Happy 28th, Arthur!

Dinner at the Rumah Tinngi, eating out on the lawn.  In daylight it looks out over the ocean.  At night you can just see the coconut palms, and their warning sign.

I'm actually lucky that knee started to hurt when it did, as it coincided with the orthopaedist's yearly visit the island.  After a few consults, I go in for arthoscopic surgery, and in addition (hopefully) to a fixed knee, I get a picture of the scope of my left knee - the end of my femur bone.  The light part is the cartilage around the end of the bone, and the dark oval part on the right is where the cartilage has become detached.  The little white chunk on the lower left is where the detached cartilage was hanging out. The doc went in and removed the detached cartilage and smoothed the edges of the tear.  It's been week now since the surgery, the bandages are off, and I'm feeling pretty good.  Still don't full range of motion, but can put all my weight on it and walk around without any pain.  I'm still totally amazed the technology of arthroscopic surgery - how the heck can they fit a little camera in there and have enough room to fix stuff up?

Arthur's been a great help this week, keeping me well fed, my knee well-iced, and even entertained by his mad yo-yo skillz (yo-you compliments of sister.  Thanks for the care package, Nella! :)

View out our office window as the sun sets over the port.

Arthur's been perfecting his bread baking, with a recent focus on baguettes.  He's discovered a "Pain a l'Ancien" method which includes keeping the starter refrigerated for a day or more, and it really brings out a host of nutty flavours I've never really experienced with baguettes before.  So very nice.

Back to Seoul

We head out to the train station to catch a bullet train back to Seoul.  

We swing by the Gyeongbok Palace in downtown Seoul and snap a few shots of it lit up at night. Another train ride later and we're back at the Incheon airport, and board our red-eye flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Tomorrow we'll back on Christmas Island.  It seems like we've been gone for longer than 5 weeks, partially because it feel like we've gone through an entire season cycle - summer to winter and now back to summer.  Miss all the folks we had to leave back home, but feels good to back on the island, too.

It's our last full day in Busan, and we start 'er off by making some breakfast for Mary in her apt. Arthur whips up some of his famous latkes.

We head out to the fish market, and are taken aback by the sheer volume and variety of stuff to be bought.  Like this octopus that climbed out of its water bucket.

We take a little visit to the Contemporary Art Museum.

Which happens to be very close to.... SpaLand!  We cap off our trip some spa goodness.

Geumjeongsanseong

Arthur and I take a day trip to an old fortress wall within the city of Busan.  Our trip starts off with a sweet gondola trip up the mountain.

The South Gate of Geumjeongsanseong.

if you can't read that, check out this.

The walk supplies frequent view of the skyscrapers of Busan pushing up against the surrounding hills.

A panoramic shot of the hills around Geumjeongsanseong.

I pose on the old fortress wall in the traditional Korean picture-taking posture: fingers in a "v" up to the face.

We come across the foundation of an old lookout and have some fun with it.

On the way back down, we find a small Buddhist temple, with some cool rock carvings and statue.

The view from the temple.

A reflective image of the ornate gold temple within, and Arthur taking in the view outside.

The gondola takes us back to Busan as the sun sets.

We meet up with Mary for dinner, and eat at a delicious tofu place across the street from her apt.  At first my body struggled a bit with the spicy, pickled foundation of Korean cuisine; now, it seems, it's starting to crave it...