pOkE the pLaNeT

Ive done a lot of reading about PNG and U.S politics, and you wouldnt think the two had much to do with each other, but its quite surprising the connections you find.

Most people know J.F Kennedy served as a P.T boat skipper in The Slot in the Solomon Islands, but how many know Richard Nixon was serving in the navy further north? Ive read one reference of him being a navy base officer on one of the islands near Bougainville. LBJ also served in Papua New Guinea, and clocked up one mission at least on an attack across the Owen Stanley ranges on the Japanese.

Other famous Americans to visit for one reason or another include Charles Lindbergh and Joe McCarthy. McCarthy was with a U.S Marine dive bomber squadron in the Solomons and reportedly fudged his combat record to show more missions than he actually flew in order to qualify for an air service medal. Charles Lindbergh was out here as a civilian consultant for the USAAF, teaching pilots how to dramatically extend the range of their planes by fiddling with prop and manifold settings. He is also the only civilian pilot I know of who shot down a japanese plane in New Guinea.

Errol Flynn had a mine claim in the Wau valley among other interests before skipping his dentists bill for fame and fortune in the U.S, and theres a Rockefeller still missing in the south of the island, presumed eaten.

Watching the sub prime mess in the U.S and its in stark contrast to whats happening in Australia. Instead of going down, our interest rates have gone up twelve times recently and while we didnt have the sub prime type loans, it still hurts. Australia now has some of the most expensive real estate in the world and a 600K home is nothing special anymore. New Guinea is even worse... its reportedly cheaper to rent an apartment in Paris or New York than in Port Moresby.

Video clip. I wont include a direct link but if you want to see PNG from a pilots point of view go to YouTube and type in 'PNG Landing Fane'. Its worth a look.

The Year of the Rat has brought us a new adventure opportunity. Initially we thought that Beijing would be our next nomadic stop but an ever more desirable opportunity presented itself and transpired ending in our favor. We are going to Kiev (Ukraine)- yes the home of the orange revolution, boxing greats the Klitchko brothers and probably best known for the nuclear incident of Chernobyl. O.K. I'll stop with the bragging about the glamour and prestige of the place. No, but we are really happy to be going back to our familiar stomping grounds of E. Europe, spouting some russian again and see the rest of the so called neighborhood we didn't get to see previously. Not to mention the endearing backasswards (non asian) way things do or don't get done, the automatic response of "no, it is not possible" and the food (yes, the food) we have missed.

No date to leave Hanoi is confirmed as of yet but it'll probably this summer so there will be a No Vacancy sign on our door here, after May, although we will be taking advance bookings for Kiev (Kyiv).