Travel

Ugh...

Posted on 2009-04-29 04:53 by rv

I just arrived at Johannesburg. I 'misunderestimated' the flight time, which turned out to be 10 hours! That means I had a total flight time of 17 hours, quite a bit more than going to Australia from Japan. Can't say I'm very tired right now, but it's 6:50AM local time. I'm sure it will catch up with me later. I have to wait 2 hours for Kamil to arrive so I'll share with you some of my thoughts I had during the flights.

First of all, now I know why they call it BOREding. The entire boarding procedure in Malaysia airport took so long. Incidentally, I thought the airport was quite crappy. The terminal area had a very nice green area in the center part of the terminal (but you're not allowed to enter), and from there several 'arms' extend towards the boarding areas. The center is filled with tax-free shops selling trinkets that I don't care about, and there's barely any nice restaurant. Still, the food was good. Also on the flight the food was excellent. Malaysia Airlines has good food :D Too bad the airport is so desolate and empty. It reminded me of Zurich. I'd say the best airports I've stayed at so far are Narita and Cairns. They just feel more peaceful and relaxed, and less like a big industry. Johannesburg is not too bad either. It's very practical and the toilets are clean (Malaysia was so dirty!). It reminds me of Holland somehow.

Well, that's it for now. I doubt I'll have internet during the tour, so this'll be my last message for a while. This Is Africa!

Posted in Travel

I'm in Malaysia!

Posted on 2009-04-28 12:23 by rv

It's bloody hot here... I need to wait four hours for my flight, and I am indecisive between getting a taste of the loca Malaysian cuisine or going to Burger King :D

More later!

(Also: free internet. W00h00!)

Posted in Travel

At Narita!

Posted on 2009-04-28 02:31 by rv

My schedule for today: wait, fly, wait, fly. It's kind of boring, but I'm okay with that, considering what's planned for next week. Traveling through South Africa and Botswana to end up at Victoria Falls in Zambia. I'm starting to realize that I'm actually going to Africa. I've also realized that my stomach still hurts.. Must be the curry. Or the malaria pills. Meh.

I doubt that there are many opportunities to access the internet during our trip, but at least Johannesburg and Livingstone should provide some internet access. I'll try to keep track of what I did so I can share it with you guys later :D

Posted in Travel

To the limit

Posted on 2009-04-25 14:49 by rv

I always seem to be living my life up until some kind of limit. Either I'm brainlessly happy, horribly depressed, terrifyingly genki or deadly bored. Either my life is always in one of those states, or I only seem to remember the extremes. In any case, it would seem that I prefer the extremes over the average. Unless it's extremely average, perhaps? I can certainly take pleasure in being very depressed, or being in much physical pain. I guess my jokingly saying 'I like suffering' turns out to be true. It doesn't mean I don't like happy things, though, cause I like those too. I don't like nothings. Being in-between is what's boring. Running at my limit feels great. Running at an average speed that I could keep forever is boring. Same goes for cycling. Basically, if you can prepend the word 'epic', then I'll like it :D - Epic trips, epic photos, epic life-threatening situations. Epic malaria... That's what makes life interesting.. >_<; Seek out sensation. Why else would you bother to live?

On a slightly more practical note: I've been pondering exactly what photo equipment to bring with me for the trip. At first I got all excited and I planned to bring three main lenses and the two primes. Then I started thinking I'd want to carry less stuff for this trip. I don't think I could feel really free if I'm carrying around a heavy (and expensive!) camera and a bunch of lenses. So I considered bringing my old camera (400D) cause it's smaller and lighter and only the 18-200mm lens, but that's also quite a lot of stuff, and I'd rather bring the 50D instead. Then I thought: why not bring just a compact camera? It's not like I will miss any part of the experience with only a compact camera. I will still be able to see everything that I would see with a large heavy bulky camera. The experience would not change for me at all. It might even be better with only a compact, because I will see with my own eyes instead of through a lens. But then I remember all the people I've spoken to so far. All my friends and my family, they tell me: "take lots of cool pictures! I want to see them when you get back!". I realized why I take photos. It's not for myself after all, it's to share them with the people I know, so they can look at my experiences and enjoy it too. So I will bring all the heavy stuff, and I will take lots of pictures :D

I am leaving for Africa with a good feeling.

(Note to self: next time you have an important trip, don't eat four different kinds of curry the week before you leave!!!)

Posted in Photography , Thoughts , Travel

Malaria Bento

Posted on 2009-04-23 15:18 by rv

A regular bento with a malaria pill. I took my first one on Tuesday. The doctor told me last Friday when I got my yellow fever shot that I might get sick this week, and the malaria medicin has a huge list of side effects which might cause me to feel ill, but somehow I've never felt better. I feel a lot more healthy than last week, when I was sniffing day and night. Interestingly the spot on my arm where I get the vaccination turned red and is kinda hard to the touch. I hope that goes away soon...

Preparation check: bought mushiyoke supuree--> "spray that makes bugs avoid you". Yay. Now all that's left is a good big bag to put all my clothes and my sleeping bag in...

Posted in Daily Life , Travel

Beautiful

Posted on 2009-04-20 13:09 by rv

Google Earth is the only reason why I still have faith in humanity. I was just browsing a bit, starting from Hokkaido, then to Sakhalan, then following the Amur river which is the border between Russia and China. There's so much cool stuff to see there! So much nature, empty paths, huge forests, small villages, abandoned train tracks and tiny train stations, but also a huge train with freight trains several kilometers long. I found a cool border crossing too. And the best part is: there's hundreds of pictures! Local people and tourists have taken care to document every part of their home town and province. On the one side I'm a bit disappointed that every bit of true nature's already been explored, catalogued, and put online for everyone to see, but on the other side I'm really happy to see that so many people share my hobby.

Posted in Thoughts , Travel

Preparations

Posted on 2009-04-17 13:49 by rv

In the center you see two power socket converter plugs that will help me charge all the crap that I'm bringning to Africa. I'm planning to bring a GPS and an iPod, which I'll need to charge through USB, and a charger for my 50D, which is huge and heavy and annoying. I got no choice but to bring it, cause two batteries will not last me for two weeks..

Of course the most important thing in this picture is the yellow paper, which is the certificate that I'll need when I enter SA, so I can prove that I have been vaccinated against yellow fever. That's right, I am now officially Yellow Fever Certified. Ha! As if living in Japan was not proof enough...

Posted in Travel

The horrible state that my bicycle is in

Posted on 2009-04-14 16:15 by rv

Isn't it amazing how time flies? Last year for Golden week (the Japanese holiday week in the beginning of May) I went on a cycling trip in Shikoku. The year before that I cycled Kyushu and Okinawa. That means that right about now my bicycle is celebrating its third birthday.

It's gotten a bit worse since I first got it though. One of the spokes in the rear wheel got loose during the Shikoku trip, so I fastened it with some rope. Didn't bother to fix it since. The rear tire has been of the crappy kind ever since I got a nasty puncture about one and a half years ago, when it was replaced by an el-cheapo smooth tire. All of this fades in comparison to the utter crappiness of the actual wheel itself though. It's been getting less and less round every month! Right now it's making a figure eight shape whenever I ride it. It was kind of scary last week, going downhill at high speed and actually feeling the rear wheel go up and down O_0. Well, at least I got the front brakes fixed, which were weak for most of the two years that I had the bike.

You might also notice from the picture that my rear spoilerfenderthingie is missing. It got damaged last year and a piece of it broke off. It was still usable though, but after traversing many sidewalks and bumps it finally started to fall apart and I had to take it off. As a result my back now gets wet whenever it rains.

The gears have been broken for the while time too! I can never get the front cog to go back into highest gear smoothly after having switched down a gear. I end up pushing the gear-lever really hard for about a kilometer until it finally switches to the correct gear. My temporary fix is to kick the damn switcher thingie just above the cogwheel, which solves the problem for about an hour.

Ahhhh, I want to go cycling again this year... Maybe this summer...

Posted in Cycling , Travel

Gotta catch em all!

Posted on 2009-03-26 03:53 by rv

Hepatitis Armor: +1 Defense
6 Malaria potions: 20HP each

Posted in Travel

What's the worst that could happen?

Posted on 2009-03-25 13:32 by rv

Thank you, family and friends, for pointing out to me all the possible things that could go wrong during my trip to South Africa. I present to you here a list of all the horrible things suggested so far:

Getting drugs planted in my luggage at the airport and spending years in jail or getting the death sentence
Plane crash on the way to Africa
Plane crash from Zimbabwe to South Africa
Get my luggage stolen or lose it in the airport of hotel
Get robbed
Get shot
Get shot in a slightly different way
Get shot, but in a more horrific manner
Get shot, again
Die from malaria
Almost die from malaria
Don't get any disease and get annoyed because I paid so much money for the vaccinations
Die from malaria again
Be bit by a spider in the tent. Either become spiderman or die
Same scenario, but snake
Same scenario, but lion
Same tent, but getting trampled by an elephant
Get rabies. Die because I was too cheap to get the rabies vaccination
Get rabies and feel miserable despite having the vaccination
Various other kinds of diseases are available too!
Have sex with a hot girl and get aids
Have sex with an ugly girl and get aids
Have sex with a guy and get aids -__-
Get stung by a mosquito and get aids (do you see now how much that would suck?!)

Ok, I'd better stop here. I'm going to Africa! What's the worst that could happen? Well, it can't be much worse than anything listed here, so whatever happens, I will be prepared :D

Posted in Travel

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