Picture of the Day: Science, religion and naked men under the same roof

Location: Rome, Italy
 
One of the most facinating things that we saw in Rome was a sundial-like thing that was constructed inside a church that use to be a Roman bath.
 
Sundial-like thing = Meridian Line.
Church = Santa Maria delgi Angeli e dei Martiri.
Roman bath = Baths of Diocletian.
 
We spent over an hour analyzing every detail of the sundial. In the end we concluded that it could tell you the approximate day of the year and time of the day. It even had a star chart! It was so cool that J wanted to go back on his birthday just to see where the light fell on the line. Unfortunately, we never made it.

Picture of the Day: What's the baby trying to tell us?

Location: Beijing, China (798 District) 
 
I didn't really like the art in the 798 District. There were lots of pictures and sculptures of contorted and grotesque-looking humans. I found the overall feel to the be pretty depressing.
 
We came across the sculpture of the baby and the tank on our way out. I was pretty amused by it, but I didn't quite understand the message it was trying to convey. Feel free to leave your own interpretations here.

The Vatican sky

I was completely mesmerized with the ceilings of the Vatican Museum. So much so, that I managed to miss the main subjects of The Map Room (6) - the maps on the walls!
 
I was in slight disbelief when J told me that (5) is a painting on the ceiling.

3 days in London - The Sights

It was so nice to be able to walk everywhere again! London streets felt intimate and charming. The city reminded me a lot of Boston.

  1. The Parliament House - probably one of the top two most beautiful buildings we've seen on our trip so far!
  2. Me, J and clock tower that houses Big Ben.
  3. Westminster Abbey
  4. The crowd waiting to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace (highly over-rated tourist attraction, IMO)
  5. St. James Park
  6. A duck with a puffy head who lives in St. James Park. Can someone identify it for me?
  7. Underneath the London Eye
  8. Above the London Eye
  9. The Thames River
  10. This is *the* London Bridge. I kid you not!
  11. The 4 o'clock Parade Horse Guard - even the horse's bum get inspected
  12. The Apple store on Regency Street

Cipro and Imodium to the rescue

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, my second blog post on food poisoning. I'm amazed that it didn't happen sooner. Truth be told, I've had weird bouts of stomach aches throughout the RTW trip, but this was the first time that warranted the usage of Cipro, an oral antibiotic, and Imodium, an over-the-counter drug that decreases the activity of the myenteric plexus (if you have to ask what it is, look it up on wikipedia).

It all started the night before we left Australia. Like my first food poisoning episode, it couldn't have happened at a worse time - I was about to embark on a 15-day camping trip! That night I took two Imodium pills hoping that my immune system would sort things out while the pills took care of the symptoms. A week elapsed before those drugs began to wear off, but the stomach bugs were still there! So, I went on another round of Imodium and started taking Cipro - 1 every 12 hours for 72 hours. This time it worked, but my myenteric plexus only recently got back to its regularly scheduled program - 3 weeks after Australia. Either Imodium is really strong or I'm just super sensitive to it.

Here's a video of the hot mud pools in New Zealand's north island with a very descriptive (and accurate!) narration by our Flying Kiwi friend, Katie. It's pretty appropriate for this particular post, no? =)

First days in New Zealand

Things done/seen so far:
 
1. ZORBING - once together and once by ourself
2. Hot boiling mud pools
3. Lady Knox Geyser
4. Downtown Taupo/Taupo Lake
5. Hot Water Beach
6. Lots of cows and sheep
7. James caused a stampede of cows
 
Sorry, no photos because the computer I'm using cannot read HC SD cards. =( I hope to have something up in 2 days when we get into Wellington.

Day 125: An anniversary on the Great Barrier Reef

J and I have this tradition where we lump Valentine's Day, our annual dating anniversary and our x.5 wedding anniversary into a one-day celebration. The actual day varies year-to-year depending on our individual schedules but we always do it sometime in February. Remarkably, February came and went this year and neither of us remembered! I guess we were having too much fun in Sydney!

Today, we headed out to Michaelmas Cay for a sail and snorkel trip. It was J's turn to see the Great Barrier Reef. We saw a variety of different tropical fish as well as many colorful giant clams. It was J's first time using prescription masks and he's hooked! On our way out of the water he managed to spot a baby Picasso Triggerfish no bigger than one inch in length!

During the sail home we were given a complimentary glass of champagne. I sat there first thinking, "Too bad there's no occasion to celebrate." But, then I remembered that we missed our February thing. So, we retroactively made the snorkeling trip our annual February celebration and toasted our free champagne to the past 7 years that we've been together. One of my friends recently tagged me on Facebook as "the smitten one." I will not argue with that.

Current Location: Cairns, Australia

The Great Barrier Reef is indeed a Natural Wonder

11 dives in 48 hours was exhausting, but so worth it! I must say that diving the Great Barrier Reef is thus far one of the most amazing experiences of my life! The diversity of life under the water surface is just incredible. Words cannot describe how amazing it really was!

The night before I left for my 3 day liveaboard excursion with ProDive Cairns James and I attended a 2 hour class called Reef Teach. I'm so glad I went because it helped me gain a greater appreciation for everything I saw during my dives! 

Things I saw underwater and could remember long enough to write it down:  chocolate-dipped damsel, blue streak cleaner, wrasse, humbug damsel, moon wrasse, yellowtail fusilier, blackbacked butterfly, moorish idol, palette surgeon, black and white snapper, red bass snapper, sting ray, various corals (plate, slipper, boulder, brain, staghorn, needle, fire, cabbage), 3 varieties of sea cucumber (black, leopard, pineapple), flatworm, threadfin butterfly, pufferfish, napoleon maori wrasse, black anemonefish, teardrop butterfly, regal angel, giant clams, sea urchin, green turtles, clown fish, seahorse, blue patch butterfly, crab, moray eel, trumpet fish, white tip reef sharks and grey reef sharks.

Yep, that's right. I saw sharks. I saw my first shark on my very first dive, a bunch of them during a night dive and then a couple more the next day. During the night dive the crew threw frozen sardines into the water to attract them so we were practically jumping into the water on top of them. At first I was very nervous about encountering sharks on my dives, but by the end I regarded them as very big fish. They don't like humans and just swim away when you approach them. Although I have to admit - it definitely felt a little eerie to see sharks swim by during the night dive.

Please pardon the fact that there is a lack of fish photos. Taking pictures underwater was extremely difficult because I have not yet mastered the art of buoyancy.

The Boat - ScubaPro II

1. My bedroom for two nights. I got top bunk. No closets, no drawers. Just two hooks and enough room between the bunk and the wall to have one person stand.
2. The very small bathroom with all the essentials - toilet, small sink and a shower head over the sink.
3. The sundeck where everyone hung out while we weren't diving or sleeping.
4. The dive deck where everyone's diving equipment was stored.
5. The awesome crew, sans the Captain, aboard the boat who took care of us for 3 days

The Great Barrier Reef

6. A typical reef scene
7. Cabbage coral
8. A giant clam
9. A green turtle who just surfaced for air
10. A view of the surface from underwater