. Everyone across the island is struggling with the lack of rain. Crops are failing and water sources are drying up. When the water dries up for one village or tribe, they can't move to a different area with water because another group already has territorial rights to that area. Their only option is to move into the cities, so Port Moresby is getting busier everyday. The resources in the city are being put to the test as well and now we are under water restrictions. This is all due to the El Nino effect we are experiencing this year. Lori found a really good article that explains it better than I can.

http://www.looppng.com/content/el-ni%C3%B1o-could-leave-4-million-people-pacific-without-food-or-drinking-water

There's been plenty of typhoons in the area, but they all pass north of us and the systems seem to suck all the moisture out of the air and no rain falls here. The true rainy season isn't until January and February, but everyone I've spoken too says we should've been getting regular rains by September and the wind should've died down as well. They all say this is an unusual year. I hope so.

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Singapore

Just like that, our time in Singapore is over and we are flying overnight back to Port Moresby. Even though the haze was really bad and we couldn't get outside as much as we would have liked, it was still a great week. We only had one day when the haze cleared a little bit and the air quality moved out of the Unhealthy range and into the Moderate range. For most of the week, my nose thought it was back in Southern Ontario during ragweed season. Lots of sneezing and coughing for me.

Singapore is a city-state in Southeast Asia that started as a small Malaysian fishing village before it was colonized by the British in 1826. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of their independence from British rule in 1965. Singapore is 1° north of the equator so the climate is extremely hot and humid. It's a major financial centre and that is the biggest part of their economy. The population is around 5 million made up of 3 main ethnic groups; Chinese, Malaysian and Indian, so if you're a fan of Asian food like I am, it's a great city to eat in.

It's a city that feels very new because of all the modern office towers and hotels. There aren't many buildings left over from the colonial days, except a few hotels. This is the Raffles Hotel, where the Singapore Sling was invented and no we did not have one.

This is what a new hotel in Singapore looks like. It's the Marina Bay Sands.

There is an infinity pool with a bar on the portion that looks like a surfboard. You have to be a guest of the hotel to use the pool but you can get to the observation deck or have a drink in the bar. The view is supposed to be incredible but we didn't go up because the haze was so bad. Next time.

They have other attractions in the Marina Bay area. This is the Art Science museum and you can see the Singapore flyer in the background.

Not sure what the purpose of the painted hippos were, but they looked cute.

Like I said earlier, Singapore is a great city to eat in. Not only did we eat incredible Chinese and Indian food but we had Vietnamese, Spanish, German and some good old fashioned pub grub. Some of the best and cheapest food is found in the hawker centres. A hawker centre is like a food court and it's a way to control food stalls and street vendors. This is the Maxwell Road Hawker Centre.

We ate dishes from 3 different stalls and the grand total for both of us was $12. The food was simple street food but it was really good. The coolest thing was the banana fritter. It was essentially a battered and deep fried banana. So good.

Singapore is the head office for the Asia-Pacific region of Total, so Lori will be back here a couple of times a year while we are in Port Moresby. We will have lots of chances to do the things we missed this time.

We don't have any other trips planned until Christmas. We will be in Canada for Christmas for the first time since we left 3 years ago. I'm leaving Nov 20 and Lori will follow a few weeks later. We are looking forward to it.

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Haze

I've been looking forward to this trip to Singapore for awhile. It's a very cool city with incredible architecture, beautiful gardens and amazing food, but the trip is not turning out the way I thought it would. Most of Southeast Asia is shrouded in a thick haze caused by forest fires in the area. I brought my camera with me, but I haven't taken it out of the case yet because you can't see anything.

Most of the fires are on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan. The fires were set deliberately by farmers as a slash and burn method to clear the land for planting and now they are out of control. I read in the paper that slash and burn is illegal in Indonesia, but it still happens. This happens every year apparently, but because this is an El Nino year, it's worse than usual. We are experiencing the same thing in Papua New Guinea, but on a smaller scale. The saving grace for PNG is the wind blows most of the smoke away, while here it's trapped by thermal inversion. Lori found a great article online with before and after photos that shows how bad it is.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/singapore-indonesia-haze-interactive-before-after-photos-show-dramatically-reduced-visibility-1521643

Yesterday I went out and explored the city, ignoring the haze. By the end of the day, I had a headache and was constantly clearing my throat. Now I understand why people wear masks over their nose and mouth. Today I went out as well but instead of going to outdoor markets, I stayed in the shopping malls and instead of walking, I took the subway. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hard done by. If the metro stations in Paris looked like this, I would have taken them everyday.

I would just prefer to walk, even though the humidity is unreal. I'm still eating really good food too, it's just in an indoor food court and not in an outdoor hawker centre.

From what I've seen on the news and read in the papers, the Singapore government seems to be very frustrated with the Indonesian Government. They feel not enough is being done to stop the illegal burning and it's affecting daily life here and across the region. It's hurting the economy through decreased tourism, but more importantly, it's hazardous to everyone's health. They update the air quality throughout the day. This sign was posted this morning in the lobby.

At 7:00am the air quality was Unhealthy and they expect it to reach Very Unhealthy by the end of the day.

Lori's final meeting next week was cancelled so we are going home on Monday. We still plan on getting out and seeing the city this weekend, but some things will have to wait until our next visit. There is no sense going to the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, if we can't see the city below.

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Sports

It's an exciting time for sports in North America. Football is underway, the NHL is about to start and Major League baseball is heading towards the playoffs. For those of you who know me, you know that I'm a big sports fan. It's one of the things I miss most about home, especially this year with the Jays going to the post-season for the first time in 22 years.

Believe it or not, but it's actually easier for me to watch North American sports in Papua New Guinea than it was in France. Early on Monday mornings, I can watch a couple of NFL games and everyday there is a baseball game at 9:00am. They usually show the Yankees, so I got to watch the Jays beat the Yankees last week. I've done some research and I should be able to watch 2 NHL games a week, once the World Series is over.

It's an exciting time for sports on this side of the world as well. Every weekend I can watch Rugby and Australian Rules Football. I have discovered that there are two types of Rugby in the world, Rugby Union and Rugby League. Rugby League is by far the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea and I am fast becoming a fan myself. After visiting Brisbane, I picked the Brisbane Broncos as my favourite team and they happen to be in the National Rugby League final next Sunday. My apologies to Bronco fans because now that I'm cheering for them, I'm sure they won't win. I don't follow the Australian Football League as closely, but their final is next Saturday, so it will be a big sports weekend in Australia and PNG.

Lori and I are heading to Singapore tomorrow for 10 days. Lori has to attend meetings and I'm tagging along, so I'll have to find a spot there to watch those games as well as playoff baseball. Go Jays and Go Broncos.

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Working Port

With all the sailboats and blue-green water of the Coral Sea, it's easy to forget that Port Moresby is also a working port. We can watch all the container ships arriving with their goods from Australia and China. We also hear them in the middle of the night. If there is no one to receive their lines, they will blast the ships whistle until someone shows up.

I can watch the PNG Navy at work as well. They have 4 patrol boats and 2 landing craft, all of which were donated by the Australian Navy.

Watching the kids learn to sail with the local sail club is more enjoyable though.

During the recent Pacific Island forum, this luxury yacht took the spouses of the various dignitaries out for a harbour cruise.

A funny side note about the Pacific Island Forum, the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott spoke at a breakfast event on the last day of the forum and Lori was there to represent her company. A couple of days later, Tony's own party turfed him out so Lori heard his last public words as Prime Minister.

We get to see some strange things as well, like this guy who came up with a rather ingenious way to scrape the hull of his sailboat.

He tied up to the pilings at high tide and when the tide went out, his boat was left high and dry. I was impressed with his ingenuity but there is no way I would go underneath that boat while it was resting on its precarious perch.

There has been a small cargo ship at anchor for a few weeks now. I couldn't figure out what it was doing there, so I finally dug out the binoculars to look up the name on the hull and then I did a quick Google search.

I discovered that it's called the Blissful Reefer and it's owned by a Thai fishing company. It's been seized by the PNG government because it was used in a slave fishing ring. Apparently men from Myanmar and Cambodia are coerced on board with promises of jobs in Thailand and then are forced to fish. From what I read, 8 of these fishermen were rescued from this ship and the investigation is ongoing, so the boat continues to sit in the harbour.

I don't know if it's nostalgia left over from my Navy days, but I love living on the waterfront.

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Gabagaba

We ventured outside the city for the first time yesterday. A couple of guys that work with Lori are into Kite Surfing and they found a great spot a couple of hours away from Port Moresby, so we tagged along. The place is known by a few different names, depending on who you ask, but my favourite is Gabagaba. Traveling outside of the city involves a fair bit of planning and preparation. We traveled in a convoy of 6 vehicles plus an escort. Most of the drive was on paved roads, but we did have to follow a trail through the jungle for about 30 minutes.

We only got lost once. It was interesting when 6 SUV's had to turn around in the jungle.

Eventually we made it to the beach, where we had a 20 minute drive to the small resort we were visiting.

Once we arrived, it didn't take the guys long to get their kites together and out on the water.

Lori and I did not go kite surfing however, we brought our snorkel gear with us. It was a sandy bottom so there wasn't much to see, except for starfish. We saw hundreds of starfish. It was just nice to use our gear again, it's been a few years since we've used it. After Christmas, we are going to take some refresher training and start diving again. Yesterday reinforced our desire to get underwater.

We were there at low tide, so the beach was huge. It allowed us to get away from the shore so I could take some great pictures of the shoreline.

There was a family of dogs running around so Lori was able to get her doggy fix. Those dogs ate well yesterday.

Here we are, in the middle of nowhere, and we run into a couple from Calgary. They work for another oil company and they go kite surfing all the time. Their kids love it out there.

The weather wasn't great yesterday. We've been here for over 2 months and we hadn't seen a drop of rain until the day we go to the beach. Go figure. It didn't spoil a great day though.

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Endless Summer

I was reminded recently, by a couple of different people, that yesterday was Labour Day in North America. It’s not celebrated in Papua New Guinea, so it wasn’t something I even thought about. It actually made me realize that we are living in an endless summer.

Between Paris and Port Moresby, Lori and I have experienced a very hot and sunny summer and it felt normal to us. Drinking our morning coffee on the balcony, swimming in the afternoon and grilling our supper on the barbecue are all normal summer activities we’ve done our entire lives. That should be changing now, but it’s not. I’ve always viewed Labour Day as the unofficial end to summer. Nights get shorter, mornings are cooler, leaves start changing colour, but not here. Summer just keeps rolling on. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I should be happy that I can still wear shorts and flip-flops, but I enjoy change as well. I’ve always been someone who’s thought ‘This is nice, but what’s next?’

Growing up in northern climate, like the one we have in Canada, you come to appreciate the short growing season. You have to enjoy it while it lasts because it will soon be gone. Every month there is something new to look forward to. Berries in May, asparagus in June, tomatoes in July, corn in August and apples in September. Now the only thing I have to look forward to is rain. I am told that in a couple of months the rainy season will begin and I can expect periods where it rains non-stop for 3 or 4 days at a time. I’m sure by then I’ll be longing for the dry season but regardless, I’ll still be wearing shorts and flip-flops.

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Party Time

It's hard to believe but as of today we have been in Port Moresby for 8 weeks. We have settled in nicely and life feels fairly normal. We even have a social life now, which can be difficult because we have a curfew and travel at night requires extra security. Last week we were in invited to dinner at the home of Lori's boss and this past Friday night we went for drinks at a colleague's apartment. Yesterday, it was our turn and we had about 25 people over for drinks and snacks. We decided an afternoon party would be the best, that way we would avoid the security issues. The weather was beautiful and everyone had a great time.

It doesn't matter where you are in the world, a sunny day with some cold beverages and a few laughs is the perfect recipe for a party.

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