Steve volunteering for FEBC in Saipan

So Christie and I make it to XuZhou, China and are greeted by "Coops" (Christie's new employer). He is paranoid about SARS as much as the rest of them and quickly gives us masks. I had enough but I wore the stupid thing just to be polite (well until we got to the taxi). He mentioned that no one in XuZhou had been SARS infected yet so they were all taking percautions. Here's when the fun started. We pulled up to a pretty nice hotel and Christie and I are eyeing eachother jokingly ("I can't believe we are going to stay in this fancy joint!" "Shut up and act formal!").

After a bunch of chinese argument between Coops and the receptionist, I finally caught enough to know that we were not allowed to stay there and we had to leave immediately. I guess when they looked at our passports and saw we just came from GuangZhou and Hong Kong that they wouldn't let us stay the night. So we tried somewhere else, and then somewhere else. Around midnight we had checked almost everywhere in XuZhou and no one would take us. Coops was having a heart attack and was so sorry for putting us through all of this. Finally he told us that we were sleeping in the back of the taxi for the night and that he would sort everything out by morning.

Chrisite was freaking out because she had been in China for less than a week and didn't realize that nothing is easy in China. I was as calm as could be. I just knew everything would work out and I knew that every day in China was an adventure. Next morning things get worse - Coops tells us that the first case of SARS was found the day before and that the government was in an uproar. He told us that the government has asked us to leave the province as well as any chinese on our plane. All the borders were shut and all the incoming travellers were told to return too.

Basically, they didn't want to have to deal with any problems if a foreigner broght SARS to their province. This was true for all the chinese coming into XuZhou and especially important for us, being foreigners to XuZhou and to China. So we find ourselves on a bus to NanJing to catch the first flight out (XuZhou had none for a couple days). We end up flying to GuangZhou.

Christie's hopes are crushed because now she had no job. In the end, I found christie a modelling job and a place to stay with Sherry. Phew.. So the trip is saved - Christie gets a job and a place to stay in China and I get a really cool adventure.

-steve-

Protected from SARS and ready to sleep!

This meeting was a little tense because it was the middle of the SARS breakout and we were near the epicenter. Everyone in Hong Kong was wearing masks and I just couldn't. I was just busting my buttons with pride. All of them were just way too paranoid and I couldn't sink to their level. Christie meets me with a stupid mask on her and I said that she could wear one but I wasn't. Little did she know she would be living in SARS central for 4 months. Well, the mask phase quickly wore off.

-steve-

The island of Saipan has many attractions and the residents find many great activities like snorkeling, diving, hiking, caving and many others. A select crowd of residents are into another very important activity: treasure hunting. When I first got to Saipan, I couldn't believe the way people talked about various trinkets and antiques that washed up on the shores. By the end of my stay I also started to dream about finding a light blue Saki bottle or a Japanese blown glass fishing float. There are two strains of treasure on the island. The first is a result of the intense World War II fighting on the island. The Americans and Japanese had a great standoff before the Japanese were finally backed up towards suicide cliff and beyond.

Many Japanese hid in caves and grottoes for months after the fighting. As a result the whole island is littered with a variety of goodies. There are old tools, clothing, grenades, batteries, weapons, armor, bombs, shrapnel, human bones and many other great finds. Treasure continues to wash up old artifacts through an ongoing process of ocean currents washing up treasure on the Saipan beaches. Some diehard booney stompers will even do Saturday morning beach visits to find the week's latest. It was one of these routine Saturday morning visits that led us to a rocky oceanside hidden beach called Lobster Lagoon. Actually calling it a beach is a definite overstatement. Lobster Lagoon consists solely of a rock arrangement perfect for catching ocean garbage. Why anyone would want to go to such a place is a good question. Definitely a vacationing Saipan tourist would have no such desire or means.

Anyway, Dean, David and I trekked through the jungle and over the volcanic rock down to the narrow beach between the rock walls. No one had been there for a while so excitement resonated through the trench. We started reefing through buoys and ropes looking for anything that caught our attention. Of course the foremost treasure was any Japanese glass fishing float. There were also different classes of floats. Ones blown in a single motion (with no seams) were the best. Also, any markings which signified the artist were desired - and of course, bigger is better.

After several minutes of searching through the refuse, I held it up. It was a glass float of the 'rolling pin' variety. David Creel let out a yelp. No short termer was ever supposed to find something so rare and valuable. In all his 12 years on Saipan he had barely set his eyes on such a float. He maintained his composure and we continued to search well into the afternoon.

Another weekend, I was out with Dean Brubaker on yet another beach survey. This time when we pulled up to Tanke beach I was in mid conversation with the 60 year old Dean when his eyes lit up like a 12 year old. He took off running down the beach and I hadn't even closed the door of the truck. He ran to the opposite end of the beach and I took off after him. Before I caught up to him he was holding above his head the largest glass ball I had ever seen. It was as big as a human head and later it was the centerpiece of his dinner table for as long as I remained on Saipan. It was also the talk of the town for several days.

I thought it would be really cool to sleep in the old Japanese communications building on Tinian (island in the Northern Mariana Islands) but I was so wrong. It happened to be the most humid night ever and the rats and bugs were out for a night on the town. I brought my trusty sleeping bag and I needed to stay in it to avoid bugs and bites. But I needed to stay out of it so I could stop sweating a storm. This conflict resulted in a never-ending battle that kept me up all night.

I woke up all dirty and grubby and wandered into a church. Wow, they really gave me the looks that service! Whatever, I figure they were glad for the growth to their minuscule numbers.

-steve-

I can hardly believe that it took over 2 months for me to finally hike down to Forbidden Island after coming to Saipan (Island in the Northern Mariana Islands). It probably had something to do with all the warnings I had heard. Someone at the station was killed there a few years back and several other have also died when trying to cross to the island. Timing is essential because if the tide is high, there is a good chance you can be washed out to sea. There are also large sharks in the open waters on the east side of Saipan where there is no protection from the reef. Anyway, I had waited long enough for someone to go with me. I had no idea how to get down and across to this island but I guess that would be the adventure for the day.

I drove out to the overlook and then started my decent. I new there was a path somewhere but I couldn't find it so I just bushwacked it down to the shore. Unfortunately when I got down I had no idea which direction to walk along the shore. Well actually there wasn't a shore, only dangerous shelf rock. I used my best judgement and headed off in a direction across the shelf rock, making sure to run to the next safe point before a wave swept over the shelf rock.

I finally saw Forbidden Island in the distance. I had obviously not planned my desent very smart because I ended up quite a ways down the shore from the island. It was about this time that a mid-sized eel washed up on the shore just infront of me. After the initial shock of my first eel encounter, I quickly regained composure and changed focus. I needed some video footage of this guy! I whipped out my camera and just before I got everything set up, I hadn't noticed a rather large wave coming towards the coast.

Before I had time to jump behind a rocky splash guard, I was drenched and my camera suffered substancial splashing. At the time the biggest disappointment was the fact that the eel was swept away. That feeling quickly past when I found my camera wouldn't turn on anymore. I finally did make it to the island and had a good afternoon despite the fact that my camera probably needed repairs.

-steve-

So I get to the Korean airport for a quick transfer to Saipan. I walk up to the ticket counter and give the appropriate information. That is when I am told that I cannot go to Saipan today. I just stood there and with a blank look said "well I have to get there today; there are people waiting to pick me up in a few hours". The lady explained in broken English that Asiana airlines can't perform inner country flights from the USA to the USA because they don't want to get in trouble. They were actually surprised that I got the tickets booked in such a way - usually ticket issuers can't do that.

Anyway, it was totally my fault and they weren't going to fly me to Saipan. So I played the innocent idiot and finally they said they would put me up for the night. WOOHOO. This couldn't be better. I am used to staying in the cheapest places ever. Asiana puts me up in Seoul for a night with 3 gourmet five course meals and rides to the airport. Not to mention a luxurious room with internet access. So I got to walk around Seoul for a couple days compliments of Asiana Airlines (When it was actually my fault for having booked the tickets in such a way).

-steve-