40 years in Jordan - How to travel efficiently
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- Category: Advice
- Published on Wednesday, 15 August 2012 16:47
- Written by Doug
I'm not a religious person, but I had a somewhat of a half-donkeyed religious upbringing. Honestly, we're about as Catholic as an Irishman before sunrise. In one of the very few times I was forced to go to Sunday school (I think someone had guilted us into it), I remembered learning about how Moses lead the Jews though 40 years mandatory exfoliating spa treatments and beach getaways. Being stuck in a small town near the tree line at the time, it really didn't sound that bad. Heck, it beats 40 years of -40 winters right?
The excessive "40 year" element to the story always irked me. Yes, they're walking, they had to watch out for Egyptians and they had to make sure that everyone was fed and whatnot, but anything more than 18 months of constant wandering is a bit of a stretch. Since being to Jordan however, I'm now convinced that 40 years is reasonably accurate, and slightly faster than the length of time it takes to travel through the country by bus. Considering the amount of tourist traffic Jordan sees a year (Petra received almost a million visitors in 2010 according to petranationaltrust.org), I guess I just expected something more...comprehensive.
Okay, okay. This is the part where I talk about how much I actually liked the country, this one point aside. Without a drop of sarcasm I can say that the food was excellent, the people were decent, there was good English signage, and the sights were amazing. Continuing on.
A few links short of a chain.
Editors Note: 2kob.com's Preferred Methods of Travel in Jordan
(preference by size, from least to most) shared van, armed personnel carrier, rental car, foot, ass, carried by giant eagle, djinn
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adviceSurviving Rural Japan
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- Category: Advice
- Published on Monday, 23 July 2012 16:10
- Written by Doug
So you've decided to move to rural Japan. Congratulations! A life of wonder and amazement awaits you in your scenic country town. Quiant traditions, colourful people, oh the fun you'll have. You should start a live journal. I bet everyone will read it.
This guy will break your hand if you don't learn how to use chopsticks.
Seriously though, living in a small Japanese village is a mixed basket that can be as trying for you as it is for everyone else in the town. Having foreign eyes in the town is like trying to shield your fiancée from your crazy family. Everyone is trying to make sure you're well fed while they stuff all the skeletons under the futon. I lived in a village of around 2000 people for about three years. I came "fresh" out of university, with no work experience, no training, and virtually no travel experience. It was nothing like "Learning to Bow," but this is what I learnt.
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Rugged Waterproof Cameras
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- Category: Advice
- Published on Thursday, 07 June 2012 17:29
- Written by Chris
Since the advent of point-and-shoot cameras, travel has transmogrified from adventures you do for the experience to the slightly unpleasant requirement for getting cool photos. As such, the mainstay of any modern traveler is her camera. No one travels without a camera. Listen, you know what they call a traveler without a camera? Homeless.
Get it?
Now, if you are an entitled idiot (like this reporter), you will carry around a
Minimum equipment
4lbs (1.8kg) digital single-lens reflex monstrosity. In my case, it's an antediluvian Nikon D70s. And that 4lbs is only the body! I have, at a minimum, three lenses that I simply cannot be without: a 60mm macro, a wide-angle beaut, and a telephoto penis-substitute that makes brahs go 'Yo, brah, nice camera' because they don't understand the difference between a lens and a camera body, and excites girls whose bras pop off whenever they see an 'artist'.
Unless you are a glutton for scoliosis, don't go the SLR route. Get something light, easy-to-use, and, above all, dura-fucking-ble. Sure, you can pick up a dainty little thing, all vajazzled out and taking great HDR photos, but when (not if, when) you drop it on the marble floor of a forbidden harem sanctum, you'll rue the day you didn't opt for a stronger beast.
Unfortunately, as far as point-and-shoots have come in recent years, improving the auto-focus and shutter/f-stop/iso selections, we have not yet reached the mountaintop. Reasonably priced rugged cameras can be found, but it seems their rugged exteriors belie their soft, squishy inner POS.
Gizmodo, ever the people's champion, sent four (4) rugged point-and-shoots on multiple camping trips with hours of underwater play and falls onto hard surfaces. The best of the bunch? Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS4.
The Panasonic took the clearest, most vivid outdoor and underwater stills. There aren't quite as many shooting modes as the others, but that actually made it feel simpler to use at times. It generally found very nice balance in light levels the others would blow out, and it really makes colors pop (especially greens). Panoramic shots are excellent, at up to 360 degrees. It's generally able to attain focus faster than the others, and it's the fastest and cleanest at nighttime shooting with a flash.
If you are considering purchasing just such a cam'ra, then read this article. Because, even though they picked the Lumix, each camera had serious flaws, and each had things it was good or better at than the others.
Add a commentYet Another Airline Miles Article
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- Category: Advice
- Published on Tuesday, 01 May 2012 14:59
- Written by Chris
Sure, the chem-trails look pretty, the way the mind-control nano-particles glow in the setting sun.
The Art of Packing Light
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- Category: Advice
- Published on Wednesday, 01 February 2012 14:54
- Written by Doug
My first solo adventure was a four month trip to the middle of nowhere. I had a bad back that was constantly in jeopardy of being snapped in half by the 60 litre pack full of crap I never used. It was a real pain to get all the way to the bottom of the bag, so anything that made it that far down, never came back up. A month in, I started tossing anything of no immediate value, and instead spent the rest of my trip lugging around several hardcover copies of the Rukhnama, a book only readily available in Turkmenistan. Bragging rights were more important than that sweater my mom bought for me. Now, library building aside, it is usually the case that...
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