The DipNotes

Between every assignment we get a special kind of vacation called “Home Leave“.   Home leave amounts to about 30 days of paid leave, but is not charged against our regular annual leave balance.  While the State Department will pay to fly us to/from any single address in the USA for home leave, it will not pay for meals and hotels, so many people go to their own stateside homes.  Well, Megan and I do not have a home, so we drive around and visit relatives and take in some sight seeing in America.   This year was a no different, as the map in the previous post shows.  We rented a car in Washington DC and returned it 3 weeks later with over 9,000 new miles on it.

After leaving DC, we drove to Nashville, and stopped at Graceland.  Then we continued to New Mexico to visit our daughter Nova.  While in NM, we all went down to White Sands National Monument, and then over to Carlsbad Caverns.

Nova at White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Carlsbad Cavern is a great place to visit, and most nights in summer you can watch hundreds of thousands of bats fly out of the cave after sunset.  However we had a large thunderstorm approach, and the distant sound of thunder kept the bats in.

Thunderstorm over Carlsbad, New Mexico

But the next day, we went down into the cavern for about 3 hours.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

After New Mexico, Megan and I drove across Arizona to one of our favorite stops.  Best Friends!  One place we go back to every time is an amazing, little known place called “Best Friends Animal Sanctuary”.   It’s the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the world, and we volunteer there by working with care givers and helping re-socialize traumatized animals.  If you need a place to boost your Karma, this is it.

Best Friends is located in the southern Utah border just north of the Grand Canyon.  It’s also about 45 minutes from Bryce and Zion National Parks.  This place is ideally located to visit some of the most stunning scenery in America, plus you can help a lot of furry or feathered animals.  This time we worked in “Cat Village” which is composed of many houses each holding dozens of cats.  I usually work in Dog Town, which is now a TV Show on Discovery, but this year I devoted my time to the cats.  We even took one to our hotel in town, something all the local hotels allow.

Here are a few photos of Best Friends.  If you are ever in the vicinity of south central Utah / Northern Arizona, I highly recommend a visit!

Best Friends is located in Angel Canyon, in Kenab Utah.

Inside one of the kitty houses at Cat World at Best friends.

Each room in a kitty house has it's own outdoor play area.

Megan brushing a Kitty in one cat house in "Cat World"

Two of the lovely kitties we took care of at Best Friend's Cat World.

Angel's Rest is where those animals at Best Friends are laid to rest.

After Best Friends, we drove through Zion National Park to Las Vegas, spent 4 nights, and then headed across Utah to Colorodo.   There is some stunning scenery along that route!

Zion National Park, Utah

Spectacular Utah!

Looking across central Utah

Up over the Rockies, and almost hit an Elk..  Unfortunately for the car in front of me, as he totaled his car.  Then down the other side, and across Nebraska to the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan.

In the UP, we headed to Mackinac Island, one of our favorite spots in Michigan.  Mackinac is unique in that no vehicles are allowed on the island, only bicycles and horses.  The whole island looks like the very early 1900′s.

Mackinac Island, Michigan

Mackinac's 19th century homes and hotels are wonderful!

Mackinac Island public transportation - horse and buggies!

We took a tour in a horse drawn carriage, and then headed south to Megan’s relatives about half-way down the state.  After a wonderful afternoon with family, we headed across Ontario to Niagara Falls, and then on to Vermont.

Normally, I would stop in at my mother’s home and tell her about my travels.  However, we had a sad end to our journey.  My mother passed away a week ago, and her committal was scheduled at the end of the month, just as our trip would be ending.  My mother loved to hear about our travels, so this trip is dedicated to her.  I love you Mom, and will miss you dearly.

My mother’s committal was emotional, as she is buried alongside my father and sister who died almost one year ago.  They are all in a wonderful Veterans Cemetery in Vermont, with a gorgeous view.

The packers came and crated up all my household items to be shipped (by sea) to Maryland and stored there until  I get to my follow-on assignment in Budapest in 2012.  I had already sorted out all the items that will be shipped by air to Baghdad so they will be there when I arrive in September.   I am entitled to ship 300 lbs to Baghdad by air, plus whatever I have in my two suitcases.  I’m tossing in my Mac, Apple TV, and Keurig coffee machine in the air freight.  They will pick that stuff up two days before I fly out.  Anything else that won’t fit in my suitcase at that time will have to be mailed.

I depart Singapore on 1 July, and fly to Washington DC, where Megan will be waiting for me.  She left her post in Fiji yesterday, as she has to attend the FACT course, like I did before I went to Pakistan.  I’m taking some classes at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) for a month, and then on August 02, Megan and I rent a car and drive around the U.S. to visit relatives and take some time to play in Las Vegas.

Map of our Home Leave Route

We’ll be in training (TDY) all of July, and on leave all of August driving around the country.  On our trip, in addition to all the family visits, we’ll visit our daughter in New Mexico (C), spend some time working with the dogs at Best Friends (D), seeing some shows in Las Vegas (E) and head up to Quebec to watch the Quebec International Military Tattoo (M).   August will be a busy, but fun month for Megan and I to catch up after being apart for three years!

Last January, I was thinking about an old hobby of mine, metal detecting.  I haven’t done this in years, and wanted to get back into the hobby, but Singapore’s laws are so struct that I figured it was most likely illegal.  I asked around the Embassy, and all the locally hired staff agreed that the equipment was probably illegal.  They had never seen metal detectors before, and they are not sold anywhere in Singapore.  But on a wild whim, I email the local police and asked abut using one anyway.  After numerous to and fro emails, consults with both Singapore Customs and even the licensing department, everyone finally agreed that the equipment, while virtually unheard of in Singapore, was not illegal.  However, I would be restricted to only using them on private property (with permission) of which there is very little of in Singapore.  I could, however, also dig on the beaches, as digging in the sand is what people do at the beach anyways.  At that very moment – I got a little excited because anyone who uses a metal detector understands that people loose jewelry on the beach often.  In the United States there are dozens of people searching the beaches for lost jewelry with metal detectors, so the odds of finding something valuable is a lot of luck.  But since no one here does this.. the odds must be much better!  Little did I know just how much better!

So I set off and bought a top of the line model, the White’s Spectra V3i.  This machine (left) is fully programmable, uses three separate electromagnetic frequencies, and is considered one of the  best metal detectors on the market.  I also found a used underwater detector that uses a different technology (pulse induction) on eBay for $350.  This machine is designed specifically to work better on salt water beaches.

The Whites V3i and the White's Surfmaster P.I.

With these two tools, I set out to search the sandy beaches, and specifically the wet sand just after the tide goes out.   People play in waist-deep water, and that is where they loose their jewelry and coins.  The cool water shrinks your skin, and a little suntan lotion helps ensure they come off quickly!  They drop in a few feet of water, and are quickly buried in sand.  Most people never realize their jewelry is gone, until they leave the water – and by then it is lost forever.

Well.. not quite.  When the tide goes out, I come back and search the now exposed sand and easily find their jewelry and pocket change.  In Singapore, the best beaches to search are those at the resort island of Sentosa.  Here, thousands of tourist visit daily and many go into the water to play.  These beaches are small too, thus the area to search is narrow and thus concentrated!

A little geeky perhaps, but having a great time!

Over the last 6 months, I have fine tuned my skill and can now average $500  over 4 hours of searching!  I can locate a coin every 45 seconds, and a valuable gold ring every hour or two.  I also uncover junk jewelry (children’s jewelry or steel rings) every 30 minutes or so.  Armed with a nice sand-scoop I can recover the lost treasures quickly, without wasting a lot of time digging.  I’ve recently been going out only in the early morning (6AM) and at night (7PM) where the air is cooler, and the beaches empty.  It’s a very relaxing hobby!

Here is a photo of some of the “junk” I have found in two months – searching just 6 times – four hours each.

2 months of treasure found on Singapore's Sentosa beaches.

While discolored, these coins clean up easily in a jewelry rock-tumbler – the ones used to tumble stones into polished round gems.  I add some dish detergent, and some sand, and in a few hours these coins look new again!  I have found over $700 in coins in just 6 months.

But the real treasure is all the silver, gold, platinum and diamonds I have found!  All together, I estimate I have $7,000 in jewelry in the last 6 months.  Not bad for a stroll on the beach 3 or 4 hours a week!  Here are a few photos of just some of my finds.

I only have a few more days when I can search here in Singapore, as I am packaging up my stuff now for my move.  I will certainly miss this opportunity – as there are few places left on Earth where you can find this much treasure on the beaches, and have virtually no competition!

UPDATE:  Once back in the USA I sent some of my gold jewelry to an on-line gold buyer.  I got the following check in the mail a few days later.

Check for some of the gold I found in Singapore

Sadly, I went on my last local dive trip to the Rimba resort, on the east coast of Malaysia.  I do not know if I’ll get any diving in until after I leave my follow-on assignment in Hungary, but I am pretty sure I won’t be back here again.  There’s just too many places left to explore on Earth!   Anyway, here’s a sample of my last dive shots taken with my old 1990′s Nikonos V underwater film camera.    Not bad for a $500 camera set that produces images rivaling a modern $3,000 digital setup.

On this trip, at about 45 feet down we came across this fish pot sitting on the bottom collecting all kinds of beautiful coral reef fish. This area is a protected reserve, and so technically fishing is illegal, however Malaysian fishermen still sneak in at night and drop these pots. Whenever we find them, we open them up and free the trapped fish, as we are doing here.

Rescuing tropical reef fish from an illegal fisherman's pot

The Eagles came to Singapore for their “Long Road out of Eden” tour 2011.  Their security manager contacted my office for some advice, so I took him out to dinner to discuss their concerns.  This manager brought his friend Mark Reis along, who was the guitar technician for Joe Walsh.  I didn’t know this at first, and just took him around for several hours at night showing him downtown Singapore and helping him do some shopping for his wife.  The next day Mark emailed me and I was invited to be in the pit with him during the sell-out concert, which lasted three hours and covered 31 songs from The Eagles and also a few songs from both Don Henley and Joe Walsh’s solo career. Here’s the list from the performance:

Seven Bridges Road, How Long, Busy Being Fabulous, I Don’t Want to Hear, Guilty of the Crime, Hotel California, Peaceful Easy Feeling, I Can’t Tell You Why, Witchy Woman, Lyin’ Eyes, Boys of Summer, In The City, The Long Run, No More Walks In the Woods, Waiting In the Weeds, No More Cloudy Days, Love Will Keep Us Alive, Best Of My Love, Take It To the Limit, Long Road Out Of Eden, Walk Away, One Of These Nights, Life’s Been good, Dirty Laundry, Funk 49, Heartache Tonight, Life In The Fast Lane, Take It easy, Rocky Mountain Way, All She Wants To Do Is Dance, and finally Desperado

What a fantastic concert!!!!

Last May I discovered how easy and inexpensive it is to go SCUBA diving here in Singapore.  While the diving within Singaporean waters is not good, we are close some pretty worthwhile diving locations, and within short flights to some fantastic sites.

Since I have weekends off, I looked for sites that were close by, and a colleague of mine introduced me to a site off the Eastern coast of Malaysia called Sibu.  It’s a tiny island with a couple of resorts, one of which is basically upscale camping.  Lodging is in thatched huts, no hot water, no boat dock, no vehicles (no roads!), pretty basic.  It’s called Rimba and was just what I was looking for!  And the best part is the price – $220 for a full weekend that includes all travel, lodging, and meals!

Beach at Rimba

The staff are fantastic, and we quickly became friends.  They have arranged a Malaysian driver to pick me up at the Embassy in Singapore on Friday night after work.  He drives me across the boarder to a small fishing village about 3 hours away.  From there a high-speed boat whisks me away to the island of Sibu where the staff are on the beach waiting for my arrival.  After being in the big crowded city, it’s like arriving in a small paradise!

Rimba has a house-reef that starts at the shore.  It is shallow algae covered rocks to a depth of 2 to 3 meters (tidal) until you go about 50 meters from shore.  Then the real corals appear and the diving is not bad at all.  There are loads of fish, hard corals, and even a few Black Tipped reef sharks that seem to stay in the area.

Nikonos V underwater 35mm film camera

I have wanted to get involved in photography, but I wanted nice hi-resolution images suitable for large wall hangings.  The cost to do that with modern digital equipment starts around $3,000 and easily rises to $5,000.  However, the best underwater photography from the 1980-1990s was done with a unique camera designed by Nikon using 35mm film.  The camera was the Nikonos V that came out in 1984 and was built like a tank, didn’t need an underwater housing, could go to depths of  55 meters, and could use the best underwater lens ever designed – the venerated Nikonos 15mm UW wide-angle lens.  Even today this lens can not be matched for image sharpness as it was designed solely for underwater use and uses a special curved front lens to correct for water refraction/distortion.    Fortunately, no one wants a “film” camera anymore, and so these gems are available on ebay for under a $100!  A full kit can be found for $250 – which can produce images that rival the new $3,000 digitals.

I started hanging out on ebay and and nailed a Nikonos V for $76 in near mint condition.  I then added a $125 strobe, and a 20mm wide angle lens for another $70.  I picked up a few odds and ends, and won a Nikonos hard-case for a wooping 99 cents!  So for about $375.99 I have a camera system that can make poster size images!

I went out two weeks ago and so here’s my very first attempts with this system.  I have a bunch to learn and will go back out next week.

UPDATE! Check out my latest photos here!