This fall is bringing a whole set of new adventures to our lives as we begin the journey of marriage while adjusting to life in a new culture. It will all start as we depart for our honeymoon in Thailand where we will spend three weeks seeing the sights there and finally getting some well-deserved relaxation! We will also spend about three days in Cambodia visiting one of the Ancient Wonders, the Temples of Angkor Wat. From there we will continue on to the city of Ulsan, South Korea, our home for the next year! We will begin teaching English in the Ulsan Public School System in late September and we are so excited to meet the children in our classes. More than that, we are excited about getting to know new people and a new culture as we attempt to assimilate some of the Korean ways of life. We know God has great things in store for us there. South Korea is close to so many sights we would like to visit, and the vacation time in the school system is wonderful, so we are excited to hopefully be able to travel to places like Japan, China and Australia. The flight times won't be nearly as long as leaving from Atlanta! If you're adventurous at all, we highly recommend looking into a teaching position in Korea, where the pay:spend ratio permits you to save much more money than anywhere in the U.S. Also, we're always up for visitors! Look for our updates on life outside America, including the blog "Things we won't miss about living in the U.S." Of course, the first entry will be the phrase "In these bad economic times..." =) We look forward to hearing from you and cherish your prayers for us.

Labels: Asia, South Korea

Just got back from New York City. Some Friends from college, my wife to be and I all went up to experience New Years in Times Square. This has always been something on my bucket list and I was glad to complete it with such great people.
I really love the energy of New York and, since 911, have always been impressed with the friendliness, helpfulness and humility of the people who call Manhattan home. We went to a lot of touristy sights I had seen before, but I got to take some good pictures of them this time for the portfolio.
This trip to new york was also the first time I have ever been to a Broadway musical. We went to see The Phantom Of The Opera at The Majestic Theater. It was awesome!

I was so impressed by everything about the performance, and especially enjoyed trying to figure out how the stage pieces and special effects worked. If you are like me and have been putting off anything associated with word musical, I urge you to take a chance and go see a Broadway musical the next time you are in new york. Most likely you will find a new form of art/entertainment that you will enjoy time and time again.
I look forward to visiting the city that never sleeps again soon. There is always something new to see, do and experience there and the energy is contagious.

Labels: Bucket List, New Years, New York, Road Trip, Times Square, Travel

I have just visited Washington D.C. for the sixth time in my life. One of the things I really like about visiting our nations capital is that no matter how many times you visit, there is always something new to see, discover, or, in some cases, re-discover. I spent a day in D.C. this time, so didn't have any time for the museums I usually enjoy, but saw and re-capture a lot of my favorite sites and saw some new ones.
Seeing the Pentagon Memorial for 9-11 was a very sobering sight to see in representative form, the number of those who died on the ground and in the plane on that day.
Next I went to see The Air Force Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery where I saw the changing of the guard ceremony, then the White House, The Mall, The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial. Here are some highlight pictures from the day.

Labels: Road Trip, Travel, Washington D.C.

I recently took a road trip with some friends up to New York and on the way we saw this beautiful building on off the highway while driving through Virginia to Washington D.C. We decided to stop and see what the building was and take some pictures of it. We soon found out the building is the recently completed National Museum of the Marine Corps and Heritage Center. We arrived after closing time, but just in time for some great twilight shots with the moon and stars in the background. I really enjoyed studying the light that came out of, through and bounced around this very well designed architectural sculpture. If you are heading to D.C. from the South, I recommend stopping by this unique place with great design and so much history inside. You can check out the official website by clicking here.

Labels: Road Trip, Travel, USA, Virginia

Tamarindo is a laid-back fishing town that has been and continues to be converted over to a surfing town and a major tourist destination for foreigners. I stayed in a great hostile with a talkative parrot outside in a cage. I spent my time relaxing, improving my surfing, and hanging out with my newfound friends from Quebec who were staying in a nearby hotel. I really enjoyed the great surfing, amazing sunsets, relaxing atmosphere and friendly people. I greatly improved my confidence and skill in surfing and my appreciation for the skill and fitness the sport entails. I would love to go back and visit Tamarindo as it is a great place for relaxation, fun and surfing. Pura Vida!

Labels: Central America, Costa Rica, Travel, World Tour

Costa Rica is a beautiful country and it has learned to leverage that for its tourist industry. Its most popular form of tourism he is called eco-tourism which promotes exploring its beautiful national parks, beaches, rain forests, volcanoes, and mountains. After a 12 hour layover in Atlanta, allowing me to visit my family, I headed to the airport for my final journey of the trip. The three hour flight to Costa Rica was an easy one and by far the shortest I had taken. I flew into Liberia, Costa Rica where I stayed for one day as arranged transport and lodging for the rest of the trip. The following day I visited Santa Rosa National Park home to volcanic hot springs and boiling mud pools, as well as beautiful rain forest, the Colorado River and one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've seen in my life. I met some new friends from Quebec Canada and hiked most of the trails with them. I heard monkeys, saw a unique raccoon and a large spider while on the hike. At the end of the day I headed back to my hostel in Liberia and rested up to get ready for my trip the following morning to Tamarindo.

Labels: Central America, Costa Rica, Travel, World Tour

I had a twenty three hour layover in Incheon Airport which is just a short bus ride from Seoul, so decided to head into Seoul, get some sleep and explore a bit. I arrived late at night so I found my hostel and went to bed. The next day I spent my time exploring about some of the palaces, markets full of dried anything from the ocean and walking around the main road near my hostel. I didn't spend enough time to have real feel for Seoul, but from my time there I did enjoy it and wouldn't mind visiting again in the future.

Labels: Asia, Dried Sea Creatures, Seoul, South Korea, Temple, Travel, World Tour

Melbourne is a city with a very creative and artistic feel to it. There is a huge focus an design both in the architecture of the city and in the universities and around it. Melbourne feels a little more laid back and relaxed feel than Sydney, but is just as much fun and interesting none the less. I stayed with a couple friends while visiting and was amazed at how broad a reach the local transport had and how relatively easy it was to get around on. One of the highlights of my trip to Melbourne was going with some friend to see an Ausie Rules Football Game! If you have never been or seen a game I highly recommend it. It seems to be a mix of the speed and intensity of soccer with the rules similar to American Football and the no pads roughness of Rugby. It is awesome! I also got to catch up with new and old friends, take a day trip along the Great Ocean Road, See some Kangaroos in the wild, eat Kangaroo for the first time and go to a Pixar Exhibit. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, design and culture of Melbourne and if I had to pick where to live between Sydney and Melbourne I think I would pick Melbourne.

Labels: Australia, Cities, Melbourne, Travel, World Tour

If I had to pick another country to live in permanently so far I would have to pick Australia. The people are friendly, fun and adventurous. The landscape is as varied and unique as the people and the atmosphere in the cities I visited was full of excitement, pride and friendship. Sydney is another city that seems to do a great job of mixing skyscrapers with nature. From the tallest building in Sydney it is about a fifteen minute walk to the Royal Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are impassively large and full of beautiful and unique plants and flowers from all over the world.
They are open to the public and free to explore. I really enjoyed seeing the beautifully designed Opera House, Botanical Gardens and most of all catching up with some old and new friends. Australians seem to have a good live play balance. Occasionally a little to much alcohol is involved in the play, but for the most part, they know how to have a good time and welcome others to join in. I was fortunate enough to take a friends generous offer and stay on her couch in Manly, a beautiful surfers paradise that reminded me a little bit of Seaside in Florida.

Labels: Australia, Cities, Sydney, Travel, World Tour

Tokyo is an amazing city. It's size and population are stagering. It is a city that in it's busy parts never sleeps, but, surprisingly, on the outskirts can feel like a small town and can be very peaceful and quiet even at lunch time. The metropolis of Tokyo consists of 23 city wards, 26 cities, 5 towns and 8 villages at over 12 million people There a difference of 2 million people in Tokyo between night and day due to the amazingly efficient and vast subway system. I really enjoyed visiting Tokyo and experiencing a taste of both the amazing energy, technology and night life as well as the beauty serenity and peace that can be found in the same amazing city. While their I rented a city bike for three dollars a day and used that to explore my area. I also used the subway extensively and was amazed both by it's complexity and scale as well as how intuitive, easy and most of all punctual it was. I visited the Electronics District Akihabara, The Tsukiji Fish Market, Shibuya, Asakusa Temple as well as Kappabashi Street an are full shops with all kinds of kitchen gadgets and even plastic food that looks so real it makes your mouth water. I hope to return to Japan in the future and further explore this beautiful country that seems to do a great job mixing cutting edge technology and culture with tradition and nature.

Labels: Asia, Japan, Tokyo, Travel, World Tour

If you want to go to a beautiful and incredibly inexpensive beach paradise I highly recommend Koh Chang Island! The water is beautiful, the people are amazingly kind and generous and the atmosphere is fun, and relaxing. I stayed in a bamboo bungalow right on the ocean. The Sunsets here were some of the best I've seen with Palm tree silhouettes and beautiful calm water.
I had a very relaxing time and met some new friends from Germany while there. We all went on a snorkeling trip on one day and got to see the beautiful underwater life of the Gulf of Siam. I hope to visit Koh Chang again in the future as I developed a good friendship with the sweet hotel owner and loved the beautiful and relaxing atmosphere.

Labels: Asia, Island, Koh Chang, Ocean, thailand, Travel, World Tour

Home to beautiful caves, waterfalls, and a dark history, Kanachaburi is the location of the famous Bridge over the River Kwai, Hell Fire Pass and the Kanachaburi War Cemetery. After a sobering, but informative and awe inspiring visit to the War Cemetery, Bridge over the River Kwai and Hell Fire Pass I was excited to find my pre-aranged lodging for the night turned out to be a very nice floating hotel on the river accessed via motorized Thai Long Tail Boat! It was a really cool hotel and quite a treat.The next day I woke up early to go ride and wash Elephants. Elephants are very awkward animals to ride in my opinion. Not uncomfortable, but I just felt like it would be easy to fall of if you weren't careful and the top of an elephants head is pretty high in the air. It was really fun to ride the elephants and bathing them after the ride was well worth the extra money it had cost. They are amazingly gentle animals and fun to play in the water with. After the Elephant ride I went spelunking in a really cool cave and then to a beautiful water fall to swim a bit before heading back to Bangkok to leave for Koh Chang the next day.

Labels: Asia, Bridge Over the River Kwai, Kanachaburi, thailand, Travel, World Tour

The city of old and new, tradition and transition, poor and rich, historic and modern. Bangkok is an interesting city to say the least. It is a city with many traditions that is merging with the modern world and all the minor and major changes that bring with it. It was amazing to walk down one of the most touristy streets in Bangkok and see a mix of travelers, businessmen, street vendors and beggars/homeless all living and interacting together. I enjoyed seeing the diverse culture and visiting some of the amazingly intricate palaces, temples, monuments and statues although it was sad to see people so devoted and entrenched in a religion that causes many of them to live in fear of bad luck and disfavor with the gods.
I was also saddened to see the prevalence and relative openness of the so called sex trade there. From tourists walking around with different Thai "girlfriends" every day to the Tuk-Tuk drivers always willing to take you to a massage parlor or ping pong show for free, to the "girly" boy that asked me if he/she/it could come to my room with me. I loved how inexpensive everything was and plan to return to southeast Asia again to further explore and enjoy the beautiful people, culture and landscape there.

Labels: Bangkok, thailand, Travel, World Tour

I had a great time and met some friendly and amazing people while staying with my newly found friend and guide and his American wife and beautiful baby. I enjoyed seeing a different part of Israel, getting to know my new friend and his family better and going to a Christian church with services in Hebrew as well as on a beautiful hike through the land of milk and honey afterwards. It was a perfect ending to an amazing time in the Holy Land.

Labels: Travel, World Tour

The Holy City, The City of the Great King, City of David, Zion, The City of Gold. These are just a few of the many names Jerusalem has been called over the years. The City where Jesus taught, was crucified and buried and three days later rose again! Jerusalem is full of history, mystery and a diverse group of people and religions. It was interesting to walk through the ancient city streets and go from the Christian Quarter to the Muslim Quarter to the Jewish Quarter and then into the Armenian Quarter. I never been in a place with so many different religions and people groups living in such a relatively small area and know another place so unique doesn't exist on this earth.
I was pleasantly surprised to find how compact and walkable all the biblical landmarks are due to their close proximity to each other. In one day you can walk around and see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The Garden Tomb, Golgotha, The Temple Mount, The Garden of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives not to mention many other historical and religious landmarks along the way! It was an amazing life experience to walk the streets Jesus walked and see so many of the places my savior went to and spent time at during his life on earth! Jerusalem will always have a special place in my mind, memory and heart.

Labels: Bucket List, Travel, World Tour

God blessed me with a divine appointment to meet a Christian tour guide who volunteered to take me to his church in Mt. Carmel and then on a tour of the Dead sea area with some other new friends from Oregon. I really enjoyed seeing En Gedi - the oasis where David hid in the cave from King Saul. As well as seeing the Ibex, a deer-like biblical animal that lives in the area, up close and personal. It was also amazing to hear for the first time about the history of Masada and the famous battle that took place there while being on top of the mountain and seeing the ruins of King Herod's Palace. I was also excited to be able to see the place and some of the caves where the dead sea scrolls where found and it helped me understand how it took such a long time to find them. Much like the landscape of Egypt, the area around the Dead Sea is hot desert mountains for miles and miles and finding anything buried in them pretty much takes a miracle or an act of God or both.

Labels: Travel, World Tour

I really enjoyed finally being able to see and experience the Dead Sea. The sea in has beautifully clear water so saturated with salt that it has a kind of slimy texture to it and tastes like pure salt with no sign of a water taste. I was able to experience the unique experience of floating in the Dead Sea and decided to try putting my head bellow the water to experience for myself the painful sensation I had hear about. I don't recommend trying it yourself. My nostrils immediately felt like they were on fire and although I waited a good five minutes before opening my eyes, when I did they too burned and stung from the salt. I had to thoroughly rinse my eyes out before the stinging eventually subsided.
This is what the perfectly clear water looked like after I mixed it up a little bit with my hand. It is so saturated with salt that the salt distorts the light and makes the rocks hard to see.

Labels: Travel, World Tour

Although the Jordan Dinar is currently worth one and a half US Dollars, I was pleased to find that Jordan is still relatively cheep to travel around using public transport and that a nice hostel with an all you can eat dinner of typical Jordanian food was about fifteen Dollars. My main and only reason for going to Jordan was to see Petra, although I did hear about some desert camping and camel riding opportunities that were also available. Petra is an amazing place. For those who don't know:
Petra (from the greek πέτρα "petra," meaning rock) is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi or desert Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock. The long-hidden site was revealed to the Western world by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. Burgon had not actually visited Petra, which remained accessible only to Europeans accompanied by local guides with armed escorts until after World War I. The site was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 when it was described as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage." (from Wikapedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra)
It was quite an experience to walk through the beautiful natural canyon called the Siq (shaft) and to emerge on the other side to face the massive facade known as the Al Khazneh ("the Treasury") originally built as a tomb. The intricate detail and grand scale of this and other structures around Petra are both impressive and surreal. The Treasury made it's most famous appearance in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the entrance to the temple holding the Holy Grail. If you are in Egypt or Israel, a visit to Petra would be a worthwhile side trip that is worth a day or two.

Labels: Jordan, Middle East, Petra, Travel, World Tour

While staying Dahab, me and a friend scheduled a sunrise hike to the summit of Mt. Saini. We left from Dahab at 11PM and started our climb at around 2AM with Egyptians offering us camel rides for a "special price" all the way up the mountain. We reached the summit around 5 AM and the Egyptians switched from offering us camel rides to offering us mattresses and blankets for sleeping and staying warm for the next hour until the sun came up. At around 5:45AM we saw the first bit of light coming over the mountains, and by 6:30 it was sunny and hot again as we started our descent. We reached the bottom around 8AM and after relaxing for a while, taking a short nap and eating breakfast we headed into see the burning bush before heading back to Dahab for some more, much needed sleep.
That's a picture of me trying the re-light the burning bush.

Labels: Travel, World Tour

With hostels beds at around $5.00 and food as cheap as $1.00 for a good filling meal, Dahab is by far one of the cheapest, most relaxing and most beautiful places I have been on my life! I really enjoyed snorkeling and see the incredible beauty and color coral and fish of the Red Sea. The underwater life here is breathtaking, plentiful and being only about twenty feet away from the shore, incredibly easy to get to. Recently tourism has taken it's toll on Dahab and the town is getting more and more commercial, but a good hour walk along the beaches will take you to the locals homes with half to all naked children playing in the clean water and fishing in the plentiful waters. Due to the popularity of Dahab as a tourist destination, many activities such as scuba diving, kite surfing, wind surfing, Mt. Saini hikes and desert camping can be easily arranged by any local hotel or travel agency. If you looking for a taste of Egypt with the incomparable beauty of the Red Sea reefs, I highly recommend Dahab Egypt.

Labels: Travel, World Tour