Travel Blog: Part 10 - The End

All good stories have a defined start and a defined end. This one is different, insofar that it may not be a good story, and the fact that while the trip is coming to a close, the dream lives on.

Getting home (in San Francisco writing this now) will be wonderful. I miss my family, and I'm looking forward to getting back to my own routine. I was clear with myself at the outset that while this may be a bucket list type of trip (YOLO!), it wasn't the way I'd want to live my life full time. I did meet people who were doing that - some folks had 'fallen off the grid' in 2001 and were sailing around both literally and figuratively, doing what they wanted. Power to them I say, but it wouldn't be my choice - I'm making my choice in how I'm choosing to live. I'm thankful I have the opportunity and means to undertake this kind of occasional adventure, and people I care about to share it with.

The dream of exploring new frontiers both within myself and in different parts of the world does live on in me. My curiousity isn't satiated from this adventure, rather it's raised whole new questions for me that I want to understand next. I'm rather fond of that trait both in myself and others - generally I find we know a kindred spirit when we meet one. My wish for you, especially if you've read these through, is to nurture that desire to expand your own perceptions of the world around you. Then act on it. The rewards as I've tried to illustrate here are tremendous.

Travel Blog: Part 9 - Detox

Part of every diving experience is the calculations that go along with the nitrogen you've introduced into your body by subjecting it to very very high pressures. For the uninitiated, you know that when you go deep in a swimming pool for example, your ears hurt. That's because water weighs lots more than air, and the weight of the water above causes pressure on the bottom areas. This can build up to be crushing pressures at real depth - enough to bend the steel in a submarine for example.

The effect on people is significant too - we aren't steel, we're mushy flesh. In the same way that we need to continually equalize our ears to keep the pressure in our sinus cavities more or less the same as the depth of the water we're at, the blood and flesh in our bodies undergoes transformation too. The nitrogen already present in our bodies gets forced together to (ultimately) create bubbles, and that will kill us at the surface if left unattended. That's what is referred to as getting the bends, or in lingo, getting bent.

Sea Turtle - Robin Ridilla

We use some complex math to determine exactly how long we can stay at various depths and the lower we go, the shorter time we have, not only in how we burn through our air (it also gets compressed, even in our steel tanks)but how long we need to have surface intervals so the residual nitrogen dissolves. A typical dive profile has us going deep for a short time, at say 80-100 feet, then staying shallow for an extended period at about 40-60 feet, then we do a safety stop at 15-18 feet for 3-4 minutes. The safety stop helps ensure the nitrogen will start to dissove back at a 'slight' pressure. Popping to the surface is forbidden. You may as well stay and get eaten by the big thing you're afriad of. Popping to the surface to escape it will just as surely kill you.

All of this to say that you can't fly within 24 hours of diving either, as commercial aircraft cabins are typcially pressurized to 5000-6500 feet in altitude. That's far less pressure than we face on the ground, and can bring back-on some nitogen issues. So when your diving is done...you're still on the ground for 24 hours.

What to do in Palau for 24 hours ?

Kayaking and snorkelling were my answer and I spent an enjoyable day looking at some inland lakes (all saltwater). Snorkeling in caves and under crevices to get at places few see. We explored the outer islands in kayaks and stopped at "Lee Marvin Beach" (Where he filmed Hell in the Pacific) for lunch. A great day and a nice cap to a phenomenal diving experience. We climbed some of the limestone cliffs to see old Japanese WWII bunkers and saw the water wrekcage of a B-24 bomber and landing craft re-supply ships. All the while watching for the more exotic island water-beasts like salt water crocodiles and dugongs. While I didn't see those, there were rays, jellyfish and evidence of octopus.  I even finally got some sun-burn - that's hard to acheive deep under-water.

Travel Blog:Part 8 - The Last Dives

I had a set of religious experiences today, both underwater. For anyone (hi Mom) following the story so far, today was scheduled for the last two of ten dives. I had high hopes and had requested a specific set of locations: Blue Hole/Blue Corner. These are Palau's signature dive sites, the ones it's known for. I didn't want to miss them, and while I'd had a set of pretty extraordinary experiences so far and wasn't looking to top these, I equated this to visiting Paris and missing the Eiffel Tower, or not seeing the Colosseum in Rome. I won't say the great wall or the pyramids as I have actually missed those two despite repeated trips to both adjacent cities. Such is life.

Today started of normally enough, same Dive Master I'd worked with on a few days, and I knew a few divers on the boat by now. That first 15 minutes of cross introductions is always fun, as divers are making small talk and sizing each other up at the same time, lest there be any emergency underwater. We got underway and as usual it's about 45 minutes to the site. We ended up aiming for German Channel, and then were combining Blue Hole/Blue Channel into one dive. Both are rated high enough back at the dive assembly area to have their own site maps. No other sites have these. All good.

German Channel is a sloping plateau it turns out where Manta Rays get cleaned. (by little cleaner fish that nip off the crustaceans). There's two cleaning stations, one at a hundred feet, and the upper one at about 50 feet. Our plan is to kneel close by and wait up to 5 minutes to see an approaching Manta. These rays are large - small ones are 6-8 feet across and full size adults can be 20 feet from wing to wing. Hard to miss. After a briefing we pop into the water, and it's immediately different. The visibility is bad. 20 feet tops. We can barely see bottom. Off we go, grouping closer than normal, and we pass 60 feet and the visibility clears suddenly. The water temperature also drops in a big way. It's been 84-85 degrees almost uniformly at various depths around Palau, and the temperature is maybe 70 suddenly. We can see bottom, but frankly don't want to stay put due to the temperature. Keep in mind many divers are down with little more than a t-shirt. Some are in full gear, but it's not because the temperature warrants it. We move out of the cold and into the warmer water and promptly lose what little visibility there is. Imagine floating in a deep dense fog. After a few minutes of this the only perception I was sure of was going deeper as my ears kept needing to be equalized. There was a few moments where I lost all connection with everything around me, and it was only by following bubbles that I knew went up, that I had any sensation of where I was. We'd lost all but 2 divers in the haze and my eyes were locked on the assigned buddy I had, for fear I'd get lost. Finally, a fuzzy bottom started to appear and low and behold a young adult manta ray was circling. It was somewhat easy to make out with a black top, silhouetted against a sandy bottom. Having witnessed this at 90+ feet down, we turned up the slope back towards the second cleaning station. It was at this point, deep into the dive that I noticed I was burning through air faster than usual. On the way back up, still concurrently shivering from earlier cold, awestruck at the manta ray, and mildly freaked about the continuing gloom, I saw a shadow ahead. It seemed to partially materialize and with the poor visibility, I'm not sure what I saw. I think it was a 15-20 foot manta ray about 5 yards ahead. But I can't be sure. Once back at top, another diver said they also saw something. But I think it was my mind playing tricks. I do know that my heart went into my mouth.

Needless to say, I was burning air even faster in the state of excitement I was in. We got to the second station, saw yet another manta ray from afar and then slowly proceeded up the slope. We passed a turtle eating coral, and bunching it the way a kitten would grab a ball of yarn with it's front paws. All cool, but my mind was on my quickly dwindling air and the sense of agitation I still felt. It was doubtless my oddest dive ever, and it's going to the prototype for nightmare situations on floating lost..but I'm glad I did it. And I was very pleased to get out of the water. That was as close an experience to being out-of-body as I think I'll ever have.

Blue Hole

Some time on the boat to let residual nitrogen dissipate, some ice tea and a power bar later, we were ready for Blue Hole. Despite being Palau's signature dive location, I'll admit I didn't know much about it. Turns out there are four adjacent blue holes, very close together. These are literally "fence post holes" in the surrounding coral and limestone with a top entrance of maybe 10 yards across. They're vertical, and you don't swim down so much as fall down them. They're naturally formed, covered in life and eerie. After popping straight down to 90 feet, looking up at this cathedral of life with the sun beaming in through the top is breathtaking. Shaped like an upside down wine glass, the bottom is much larger than the top, but shaded and dark. There are windows or escape holes - some small, and some able to accommodate 4-6 divers at once. Despite all the movement over walls this week, and the various deeper descents and tunnels, this was flying.
I floated up at will to the arches to see the life exploding in this sistine chapel of the sea, with electric clams and exotic shrimp. There's also a grave marker in there of a Japanese diver that stayed forever in the cavern. The space, the light, the only sound being my own breath - it was humbling.

Reef Shark & Fish - Robin Ridilla

We left through a large window at 60 feet and were immediately surrounded by fish, wall coral, patrolling reef sharks and all of it spectacularly colored - probably due to the darkness of the hole we'd been in. It was stepping from the Vatican into Times Square and overwhelmed. Imperceptibly at first, the current began to pick up with every few moments, until you no longer needed to propel yourself. We drifted slowly at first accelerating more and more through vast schools of bright fish. They didn't move out of the way and would pass inches from your face, and I, theirs. We could see the top of the plateau and fish streaming over, all the while with deep blue on our right, sharks penning us in, lest we escaped in that direction. We crested the reef tableau and as we'd gotten spaced out a bit, our diver master got 2-3 people to hang on to wait here. Flowing fast now, I flew backwards into this group, grabbed and swung violently head into the current and made for a grab. I couldn't keep my place despite swimming as hard as I could, so descended until I was grabbing something that wouldn't cut my fingers open. I looked up to see an 8 foot reef shark in the blue abyss 20 feet off the wall turn back our way. Reminiscent of the wizard of oz, when turned he too was pushed sideways at speed. He may as well have suggested he'd get our little dog too as he was moved out of sight, pushed far behind us by the hand of the sea. We let go and continued our backwards flight over the reef, passing schools of barracuda, knowing our biggest fear was crashing into one another. We surfaced 15 minutes later and a kilometer away. It was a truly remarkable end dive, one for the retelling for years. I was last onto the boat, my Palau diving now bittersweetly over.

This was special and a day I'll always recall. Facing my own fears, witnessing the majesty below, then being propelled by forces greater than myself reminded me how small I am, and how much there is yet to see. Sometimes circumnavigating the globe, connecting worldwide and mastering our own domains we forget we are here by the good graces of nature.

Travel Blog: Part 7 - Diving, Diving and More

It's been an intensive couple days of what I'm starting to see as a diving lifestyle. (Yes, there's a lifestyle for this, just as there is for go-carts, or golf or gardening). To begin with the activity, I've been doing two days of three dives a day, which doesn't sound like much - six hours give-or-take in the water, but the prep. and associated planning for it adds many more hours.

I spoke a little about Peleliu last time, but it's a once in your life dive site, and there's people here that have been back to Palau multiple times and never had a chance to do it. I was lucky. (understatement, await the irony, ok, moving on.) The key to Palau diving I've discovered are the currents, which direction they run, how strong they are on a given day and so on. The currents drive the wildlife that shows up as fast flowing currents = food sources. So your bigger animals come for the current-provided food, and the divers 'hook-in' and watch the show. Palau is uniquely situated to be the junction point of a number of these pacific currents, and how they break over this little mushroom-shaped archipelago of limestone and volcanic rock delineates the best dives sites. (ok water flow lesson over. For homework, read up on water thermodynamics in Chapter 6, and there will be a test next Tuesday).

White Tip Reef Shark - Robin Ridilla

Peleliu, like Ulong Channel and the two Sias sites I dove yesterday are all strong current areas were oceanic walls have crevices, and the above-mentioned currents flows over the reefs into the deep blue. Think of these as underwater waterfalls, where the big stuff comes to feed on the small stuff and they are there to see what flows from the top. The currents are affected by lots of things and there was a recent big storm close-by, a typhoon that is moving north out of Iowa Jima as we speak and that means the normal currents are disrupted. All this by way of background to highlight the couple different schools of diving. There's your eager newbie that just enjoys the sights and being in an other-worldly situation, and I place myself in that group. There's your big game list types, that come just for the tiger sharks, whale sharks or spotted eagle rays. Then there's the mico-macro school, who place themselves on top of the others (diving = high school..a little) who are here for exotic nudibranches, which isn't what it sounds like, and revel in the exotic ultra-small finds on the walls and in the coral. All are interesting to dive with, and the composition of the personalities on your boat on any given day will drive the focus of the dives a little.

I've dove for the past few days with a group of Americans who formed a Wednesday dive club in Guam where they live, and have all come down for a vacation. It's a very experienced group, and they fall into the macro-micro school, though it's fascinating to talk to them, as they also can highlight extremely rare fish we see, which I would otherwise not recognise as being extraordinary. It's all incredible for me. But now I can say that I'm looking for centimetre sized mollusks on the walls too, and appreciating the galaxies of life I'm seeing the size of a fruit basket that seem to exist down deep every few feet. Of course as you fly past a wall, I'll admit to keeping en eye out to the deep blue as well to catch a 6-8 foot reef shark materialise from the gloom. Even these other experienced divers still marvel when the sharks come in close at your height for curiosity and you can reach out and touch them (not advisable by the way). There's literally huge wow factor going off everywhere you look. I find myself saying it aloud into my regulator, which makes me smile and let's water in. Anyway..

For myself, my favourite dive yesterday yesterday was the one that began with a fast descent to 100 feet (broke my own newly established record, and got to 114 feet down yesterday). This is Sias Tunnel, a 250 foot long tunnel under the sea wall. Quite dark, and it's akin to swimming in a cave. The depth makes it intimidating as I can't spend more than 5 minutes in that depth situation without getting bent (more on that later) but very adrenaline producing. We came up the wall after that, with groups of sharks flying formations around us, incredible corals I might only compare to 20 foot cauliflowers flowering before harvest, and trillions of fish. From fingernail size to 100 pounds, in schools and on their own. We saw circling balls of hundreds of fish being hunted, groupers chasing smaller prey, in turn being pursued by sharks, and we topped out on the coral garden amidst a fast drift, did our safety stop and then explored the reef top in 20 feet of water. I found a little moray eel protecting it's cave, and more turtles. It was mind-blowing.

Today's plan (I say plan as you can never be too sure until at the dive site), is to do my last two dives and Palau's signature sites, Blue Corner and Blue Hole. I'm told visits to these sites are never alike on any given days but I do know that regardless of the dive, it'll be sad to get out of the water this afternoon, recognizing its my last time as a privileged observer in this blue paradise.

Travel Blog: Part 6 - Diving

Ok - one word here captures it: WOW

Magnificent Aquarium - Robin Ridilla

I've just completed dive 5 of 10 that I scheduled and I'm blown away by the diving here. Yesterday was good, equal to anywhere else I've been, not superlative but I literally did jump into the water on top of a sea turtle and reef shark at the same time. Visibility was ok, but a typhoon has just passed through the area, the sea was rough and we were rained on. (oh no, i'm getting wet while I dive!). We were back relatively early though - left at 9, back by 3pm, and I learned afterwards that day one usually happens in this 'safe' place. They're assessing us as we spend time.

Spotted Grouper - Robin Ridilla

I guess I passed muster, so I signed up for one of the epic spots for today - three dives (instead of two normally) at the south end of Peleliu, including the famed Peleliu Express where people get washed out to sea. I set a few new down time and depth records for myself (went more than 100 feet down), and was able to stay with the group for almost 70 minutes. I also tried nitrox today. Before you go and phone my mother that Steve's doing funny island drugs, it's actually a nitrogen/air mixture you breath and gives you super powers. It does require a special certification, but I had dive master guidance, so what happens on the boat...

Blue TriggerFish - Robin Ridilla

The dives were wonderlands of walls, coral gardens, magificent currents, and the sea life was stunning. I'm not exagerating when I say there were millions of fish. Bright corals, some as big as cars. Schools that took minutes to pass, 4&5 bigger sharks at a time, and one almost always in view, and on the last dive, at least 10-12 sea turtles. We saw rare stuff like large spotted eagle rays glide by, and 50lb bubble headed parrot fish bullying their way around the reef. If you looked close, there were clown fish in anemonies (probably spelled that wrong)and giant clams the size of small horses. The area around Peleliu is remarkable as it's a wall dropping to wherever the bottom is, and so it's where the deep blue sea meets the island coral gardens. It's an intersection of the pacific and truly remarkable. I've found this on youtube (click the word) and have only seen the first 1 minute due to great bandwidth here but even as this glimpse offers, it really is breathtaking.

If I was never able to dive again, I'd be heart-broken, but at the same time I recognize what I participated in today was absolutely phenomenal.

Travel Blog: Part 5 - Palau First Impressions

I had an idea what to expect, and I was wrong. I imagined a somewhat run-down version of a Hawaiian town, lush sure, but quiet and a little sad. If it was a person, it'd be someone who had spent too many days in the bar, and needed a good bath.

I thought it would be something nicer than the Philippines (the closest neighbouring country by the way) but not by much, after all it's too far out of the way, and would have an economy that was heavily dependant on imports for everything except sunburn and saltwater.

But as I said, I was wrong.

When I arrived in Palau last night, I'll admit a sense of fatigue and joy colored my observations. I was biased - pleased to have my outward journey over, and hopeful as what I'd find. I felt Palau was a country-village, and by that I don't mean a village in the country, rather it had the feel of a village who happens to have it's own flag, territory and international recognition. I'm lucky enough to have travelled a little and I saw reminders of numerous places I'd been, Cebu in the Philippines; Peru's jungle frontier, and the island towns of Hong Kong. The landscape also impressed me as I'd expected flat and it's nearly all vertical and heavily forested.

Dawn though brought light and a sense of expectation - not simply about my activities but also about Palau. With some sleep, I felt there should be more to it. After all, this country gained it's independence from the US in 1994, and that's not that long ago. It has a fascinating history, starting life as one of the Carolines Islands, a name like Transylvania in that we have probably all heard of it, but can not locate it on a map. The Germans were 'sold' Palau in 1899 - and the kept it until the end of WWI, when it was stripped from them and given to the Japanese. The era under Japanese management which ended with the closing days of WWII saw the modernification of Palau. Property ownership shifted to individuals from clans and it became a market economy with infrastructure. The Americans ran Palau post the war until 1994, and there are still many obvious ties. All this to say that Palau isn't some little atoll with 1 luxury hotel and a gravel airstrip.

After I dove today, I walked into town (it's about 3kms each way), and while warm, its cloudy and rainy, so not intolerable outside. The walk featured the gamut of human civilization, run down housing, abandoned cars, a general sense of disrepair and decay, stray dogs and chickens pecking the ground near the thing passing for a sidewalk. Superimposed on this were joggers from the national school, juiced up Honda Civic's with too loud mufflers and rap music, neatly trimmed verges and bougainvillea flowering everywhere. The air was thick with the humidity tropical life offers, silky smooth. That same air is acidic on any infrastructure, and even the newest looking buildings showed the mold and stains that are impossible to guard against.

So Palau is building up in a difficult environment. That's the spirit I saw in the people too, friendly and yet astute, genuine and ready to smile easily. This place isn't the night after one-too-many, it's working hard to work.

TravelBlog: Part 4 - So was 36+ hours flying really worth it ?

I'll admit, I was a tad bored at times.

And I'm quite tired of sitting down. (I asked and they wouldn't let me pedal)

But, as trips go it was survivable, though if planned again with the benefit of hindsight, I'd have elected to go the faster route as while it represented more breaks, this was a long couple days. I say that as someone that used to say a trans-pacific trip was more desireable than the short 6 hour red-eye Atlantic hops as you could eat, work, watch a movie and still get 6 hours sleep. Very civilized vs arriving bleary eye'd at dawn. Emphasis on "used to".

Even with the previous post in mind (the joys of the big airbus)I would still have gone 'faster'. The A380 by the way was unearthly large, and quiet. I walked it and there was just cabin after cabin after cabin. I even lucked out with an empty seat beside me, and so had the empty neighbour's tail camera on their personal video screen for the whole flight. Mounted high in the tail, it offers a plane-in-front forward view. That was a great perspective.

Still, the hard parts weren't the flights so much as the connecting times. 5 hours in Frankfurt, 3.5 hours in Tokyo and 3 hours in Guam. Fighting a 13 hour time difference, and knowing I wanted to sleep in a real bed tonight, I struggled to stay awake. It was one of those trips where a delay might have been welcome, but everything worked. The irony is rich.

The lesson here for us all ? Live and learn. Approaching my destination finally..can't wait.

TravelBlog: Part 3 - Airbus

"If it's not Boeing, I'm not going". That ditty was jammed into my head in the late 1980's by some young Boeing rep, during a 747 Assembly line tour that a good friend and I did. We worked for Canadian Airlines (RIP) and got ourselves to Seattle / Renton for a day's tour mostly because we could.

 These days "if it's not Boeing..." is not a rule I tend to follow much, though if pressed I'd probably offer that my preference (all things being equal) would be a Renton product, vs a Toulouse product..but that may be about to change. This trip sees me on two of Airbus's big airplanes, and I've flown neither previously. For airplane geeks out there, I'm getting on an A340-600 (world's longest airplane*) and an Airbus A380-800, (world's largest airplane). In fact, I routed myself just for these two planes as this way while it represented more flying, the elapsed trip time was shorter (take a moment, figure it out).

The asterisk above relates to more airplane geekery - Boeing has just launched a 747-800, of which there's one commercially, and it's sitting in Frankfurt, yet to fly its maiden flight as Lufthansa checks it out. Perhaps the Boeing guys left spare change hidden in the seats ? Anyway, I saw it today which was also kind of cool, and it will be the world's longest plance once it begins service, but as of today, that honour rests with the long airbus.

Just to be straight with you all, I'm not an anorak or anything (look it up), I just think big planes are interesting, and have since I was a little boy. Part of the fascination with this trip was the getting there part. While I have circled the globe before this, once on purpose on a weekend with nothing to do, there's always some quiet thrill in it for me.

The big thrill on the trip is the A380, and its in fact the reason for taking the long way.

The A380 represents the biggest of the big and size does seem to matter to these aircraft manufacturers. Besides the feeling of moving in a flying apartment building, the airplane also offers something others don't - a higher humidity setting. We all know the air is dry while inflight as typically humidity is set to 5%, because that's what the systems are capable of. The A380 can go as high as 25% humidity. So I'm interested to see if it feels different. Now, as heavier air weighs more, I imagine there's a penalty to fuel economy and that's also a factor I guess.

So, as the trip continues, I will go and try to stretch my legs a little. All this sitting is making me tired and there's still a long 'road' ahead. It is nice to have a connection to you all though, and for what its worth, some of you tagging along vicariously seem to have packed a little too much, my bag is rather heavy on my shoulders.

I interrupt this travel blog with breaking news...

I won the lottery.

I'm not sure when it happened, or how much I received, but it struck me today that I'm one of the luckiest people alive.  I don't mean light my cigars with thousand dollar bills lucky, as frankly I wouldn't do that anyway.  I do mean that I 'want' for very little in my life.

I am married to be the most incredible woman I know.  I'm not just blowing sunshine here, she really is - and I know a lot of people.  Her intelligence, wit and passion for the things she cares deeply about are unmatched.  She doesn't do fluff, and is about as low maintenance a person as you could imagine.  I'm not clear on why she married me, but that's one of those of those questions one doesn't ask aloud, you just are happy with the result.

I have two brilliant, funny and capable kids as well.  They're focussed when needed and demonstrate deep values in the things they undertake.  They can each carry on maturely, and yet not lose sight of youthful joy in their own lives.  They know how to laugh, and how to work hard.  They each understand the meaning of 'earned' as well, something not every adult does.  I'm proud of them both, and enjoy their company more and more as they gain age and wisdom.

That would be enough to validate the lottery win hypothesis, but I also get to do some work things that offers me flexibility, challenges, travel, and insights into many organizations and industries. Under the guise of work, I can look deeply into areas I find interesting. About the only downside is my boss, which is par for the course of being self employed.

I have bought lottery ticket before, always thinking about what I might want to change in my house, or what exotic car I'd like to drive (I have a set list of 10 cars, but that's for another day).  But, I don't think I will buy those tickets any longer, as the odds of winning twice are dangerously high, and I'd rather not mess with what I've got.

Travel Blog Part 2 - Getting Going

All great endeavors start at the beginning, and this one is no different. The mundane details - what to pack, how to get to the airport (port, camel assembly area or what-have-you) and how to optimize time. I'm restricting myself to some guidelines on this trip mostly because I can, and trying to be a real minimalist. No checked luggage which I freely admit has more to do with a lack of faith in airline baggage delivery systems than a desire to carry my own stuff. Also use of publicly available transport options just because I want the freedom of imagining I could in fact get there under my own power.

What does one bring to Palau ? I've selected my bag carefully amongst a range of options. As a frequent business traveller I have an assortment of luggage options, but few of there lend any credibility to the 'wanderer' mystique I'm aiming for. I knew it had to be carry-on, so have settled upon a 30L day-pack, one of my favorites and one I've previously carried to the top of the southern hemisphere. I know it works. It's small, but then I don't want to carry much. Just the other day, I elected to leave the razor at home - it's one more thing to break/lose or carry. Go light - ultralight.

Now, I am going diving, so I have 5 pieces of dive kit with me, stuff I'd rather have of my own that I know works. This includes a wetsuit (you can't imagine how small the thing squishes up!), a mask, snorkel and inflatable safety device. I also just acquired a wrist-watch style dive computer to tell me important stuff like the square root of Pi at 80 feet under. It actually does more than that, but I won't get all "dive-guy and his equipment monotonous" on you.

Transport wise, I've elected to walk/bus to the airport where I live. Yes, it'll take a few hours rather than 45 minutes, but I'll also be $100 to the good. Minimalist. That's the mantra. A few years back I came up with the trusim that a young person has no money, and all the time in the world. Accordingly, they'd spend any amount of time to make money. As a mature person, money isn't (always) the issue, rather a lack of time is, and so they spend lots of money to have the perception of more time in their lives. My minimalist mantra is no doubt derivative of these thoughts, and I want to be lavish with my approach to time, spending it as I wish. In this sense, taking a bus is a luxury.

Or perhaps I'm just odd. While I do admit to a love of airplanes, I can't say the same about busses.

The destination is the airport, or more precisely, Lufthansa at the airport that will carry my body to Japan. And do it in style, through the use of the world's longest, and the world's largest aircraft. More on that later.

I did want to answer a question though, one that I had to come to terms with in the planning phase. Why Palau ? Isn't it a heck of a long way for a short duration ?

Of course, yes it is. But, think about how you plan to relax on this long weekend (sorry Americans!). Feet up, having a cold one, or perhaps golfing, walking, or gardening. Hopefully for you, it's something you like. Truth is I don't mind flying, never have. It is relaxing for me, someone else drives, I sit back have a glass of something bubbly and catch a movie or read a book I've been meaning to. Along the way, I get to browse some cultures that are fascinating and see places I either haven't before, or haven't been to in a long time. I'm going off the beaten path, and that in itself is worth pursuing, if only to know that the world is a different place with varying perspectives and ways to approach their days. Our world is becoming culturally beige, and we can exist in a Marriott/Starbucks bubble without acknowledging the real culture around us if we want. This trip, isn't that.

Travel Blog: Part 1 - Around the World, and Under the Sea

A change of pace - literally and figuratively this month.

We're going to approach the speed of sound, fly miles above the earth, circumnavigate the globe, and explore it's depths.  We'll be moving under our own power, and in the largest & longest commercial airplanes made.  The thoroughly modern to the most basic and back again. By the way, I say 'we' here as we'll be doing it together.

Our journey starts with an explanation.  It's a slow time at work, and I had an airplane ticket sitting on the shelf that was due to expire.  I could use it up to it's full value, and even travel quite comfortably doing so, to go almost anywhere.  All good.  So I had a lottery-winner kind of challenge - where to go to leverage this situation. I did some research on a new-found hobby:diving.  I found that there isn't a single list of the best dive locations in the world, a geographic bias always creeps into a "10 best" list, based on relative ease of access.  But one place repeatedly made everyone's various assemblies of dream dive sites - and that was a tiny pacific nation called Palau.

Now, like many of you who read this I had to consult a globe to find Palau, as while I thought I knew roughly where to look, it was give or take a few thousand miles. I found it, just as I'll encourage you to do, and at once it became clear how it's location must impact everything.  There are doubtless more remote places on earth, but this is certainly in the top few.  Palau has come to prominence a few times - recently I'm lead to believe one of the Survivor reality TV series was filmed there, and in WWII, it was the site of many excruciatingly hard fought battles between Allied and Axis forces.  Happily, I was going to Palau for neither of those reasons - my rationale lay under the waters where pacific currents meet and wildlife and wrecks make the water a diving paradise.

My trip to Palau will take me 12,132 miles / 19,530 kms in the air visiting Europe and Asia, and cover 40 hours in four aircraft on two airlines. And that's just to get there.  In the end, I'll have circumnavigated the globe (albeit all high in the northern hemisphere).  I'll admit some creative wish-fulfilment in my routing choice as in addition to being a budding dive enthusiast, I'm also an avid fan of commercial aircraft.  My time is my own on this trip, so this is one vacation that starts when I leave my house.

I'll aim to write and post while on the road, and again when back.  Fingers crossed that it will reflect a sense of curiosity and adventure that I can carry vicariously for you all. Let's get going.

When we choose not to learn

I did some work this week, and the clients had clearly chosen not to learn.  Only, they didn't say it in as many words, they chickened out to be blunt about it, and just didn't participate.  It wasted their time, and frankly mine.  I felt bad after the session, and I bet they regretted having to attend.

I'm a big fan of owning our decisions in life, not sidestepping responsibility.  If I elect not to do something, that can be an acceptable choice, but I shouldn't make that decision and then go through all the motions of doing it anyway.  The bitter taste left behind isn't that they didn't elect to buy into what was discussed, but that they pretended to, actually didn't, and haven't solved the core issue still.

Are we just Fish ?

A news story heard recently got me thinking.  It involved a washed up motorcycle on the shores of British Columbia, and the fact it had drifted on the North Pacific Current after being washed out to sea on last year's Tsunami that hit Japan.  A lovely little human interest story.  But it seeded my brain with thoughts of fish, reality, the universe and more.

Bear with me here, and see if you connect the same dots that I did.

Imagine for a moment you're a small fish, happily swimming near the surface ("not one of those cliché reef fish)  Your world involves the food that drifts past, the school you're part of,  and avoidance of occasional predators that come your way. All is good, and assuming you're an intelligent little fish, you notice that occasionally your surroundings change a little.  You're sentient to the idea that your world exists on a current, and over some great expanse of time, it will actually cycle through the same static piece of water.  You are part of that same North Pacific current that carries human stuff from one continent to another, and at some point in the year the area you're in tastes/smells like Japan, and in others it tastes/smells like North America's west coast.  If you are a very intelligent little fish, you'd recognize that it's actually you drifting into the predator's water, not the other way around, and you may be able to be proactive about it. Now, you are still a fish, so awareness doesn't extend beyond the water - that's your world, but you can see the greater cycle at play, and might try to espouse the meaning of your life from it.

Now let's pretend to be humans.  We're on a little blue planet, and we're smart enough to see revolution around the nearest star (but even that to be fair is a recently solid fact), and you are lead to understand that system revolves around the galaxy in a spiral arm, and that galaxy is moving in the bigger universe too.  Effectively, while there are more planes of depth in the human model, we are essentially seeing the same thing as the intelligent fish.  We've come to grips with the concepts of movement, the size of the universe and can accurately predict where we'll be in X time, but not much else.  Like the fish, we strive to understand the meaning of life from what we see.  Like the fish, we probably can't do this easily.

So let's focus back on our fish for a moment.  Do they see that they are in water, and that an entire different reality exists on land, and they are in fact on a planet ?  Nope.  Do they understand the concept of that planet's movement, nope.  To be fair, they probably don't have their fins fully wrapped around the time concept either.  We consider the fish not to be an intelligent form of life, really they're present to sustain the natural balance in that ecosystem, and as a food source.

If I think about us again, from this train of thought we might conclude that we also might be living a reality that doesn't take everything into account.  There may be a 'land' equivalent that we can't perceive. We may not see the multiple dimensions around us, or perhaps we live at a different frequency than others.  In fact, we may be viewed relatively by others with deeper senses of perception as merely 'fish'.    The science underlying this conjecture is sound by the way.  Astrophysicists today are trying to decode the whole picture and place where we sit as the older models of how the universe hangs together no longer hold water.

Makes you think a little, yes ?

YOLO

This little acronym has popped up a few times lately.  It has come into vogue in our house via one of my kids and it's echoing in my brain from different things I'm hearing.  I'm hoping that a cathartic release in writing will remove it - for me it's become one of those songs stuck between our ears that we can't seem to shake.

Yolo stands for "you only live once" and seems a gratuitous approach to justify an 'anything goes' approach to life.  I'm sure in a college sense that's exactly how it's intended.  As we age however, it carries a darker and slightly more sinister connotation...'do it now before you're dead'.  I'm not a fatalist, but I am aware of the finite and precarious nature of our existence, so I understand how you could hear Yolo said in a reaper's whisper.  Yolo's sprung to life in both ways recently.

While working in another city last week, I was told the story by a colleague of a recent trip he'd made to Costa Rica.  All was going well on the flight until final approach into San Jose and the aircraft he was on suddenly jerked skyward under maximum power.  He said the captain came on the intercom and said in a more-than-slightly fazed voice.."Ladies an Gentlemen, you'll notice we aren't on the ground, and I want to preface what I'm about to tell you with the fact that there's nothing at all wrong with us, this airplane or anything, and we are in no danger. However, just as we were about to land, the aircraft in front of us crashed on the runway and we had to pull up through the fireball it had created.  I'm going to have to radio back to headquarters and determine what to do, as very frankly we don't see that situation very much".  The story had them divert after another hour in the air to the country's other airport and all was fine. Except for the people on that first plane obviously.  But it does make you think  - Yolo.

Notwithstanding that happy travel story, I'm considering re-using an airplane ticket from a trip untaken last year, and doing something quite out-of -the ordinary with it..on the basis that the opportunity presents itself, and the conditions under which I can re-use it are a tad odd.  I'm hesitating as it seems a quite selfish thing to do, but my wife has quoted Yolo at me as justification.  I get that, and yet it doesn't quite sit right still.

If everything we did was justified by a Yolo approach to life, we'd certainly be more carefree, but at the same time I'm not certain it's a better way of living.  Sure you  only live once, and need to make the most out of today...but in the same way we wouldn't recognize pain without pleasure, joy without sadness and summer without winter, there's also something to be said in defense of balance.  It may not be as sexy, or freedom inspiring but the merits of working to make the normal into the special are not to be underrated.  After all, it's the journey that counts, not reaching the destination because we really do only live once.