Mud Fest

Yesterday, Lana and I went to one of South Korea's biggest festivals called Mud Fest. From the title of the festival, I'm sure it's not too difficult to determine what it was all about...mud...lots of it! It takes place every year in the town of Boryeong about 45 min north of Kunsan on the west coast. The Koreans truck in all the mud from a nearby town and it's supposedly good for the skin. Mud good for the skin...people are making a lot of money off ladies around the world! We spent a few hours at the beach coating ourselves with mud before cleaning off in the Yellow Sea. Arriving back at Kunsan, Lana and I went to a local Italian restaurant to wrap up the day.

4th of July Weekend

Like I mentioned in my last post, Lana and I were looking forward to the long 4th of July weekend to relax after my completion of the IPUG. We started it off on Friday with a squadron golf scramble here on base in memory of a former Panton who lost his life a few years ago flying the F-16, Lt Randy "Congo" Murff. After golfing, we grilled out at the club house for dinner. Kunsan's golf course is just a 9 hole course, which isn't very nice but, it was still a good time. It had been awhile since I last played golf and I'm looking forward to getting my Ping clubs back out of storage when we move on to our next assignment.

The next day, Lana and I took the high speed train to Seoul for the rest of the weekend. I had today off as well, so it made for an enjoyable few days up there. We spent the time sight seeing and enjoying the increased food choices...we had Indian Saturday night and Thai the next. We did some shopping, toured the Korean War Museum and took a gondola ride up the the highest point in Seoul. The Seoul Tower is at the top of this mountain and at it's base is a place where couples in love go to overlook the city...a perfect place for Lana and I!

The main reason we went to Seoul was to file Lana's American permanent resident visa paperwork since we'll most likely be going back to the USA after my time in Korea is finished. The process can take up to 6 months, so we needed to get paperwork filed. I'm thankful Lana was around to enjoy the long weekend with me...it's SO much better in Korea when she's around! She's heading back to Germany in another week or so for work and will be back in August. We hope our American side of the family enjoyed 4th of July...sorry we couldn't join you in Chicago for the weekend!

Instructor Pilot Upgrade Complete

As of 29 Jun 2009 I officially became an instructor in the F-16! It's been a busy, humbling and yet fulfilling 3 months since I started the process back in the beginning of April. Despite 2 weeks in the Philippines and 1 week of the Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI) I made it relatively quickly through the upgrade with having to repeat only a couple of rides...either due to my briefing or flight performance not being up the level it needed to be. I'm now responsible to teach new wingmen, future flight leads and eventually future instructor pilots how to use the F-16 tactically. It's a great feeling to have the stress of the upgrade over with! God is good!

Lana has been here the past few weeks and has been a GREAT encouragement and support to me through the many long days I was at work either planning for my next flight, briefing, flying or debriefing...sometimes up to 14 hours. I want to publicly thank her for her love and support and being an awesome wife to me; I couldn't have done as well without her!! We're looking forward to the nice long 4th of July weekend we're planning to spend most of in Seoul relaxing without any stress on my part.

There isn't too much in the near future that I want to pass along at this point. In a couple of weeks I'll be going to TDY to Misawa Air Base, Japan as an instructor with 3 other pilots from here at Kunsan to use their nice 360° simulators. So, some good sushi is in my near future! It's nice the warm weather is here and Lana and I will spend the time exploring some of the local national parks and beaches. We hope all our friends and family are doing well! Until next time...fly safe and check six!

Kadena Air Base, Japan / IPUG 75% Complete

A couple weeks after Lana and I returned from the Philippines, I went TDY to Kadena Air Base, Japan for a week of flying. Kadena is located on the island of Okinawa about 400 miles southwest of the mainland. We arrived on a Friday afternoon and had the weekend to relax and study a bit in preparation for the week ahead. Kadena has 2 squadrons of F-15Cs and there were also F-22s in town...some of us flew with them throughout the week as well. I had mentioned in an earlier post I was hoping to get a chance at shooting an AIM-120 air-to-air missile, but it didn't work out in my favor this time around. We had 3 missiles to split between 8 pilots. I did get to fly as a wingman with one of the jets shooting...the next best thing to seeing one fly off my jet.

I flew 4 times during the week, with the last scheduled as a 1v1 against an F-22. Naturally I was excited at the chance to fly against the USA's newest fighter jet and see how I could do in my F-16. The F-16 is a good BFM machine, but is not as capable at the F-22. The morning of the flight, we briefed, threw on our flight gear and were ready to head out the the jets when the F-22 cancelled!! The F-22s were having problems with their oxygen system and we're capped to 25,000'...with the potential for some bad weather enroute to the airspace with cloud tops above 25k, they didn't want to risk it. So, my F-22 experience turned into another BFM flight against another F-16.

When not flying we were at the beach, snorkeling, eating sushi or Japanese steak. The change in food choice was nice and we all appreciated something besides Korean food. Some of the pilots at the base feel Kadena is a "hardship" tour, but compared to Kunsan it is a step up...I could handle a few years on Okinawa. My cousin is stationed there flying the KC-135, but while on a trip to Guam his jet broke and we were not able to meet up. Hopefully sometime over the next 7-8 months we'll meet up before I'm on to my next assignment. On Friday afternoon I flew back to Kunsan in the backseat of an F-16D landing just in time to attend our squadron change of command ceremony.

Currently I'm 75% of the way done with the IPUG and hope to still finish by the end of the month. The process has been going pretty well, but I continue to realize how much I still have to learn. Lana will be back in a couple of days, so I hope to finish while she's around and celebrate the accomplishment with some time in Seoul together! We continue to be thankful for the job God has given her and the ease with which she can travel, but look forward to the time when we're back together for good! Until the next time...

More Pictures:

Kadena AB, Japan

The Philippines

Since arriving in South Korea, Lana and I have had plans to travel the Pacific in a couple different 2 week holidays. We first considered places like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, but after Lana did some research on the internet we decided to spend our first holiday in the Philippines...it was a GREAT decision! On May 3rd, Lana and I boarded an Asiana Airlines flight in Seoul bound for Manila with only our airline tickets, our two backpacks, a Lonely Planet travel guide and a general idea of where we wanted to go during the trip. Our intent was to "go with the flow" and work out the specific details along the way. At some points we felt like we were participating in The Amazing Race trying to buy airline tickets, find a taxi or a place to sleep for the night.

After a 4 hour flight, we landed in Manila early in the afternoon where we would spend one night before flying on to the Island of Palawan, a somewhat remote and quiet place to enjoy the water and beaches without too many tourists. Our first priority after landing was to buy plane tickets from Manila to Puerto Princesa on Palawan. It was a fairly simple process and for $60/person we had our tickets for early the next morning. With tickets in hand, we took a 10-15 min taxi ride towards the old Spanish walled city of Intramurous, left over from the Spanish era of control, in search of a hotel for the night. We first stopped at a hostel recommended in the Lonely Planet book, but the water in our room didn't work; we quickly moved on to a nearby hotel. We grabbed a quick lunch, experienced our first "tricycle" ride (motorcycle with a covered 2 seat cart on the right side), went for a walk around Intramurous and then wrapped up the day with Indian food for dinner. I know, you're probably asking, "Why did you eat Indian food while in the Philippines?!" Well, Lana and I rarely pass up the opportunity to enjoy some good Indian food!

Early the next morning, we grabbed some coffee and a quick breakfast around 0545 before taking a taxi back to the airport. We were soon airborne bound for Palawan, a large northeast - southwest running island on the western side of the Philippine islands. An hour later, we landed in Puerto Princesa, grabbed our backpacks and started asking about how we could get to the city (more of a village) of Sabang on the west coast. There were a couple available options, but Lana and I decided to take the "road less traveled by" to experience the culture a little more with another tricycle ride to the local bus station followed by a 2 hour Jeepney ride to Sabang on paved and dirt roads through the jungle. It was definitely an experience with the Jeepney full of people inside and a few on top to keep the bags of rice and other goods secure during the drive. As we pulled into Sabang, finding something to drink was a priority as the temps were around 90° with high humidity...no, the Jeepney didn't have airconditioning. What better to drink than some coconut water right? Lana and I enjoyed a drink and soon found a bungalow for an "expensive" $12/night.

Sabang is known for it's underground river in addition to it's nice beach. Early the next morning we hiked the 4km Monkey Trail to the underground river with a couple French Canadians and a few Filipinos we meet on the Jeepney ride the day before. Once at the river, we got into a small boat and soon our tour guide was navigating a very impressive natural wonder. The river/cave has 8.2 km of navigable water with many bats, stalactites and stalagmites and large "rooms" with one's ceiling being several hundred feet high. Our tour only went about 2km into the cave before turning around. After the tour, we took a boat back to Sabang via the ocean rather than hike back and headed to the beach for some relaxation and mango shakes. After the beach we decided to move to a different location for the night and treated ourselves at a nice resort called Daluyon Resort, a few hundred feet down the beach from the previous night's bungalow. It was very nice with a pool, air conditioning in the rooms and warm water to shower with. Later that night we enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant including Filipino curry and Tuna steak.

The next morning we were up early again to catch a boat right north along the west coast of Palawan, stopping in Port Barton for 30 min to drop off some other travelers before moving on to our final destination of El Nido. In all the boat ride took about 7 hours...a little long, but not bad when you consider the boat was only using a small lawn mower engine to power the propeller. Thankfully we had great weather! The other option would have been a 7-8 hour Jeepney ride on roads we had heard were almost impassable due to the mud. As we neared El Nido the limestone islands along the coast came into view with very impressive vertical faces serveral hundreds of feet high...this is where we would spend the next 6 days of our trip island hopping, snorkeling and relaxing on the beach. After getting a bite to eat and enjoying another mango shake (made with local, fresh mangos since it was mango season), we found a nice place to stay just outside El Nido on the beach called Greenviews Resort. Again, a nice bungalow with a fan (during the hours of 2pm - 6am...most places outside the bigger cities don't have power 24 hrs/day unless they use a generator), nice bathroom, moderately warm water to shower with and great views of the sunset for only $24/night. Lana and I figure on average we spent $50/day between our accomodation and food...the Philippines is still very cheap!

The next morning was cloudy, so we decided to rent a dirt bike and do some exploring around the local area with a guide and the French Canadians who were traveling the same route as us. We had only been on the road about 5-10 min when we came to our first bridge made of wooden planks, which are very slippery after a rain. Lana and I were the last of three bikes as we approached the bridge and I, maybe riding a little too fast behind the bike in front of me =), decided to go around the second bike on the bridge when ours slid on the wood and went down on it's left side. By the time the bike went down we were moving slow, but we had been riding long enough for the exhaust to heat up the muffler to the point it gave my right calf a nice burn as I tried to brace for the fall. As I'm typing this, I still have a large scab on my right leg after 2 weeks. Needless to say, this put a little damper on the days events but it didn't keep us from making it to our intended destination...a remote and untouched beach 20km north of El Nido with only a small fisherman's village on one part. The village doesn't see white people too often, so it was interesting to see their reaction as we walked through their village. All were eager to take a picture with us and had huge smiles on their faces despite the fact they had essentially nothing. Their simple life was somewhat attractive compared to the "go, go, go" mentality of our western culture. Arriving back in town, Lana and I stopped at a little pharmacy to pick up some disinfectant cream and gause for my leg...the last thing I needed was an infection!

We spent the the next few days taking advantage of the nearby island tours A, B, and C. Each tour included great beaches and snorkeling opportunities around different islands. While in Manila, Lana and I bought an underwater case for our camera so we were able to take some great shots of the coral and fish...we even found Nemo after all this time! On one of the tours our guide packed a fish and rice lunch, which he grilled on the beach during one of our stops. Each tour had something amazing to offer and we have many great pictures to show for it! El Nido was a fascinating and enjoyable week!

Leaving El Nido on Tuesday May 12th, we decided to start making our way back south towards Puerto Princesa since our flight left on Saturday the 16th. This time we went by road instead of boat, which proved to be quite the experience...had we not been in a 4-wheel drive van we'd have never made it through the mud. The mud was so deep in places the bottom of the van was scraping the ground, and at another point we saw a fuel truck upside down in the ditch after it had slid off the road. Thankfully, we made the 4 hour drive safely and were soon back in Port Barton, where we had stopped on our way to El Nido. We decided to stay at Blue Cove Tropical Island Resort having heard good things about it from an Australian couple who we met along the way. Blue Cove is on an island about a 30-45min boat ride from Port Barton. It proved to be a great idea because we were the only ones at the resort for the 3 days we stayed. Our time involved more snorkeling, reading on the beach and just enjoying our time together not doing much of anything but enjoying the nice view and weather. As our time in the Philippines drew to a close, we were both sad the time had gone so fast but grateful at the chance God had given us to enjoy another culture and grow closer together.

At 0330 on Saturday morning, Lana and I jumped into the the boat with our Blue Cove boat man and headed for the shore to catch a ride to the airport. By 0430 we were on the road again in a 4-wheel drive jeep, but this time around we actually got stuck in the mud...Lana and I were a little nervous as we needed to make the flight at 0950. Thankfully, God sent a tractor (we were in the middle of nowhere) which was able to pull us out of the mud and we were back on the "road" within 10 min. We arrived at the airport with 1 hour to spare and soon were on our way to Manila to catch our connecting flight back to Seoul. Sadly all good things have to come to an end and even though flying the F-16 is a great job, I didn't want to return to Korea. The Philippines was a unique experience and a place Lana and I hope to get back to in the future!

More Pictures:

The Philippines

Videos: