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ash commented about Around World in Toyota TransWorldExpedition.com, On Sunday November 1st, 2009 03:56:15 PM
from what i have read about these types of trip (i considered doing it a couple of years ago, but found it prohibitively expensive to consider), abandoning the car at the end isn't an option. That's why you need a Carnet de Passage to bring vehicles into the countries. If you don't take the car out with you, you pay a huge penalty fine. (this is especially the case in South Africa, because this is where everyone finishes, so they used to get loads of vehicles left in cape town). However, maybe if you buy the car in africa is less a problem?
as for driving across africa in a car, sounds fun! BBC tv show Top Gear set themselves a similar challenge a few years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear:_Botswana_Special
they drove 1000 miles of Africa in used cars they bought cheap. I think the VW Beetle came out best in the end, with the least amount of breakdowns, but noone would want to drive one of those.
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ash commented about Universal Adapters for 2 Dollars, On Monday October 12th, 2009 12:47:24 PM
A great common-sense tip there Andy.
I truely believe that the UK plug is the safest in the world, they never seem to get loose, you always have a ground option for your big metal items like a fridge etc. HOWEVER, it is also the worst plug in the world for travel, and any items I want to travel with I have a different power chord for. It is cheaper and easier and lighter than carrying a UK-rest of world adapter if I just buy alternative cables with a 2-pin connection, they will work everywhere in Europe, and anywhere else I go I can use your trick!
Have a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6DvjKkGT6sandfeature=PlayListandp=35297A53C42A9796andplaynext=1andplaynext_from=PLandindex=29
I truely hope they mass-market this and license it to everyone! this would make travel within the UK so much better.
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ash commented about I am tired of Travel Fantasies, On Tuesday September 15th, 2009 08:32:51 AM
I just finished reading the book Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer. I was struck by the honest-seeming descriptions of the difficulties he found in his first 2 years there. He tells how the place smells, noone washes, he's living on the cold ground and fears being robbed.
By the end, he has a very romanticised view of the place. However, he will still occasionally stick in a very scathing paragraph or two, explaining ho he struggled with some of Lhasa's more 'backward' customs.
Was refreshing to read a travel book that isn't all sunny days and beautiful views.
And That's definately why your site is so interesting and so useful. You tell the truth about facts, and you give your honest opinion. Lonely Planet doesn't tell me what the toilets are like in India. AndyHoboTraveler.com does.
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ash commented about 70 Dollars for Travel Shoes, On Tuesday September 15th, 2009 08:22:32 AM
I use the 'workout plus' range. I got used to wearing them at school, because the uniform rules said we were only allowed trainers if everything on them was black. I'm also an awkeward size, around UK 12 but varies.
I love the secret pockets. I may have told you before, i viewed that page before going to india/nepal and copied your secret pockets design. Either noone tried to rob me, or they work, or both. :o)
Great travel tip, very useful.
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ash commented about 70 Dollars for Travel Shoes, On Monday September 14th, 2009 09:35:03 AM
Good Choice. I love Reebok shoes. My problem is, here they cost about $80, UK rip-off prices. So I can't justify the cost. Here, though, most of the $30 shoes really are crap. The mission is on.
Maybe i should order them in the USA and get shipped to me, would still save $10!
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ash commented about The Culture Punishes for Asking Questions, On Saturday August 1st, 2009 09:18:32 AM
He he he! I am a question-asker too. I was lucky, when I was young my mother spent a lot of time answering my questions. She tells a story of me asking detailed questions about how electricity works and how it is made and gets to the house when I was still in the push-chair (is this called a stroller?)... aparently she was explaining to me about turbines and pylons in the post-office queue and all the old ladies found it very amusing.
When I used to go to play-school at age 4, the teachers told my mother i was more interested in talking with them than other children.... I guess I found them boring.
But I find your comments here interesting. It almost amazed me that, in Nepal, the people seemed quite happy to discuss politics, criticize the king or the maoists openly, except in certain places where they felt under scrutiny... was a pleasant thing to find an enquisative people.
From your mean younger-older brother,
Ash
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ash commented about Help Wanted BlackBerry Versus Iphone, On Friday June 12th, 2009 07:05:18 AM
I cant say much, but i suspect there is an iphone roaming plan of some kind, because Stephen Fry seems to use his iphone everywhere he goes, and use it to do things like twitter, blog etc. too.
All I can do is direct you to his Twitter page and you can try to get in touch- hes not a personal contact of mine, more a celebrity trype figure, so I dont know if youll have luck or not, probably gets lots of fan mail. but looking through his twitter or website might give you an answer, hes vocal in his love of gadgets, especially the iphone... although being a wealthy celebrity type i suppose its possible he just pays someone to sort his connectivity out for him...
Stephen Frys Twitter
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ash commented about The Pain of Childbirth Travel Tip, On Monday May 25th, 2009 10:58:51 AM
In the Nepal Embassy, London, England, there used to be a slogan above where they wanted you to queue for a visa (there was noone there when I went, hehe)
The Mystical Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal... A place that lingers in your dreams long after you have left
Very true statement. My dreams remind me of the beautiful mountains and villages. My dreams do not remind me of squatting to crap for the 8th time in a day because of altitude, after trekking for 8 hours and your leg muscles screaming all the way through, threatening to drop you into the toilet.
There are some experiences that, even when youre doing them, you know your mind will blank out the crap and turn it into a sunny adventure for the grandkids. Some you dont expect so much. I didnt expect Id remember Goa fondly... 5 days of dissentry in the tropics with no water 3 hours a day, being woken up by crows smashing shellfish open on my tin roof at 5am...
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ash commented about Vegetable Oil For Sale in Rwanda, On Monday May 25th, 2009 10:50:06 AM
... more than one problem than an unscrupulous local trader selling things he shouldnt is what i meant. Certainly doesnt excuse it. Maybe you should send pictures to the liberal press, see if they run a feature on NGO failings o)
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ash commented about Vegetable Oil For Sale in Rwanda, On Sunday May 24th, 2009 07:09:44 PM
except they dont distribute money. The USA agrees to send X million of aid not X million in aid money. They will send US surplus produce to the value they agreed, not money. This is useful for the US economy because it means there is less wastage, and it means aid money gets spent at home and supports american buisness.
Regrettably, its bad for the recipients in many cases. In disasters, sending food is very useful. When a nation can easily produce its own food, sending them yours for free undercuts the farmers or workers in that country and puts them out of buisness this perpetuates the poverty cycle.
Which is not to say that these countries would wisely spend X million dollars - history shows us that they will almost certainly not do so. But its worth remembering theres way more than one problem at play here.
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Ash commented about The Balance Later Travel Tip, On Saturday May 2nd, 2009 02:19:40 PM
Hehe, good tip Andy.
Im guessing they didnt have any money lying around, and needed to give your note to someone else who could give them change then give you change. Clearly they do not have the cocept of float!
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Ash commented about Mosquito Net Stops 20 Bees in Room, On Thursday April 23rd, 2009 08:53:02 AM
Hi Andy,
Yes, I always carry a small amount of duct tape (normally about 5 meters taken off the original reel and wrapped around something flat like a strip of card to save space). Ive used this to mend my mozzie net and also one of those little duffle bags.
I learned the other day that mosquitos are NOT ATTRACTED TO LED light. I think this is a very useful piece of information, and if it is true (I have tried to verify, there are very few sources on google, but most point to it being true) I do not know why the NGOs are not replacing the lightbulbs of the world.
apparently, mosquitoes are attracted to invisible Infra-Red light, not the visible light spectrum. Normal light bulbs emit invisible as well as visible light, so IR and UV etc. are emitted as part of the wasted entergy of a normal bulb (even the energy efficient ones, which save energy more on heat). Visible light LEDs do not emit IR, so they do not attract mosquitos (you can, however, get IR or UV LEDs if you want them- most remote controls for TV use IR LEDs).
When I travelled, both my head lamp and small torch were LED, mainly because they are smaller and the battery lasted longer. Maybe its time to switch your travel lamp to one made up of LEDs? I have seen lightbulbs here that look like a normal one, but inside have several LEDs instead of a traditional element or flourescent tube. They are also much more difficult to smash, even if they are a lot more expensive (I think they were about Acircpound4, but I suspect this will gradually decrease as the tube-bulbs used to cost this and are now 5p).
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Ash commented about Worst Hotel Key Travel Tip, On Thursday April 16th, 2009 09:27:00 PM
Cut the nylon rope. When you hand it back after your stay, tie a second knot in it, and fuse that one with a lighter too. I did this a number of times. And because I always carry a certain amount of chord with me, I can replace if necessary.
I did once nearly board a bus out of the city with the hotel key still in my pocket... a member of the staff realised and ran to the bus station just before I left. So maybe I cant blame them too much for this rule!
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Ash commented about Verizon BlackBerry Storm Kenya, On Wednesday April 8th, 2009 09:15:21 AM
Now theres a useful review! I was thinking of getting one of these at the end of May when my current contract expires. Of course, I will be tied into a UK contract not this global roaming thing... but since I am tied to the UK for most of the next 12 months, thats not a problem.
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Ash commented about Isiolo Kenya, On Monday April 6th, 2009 06:55:29 PM
Great pictures, Andy. I like the look of the knives, too. I think Id be tempted to buy one though, I like knives. Too many survival shows I guess...
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Ash commented about Ethiopia Children Set World Records, On Monday March 30th, 2009 09:11:51 PM
The recent hype-film Slumdog Millionaire made me re-think this rule. The film (set in Indian slums) shows a man burning the eyes out of children so that they will be blind and will earn more through begging.
Now I wonder... chicken or egg? Do we help the mutilated man because he needs help, or do we refuse to so that other people will not be harmed?
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ash commented about RSS Feeds is Being Removed, On Wednesday March 11th, 2009 10:10:00 AM
Thanks for explaining more Andy, I appreciate it. I guess I'm assuming the whole world is like me and actually reads things that come up in their RSS. I tend to read almost every post you write, although there are periods when I am either too busy or you are in an area I find less interesting to me personally.
Is your email newsletter like your old one, weekly/monthly, or is it like a feed of the blog? because if it's weekly/monthly I will sign up for it no problem, I just can't deal with stuff coming in everyday. (I know it probably sounds weird, but I find my emails hard to manage at the moment.)
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ash commented about RSS Feeds is Being Removed, On Wednesday March 11th, 2009 08:09:00 AM
I still don't really see why you cannot offer both 'snippet' RSS and email. I for one will not sign up to emails of your blog because you update your blog too often. I don't want 1-4 extra emails a day on top of the multitude I already get, and I don't think that's what email is for. I use email when I want to communicate with people 2-ways.
Maybe fellow travellers will want to recieve it via email instead, but how many are there in the world? You have to see that most of your readers are not on the road, we are people in normal lives with normal jobs etc. and I think you risk alienating them/us, because we tend to use our emails for work or talking to friends, not to get news or articles, and I'm not sure the rest of the world wants 1-4 emails a day either, as it's slow and takes up inbox space very quickly.
I'm not saying I'm going to stop reading your blog, I enjoy it too much, but I am 99% sure this will make me read it far less often, because it becomes something difficult to do that I will not remember all the time. Having your name go red in the corner of my browser when you update is far more convenient, and I don't really see why you can't continue to do that using the snippet or title feed method that I and others have suggested.
Ultimately, you do not have to explain your buisness decisions to us (your customers). But it might help.
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ash commented about RSS Feeds is Being Removed, On Tuesday March 10th, 2009 07:31:00 AM
Andy, would it be possible for you to syndicate only the title of your posts or the first 50 words? I read many sites that do this, so I assume it's fairly easy to implement.
That way, I can still see when you update conveniently, but will have to go to your site to read the whole post. I wonder if this would enable us all to have our cakes and eat them?
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ash commented about What is the Name of Science of Research, On Monday March 2nd, 2009 04:35:00 AM
This is the problem with PhDs... you are 'meant to' knock one out in 3 years. And that's fine if all your work comes from books. But if you are a (social) scientist, then the whole process can take a lifetime or more.
I was lucky enough to meet Eileen Barker at a conference a few months ago. Here is someone that, at age 70 and retired from teaching, is still in touch with the people she began researching in the 70's, and still collecting data. This is an approach I truely admire.
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ash commented about Go To Internet Café in Morning Travel Tip, On Monday March 2nd, 2009 04:26:00 AM
I remember at school, back in 1998-9, the internet would get noticably slower about 4pm (UK). Our network guy said this was because the USA had woken up and got to work!
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ash commented about Travel Flashlight Tip, On Tuesday February 24th, 2009 07:35:00 AM
very good tip! Most of the 'conventional wisdom' before I went away was to get a small Maglite; since I had one that I use in theatre technician jobs, I took that along. And I lost it, and It's a pile of crap.
I was fortunate, I took a couple of other light sources with me. I had a 'Cyberlite' which is a small key-chain LED torch... Like this one, but you twist the head to activate and so the light stays on when i'm not touching it... I prefer this.
I also took an LED head-lamp... this thing is truely tiny and has an elastic to go round my head like a miner and also a small clip like a clothes pin to clip onto things. This was probably my most useful item, as I can see whilst keeping both hands free. This makes it easier to read, sew, hike etc. in the dark.
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ash commented about AMD versus Intel Computer, On Monday February 16th, 2009 04:18:00 PM
I'd reccommend a Sony VAIO over an HP any day. I have worked with a Fujitsu Siemens and i bought it in september 2006, still works fine, being used at least 5-12 hours a day, sometimes on for 48 hours if i have lots of work to do. This computer has an AMD Turion chip, and I have experienced no problems with it. However, some of my friends have had other Fujitsu Siemens laptops and have had problems... I don't know if I look after it better.
In my experience (one of my jobs is IT support in my university residence of 500 students) Sony Vaio are a brilliant make of laptop. They seem to work, rarely break down and they are shiney. The problem is they are expensive. HP seem to have a lot more problems, especially over an extended life-cycle (after year 2).
I can't comment on the global warranty issue, and I suspect that's what will sway your decision.
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ash commented about Is a Photo of Andy Needed, On Sunday February 8th, 2009 07:08:00 AM
When I first started reading your site, i did find it odd that there were no pictures of you on it.
But over time it sort of made sense, for the reasons you've mentioned. Especially if you are in places like Iraq at times, but anywhere in the poor world... you act and dress hobo, but you've said yourself you make a very good income from your websites... if people know what you look like, you're a rich white guy in a poor or semi-poor country, and you become a target for not just robbery, but ransom and stuff as well.
So it might be nice for us regulars to put a name to a face, and it might help sell the brand, but i wonder at what cost to you and your travel-freedom.
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ash commented about Lonely Planet Magazine, On Tuesday January 20th, 2009 08:08:00 PM
Well i've not seen this magazine around nor seen it advertised here in the UK, but my primary encounters with advertising are posters, so maybe it's been on TV. I'll have a look for it over the next few days, and if I find it I shall read it and review for you.
I heard the BBC were buying Lonely Planet, and my initial response was posative- the BBC have the resources and connections to make these books much more globally available. I don't know when LP brought this in, but when I went to Switzerland in November (I went as a city vacation, but I am cheap) I found you can download books and chapters of books from the website for a small fee.
This seems like a great step forward to me. Firstly, you can get the relevant parts of the book and don't have to carry around the whole heavy thing, and secondly you can store it forever, which is probably useful to someone like you who has had to re-purchase country guides multiple times.
The downside is, if you want to print a section, you probably don't carry a printer.
I suspect they will release an e-zine version soon enough, as this would be sensible for travelers, and even most non-travel magazines offer this facility: I have an Economist subscription, and they give me free access to an online version of the magazine too.
I wonder if there's a parallel with National Geographic here? A group that was initially founded for a small group of pioneers (scientific explorers in their case) going 'mainstream' with magazines, a TV channel etc.
Hopefully they will maintain their cheap-man niche.
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ash commented about Peru Architecture has a Hole, On Monday January 12th, 2009 12:34:00 AM
There's been a fashion in recent years for 'sun tunnels' (also called sun pipe, solartube, sky tube, sky tunnel) in Britain. It's a similar concept, but smaller. In this case, a tube with a shiney inner surface runs from the roof of the house to the ceiling of the room or closet, and has a clear cover in the roof to allow light to enter and bounce down into the room below. Here is an example.
These allow natural light to enter, and often concentrate it by use of mirrors and reflectors (Britain is not that sunny!). They do not, as far as I know, allow ventilation like this shaft does.
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ash commented about Global Warming Needed in Indiana USA, On Friday January 9th, 2009 07:49:00 PM
Global warming theory i think says that certain parts of the world will in fact get colder, because it changes common weather patterns. A warming cycle can produce posative or negative feedback- can make another hot spell, or cause a cooler spell. Wiki.
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ash commented about Bicycles in Guatemala, On Friday January 9th, 2009 07:44:00 PM
Hi, in the UK we call these 'stunt pegs' and they can be bought from £1 a pair ($1.50 or so). they came out of the stunt BMX bike scene I believe, and were used for tricks/stunts.
These boys seem to have a much more sensible use for them!
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ash commented about Mayan Religious Ceremony, On Thursday January 8th, 2009 07:16:00 AM
I do not know what is happening in this picture, but the principle you are describing is interesting to me as a student of religions. It's a process we tend to refer to as 'religious localization', whereby local customs, holidays, festivals and practises make their way into an imported religion. Another example is the Virgin of Guadalupe devotions that are kind of accepted under the umbrella of the Catholic Church.
There's also an opposite process called 'glocalization' whereby these 'new' forms of religion based on religion and indigenous religion interacting become a global phenomenon adopted (and perhaps changed again) by others around the globe. These constant adaptations lead to a myriad of different religions or practises emerging, as groups constantly interact and re-interact, forming and re-forming ideas.
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ash commented about Safest Bags Auto Close Travel Tip, On Wednesday January 7th, 2009 10:22:00 AM
you can buy these in the UK for under £5, often £3 (close to $4.50 at today's rate). However, I've worked for several groups in the past that gave these away free with the logo on them. They are very easy to get as promotional/ corporate gifts, especially from companies that work with young people.
I like to carry one as a 'spare' or 'extra' bag. However, they are usually very thin material, and I think they are more susceptable to 'slash-n-grab' knife/ razor attack than a more expensive daypack that has thicker material and normally a front pocket to take the hit (one reason i like bags with poouches on all sides is because you don't have to put anything in them, but they mean there are 2 or more layers of material to slash through).
I live in a city, so I am conscious of these kinds of travel tips when I am at home going about my buisness. For sure, London you are just as likely to be robbed than Delhi, there is just a better chance of police sympathy.
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ash commented about Ipod Charging in USB Port Travel Tip, On Wednesday January 7th, 2009 10:13:00 AM
This is good advice, Andy. I have a similar device to an Ipod ('creative zen vision M') and the first thing I did when I bought it was buy a mains charger. More than anything else, it's much much quicker to charge this way, and I don't want to use my laptop's precious USB slots for this slow purpose.
If, however, you have lots of items that can all be charged from USB, you can buy a mains plug that instead of having a power chord coming out of it has a couple of USB slots on it. So you can use the same cable, but from the wall socket. Here is an example of a british one (at a silly price) with an in-car version. I suspect any other nation's plug would be half the size (I do not carry british plugs when i travel!)
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ash commented about How to Change Travel Blog Design Easily, On Tuesday January 6th, 2009 09:29:00 PM
just noticed, the 'edge of the screen' problem is only when on the page that shows one post and the comments, not on the main page of the blog with multiple posts. There it resizes automatically.
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ash commented about How to Change Travel Blog Design Easily, On Tuesday January 6th, 2009 09:28:00 PM
I read the blog via a browser-based RSS client, and it shows up fine for me. (I use the 'sage' plugin for Firefox).
One little thing is that I tend to browse with a sidebar open (for sage actually) and your blog page seems to set itself to the size of the monitor overall- so it pushes some stuff off the edge of my screen. It's not a huge deal, as I can toggle it and I tend to read in RSS anyway, but you might want to know. (I use a 15.4" widescreen monitor currently).
The lines between the comments, and the bigger 'post a comment' link are great improvements!
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ash commented about No Need for Nails Roof, On Monday January 5th, 2009 09:32:00 PM
I think laziness tends to be the father of innovation... look at the vacuum cleaner or the snow plough...
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ash commented about How to Change Travel Blog Design Easily, On Monday January 5th, 2009 12:37:00 PM
with the comments, may i suggest you add some kind of break between then all to make it easier on the eyes? something like a slight change in colour of the background or something.
Cheers,
Ash
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ash commented about Guatemala Homemade Incense, On Saturday January 3rd, 2009 11:18:00 AM
This site refers to 'arbol de estoraque' as a type of plant used in production of one type of incense (if i am reading it correct).
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ash commented about ATM Bank Machine Exchange Rate, On Sunday December 28th, 2008 11:39:00 AM
This is a useful post, Andy. I, too, always use ATMs abroad, never currency changers or traveller checks- to me this just means there's one more person in the middle taking a cut.
I was in Geneva in November, and the ATMs there let you select which currency you want your bank to be debited in. So I had a choice to let the ATM charge my bank in Sterling or in Swiss Francs (or any other major currency). The advantage of this was a) the swiss banks who ran the ATMs offered a closer to accurate (less profitable to them) exchange rate and b) my bank didn't get to charge me a fee, because it only ever dealt with my native currency.
They were also rolling this out in most shops/ cafés, so when i paid my bill in Starbucks etc. I was again able to pay by card, in british pounds.
However, I have the option to pay in Francs or other currency, if my bank offered a preferable rate.
I truely think this kind of option is the future, and I dream of a day when this exists everywhere in the world.
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ash commented about Christmas Gift to Travel Blog Readers, On Friday December 26th, 2008 07:05:00 PM
actually, the stuff about comoflage was also really useful. Wearing 'normal' clothes, making the backpacks look old and battered, and making zipper pouches to sew into the inside of trousers were all top tips that I followed. I think they are really useful to people, however long they go for. They helped me in a 2 month trip.
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ash commented about Christmas Gift to Travel Blog Readers, On Friday December 26th, 2008 07:03:00 PM
I think the most useful travel tips are the day-to-day ones... things like, what are the toilets like in this country- is it squat 'n' splash or WC? Which kind of plug do they use, and is it 230V or 110V?
Gear tips are also useful- specifically, the ones about what YOU use and how. For example, I took eylet-screws (screw-eyes) with me so I could makeshift a door locking system with a padlock, and I look long chord instead of a travel washing line, and I took lots of safety pins.
All of these saved me from wasting money on gear, and gave me the mental skills to improvise good solutions to problems on the road.
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ash commented about Guatemala Typicals Worth Selling, On Saturday December 13th, 2008 09:11:00 AM
I remember buying a yak-wool hat in Nepal, thinking 'this is warm, and kind of unique.' Within 2 months of returning I see them on sale in every hawker-stall in London!
Somehow, I missed a buisness oppourtunity here!
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ash commented about Travel Insurance Fine Print, On Thursday December 11th, 2008 08:05:00 AM
yeah, i found out when i came home that my expensive 'anywhere on the planet' insurence was voided as soon as i entered Nepal, because it was on the UK Foreign Office's warning pages. Not sure I'd get insurence again.
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ash commented about The Story of My Life, On Saturday November 22nd, 2008 12:19:00 PM
Please don't become one of the crowd.
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ash commented about Traveler Happiness is the Bed and Bus, On Friday November 21st, 2008 07:55:00 PM
and I agree with you about buses.
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ash commented about Traveler Happiness is the Bed and Bus, On Friday November 21st, 2008 07:54:00 PM
As someone who loves train travel, and regularly travels by train in Europe, I have to say: The Indian trains are better.
they are air-conditioned, the bunks are comfortable to sleep in, the windows are tinted, they seem to be more reliable and they are a hell of a lot cheaper (maybe not relatively, but in actual terms, it is cheaper to get from agra to Gorakhpur (21 hours) than from my home town to london King's Cross (25 minutes).)
European trains may be newer and faster, but they delay more, cost more, serve aweful coffee and they cram you in like an airplane.
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ash commented about Somebody Needs to Warn Wikipedia.org, On Wednesday November 19th, 2008 02:28:00 AM
I think there is a great hypocrisy in the mainstream media outlets. On the one hand they want people to pay for everything from a photo to music to a news article on the internet. On the other hand, they have no problem taking things from the internet without paying to use in profitable materials.
I have had bits of my blogs and diaries published without ever being asked. I see entire TV shows made up of clips from Youtube. The tabloids use pictures from internet sites or of internet sites for their gossip collumns. Worst, I think, is the music industry who rely upon the constant goodwill of young, vulnerable musicians uploading their own music to the internet. The music companies listen, like, and then offer the band a bad record deal, and then they claim to own the copyright to someone else's work.
I think my generation and the younger generations do not want to support such a corrupt system. I do not see why I should enrich someone else when I use their image in a non-profit venture, yet they will not enrich me if they use my work in a highly profitable venture. Many people have profited from the internet, many choose not to, including it's inventor.
To me, I think the lines are clear. If I am using something that will create profit for me, I will pay for it or ask permission to use it. If I am using it for my personal education or enjoyment, I do not think I should have to.
(Interestingly, Bill Gates mentioned in the past having a clear policy of tolerating piracy; Microsoft has the power to deal a big blow to piracy, but chooses to tolerate it because it helps their buisness expand!)
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ash commented about Blog is the Wrong Word, On Tuesday November 11th, 2008 08:02:00 PM
I don't like the word Blog. I've been writing at Open Diary since 2001, on and off, and to me the word 'diary' still explains the process better than 'blog.' It is simply an unedited jumble, like a paper diary, except others can read it.
I have a blogger blog too, which is the one my login here links to, and I still can't figure out how I'm meant to write. Most of the stuff on Blogger and Typepad seems to me to be edited and written as if just pages or articles on a website, and that feels alien to me. I don't get 'blogging', I get 'writing a diary'.
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ash commented about America Does Have an Economic Problem, On Saturday November 1st, 2008 09:55:00 PM
Note in the early pictures the expiry date printed on the currency. This is a desperate attempt at clawing back value: if people forget to change their currency for newer currency in time, it becomes obsolete, which in a tiny wat helps the economy. However, Zimbabwe is corrupt, and reports show the expiry dates are widely ignored.
Comment About America Does Have an Economic Problem
ash commented about Daypack Versus Traveler Pack Priorities, On Tuesday October 28th, 2008 03:34:00 AM
I am still very happy with the daypack i bought in late 2005. I use the bag almost daily, not just when I travelled or go on trips. For 2 months it was my daypack. Since then it has also been my work bag, college bag, computer bag, camping bag...
There are many things I hate about the big bag, but for me this daypack is close to perfect. I made a slight modification to it to fit a camel pack when I climbed Ben Nevis. (I do not like camel packs, and will not use again).
The Cotinga Pack V2 here with the bright orange is almost the same as the design i have (but different colours). It is the one with the 3 pockets and the mesh side pockets for water bottles. Interesting they advertise it as for 'commuting, studies and travel'- about what i've used it for.
NOTE: I paid half that price for mine in a sale.
Comment About Daypack Versus Traveler Pack Priorities
ash commented about Cookie Cutter Websites are Destroying Mine, On Friday October 24th, 2008 03:53:00 AM
Three cheers for you! I hate CMS with a passion.
I tried to create a website with a friend of mine earlier this year, and he insisted on using a CMS package. We thought, this will make life easier, we can add more interactivity easier... was one of the most backward and illogical ways of making a site I've ever seen. It wouldn't allow you to create styles/ themes unless you used their software- you couldn't code it then patch it in. After a week of trying to use their software I left the project.
It truely frustrates me when something is bad, but it frustrates me more when i know i can make something better. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to do it, and the 'time-saving' CMS did not help at all!
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ash commented about I Wished to Live Deliberately, On Friday October 17th, 2008 10:35:00 AM
I spent hours in Pokhara scouring the bookshops for this book. I was unsuccessful.
I still haven't read it, but this quotation was the one that made me want to. It features in the film Dead Poets' Society.
Comment About I Wished to Live Deliberately
ash commented about I Need a Video How to Test Hotel Electricity, On Monday October 13th, 2008 07:16:00 PM
most of the UK circuit breakers are a plug with a socket in it (similar to a shape-change adapter for travel) so that you can simply put it between the hotel socket and the plug of your appliance or extension chord.
This means you don't have to worry about wiring it up, and it can be used to protect any of your toys. However, if you wired it into your extension chord/ multi-socket block then I suppose it has the same usefulness, and possibly slightly smaller...
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ash commented about I Need a Video How to Test Hotel Electricity, On Monday October 13th, 2008 12:20:00 PM
NOTE: I am not an electrician!
Comment About I Need a Video How to Test Hotel Electricity
ash commented about I Need a Video How to Test Hotel Electricity, On Monday October 13th, 2008 12:16:00 PM
Try to see if you can get a Residual Current Device (Wiki). We use these in britain to protect certain equipment. It will automatically break the circuit if it detects irregularities in the current, which protects your equipment and saves the hassle of changing the fuse (all UK appliances have a fuse inside the plug as another line of defence).
I believe, I am not sure, that other countries do not put fuses in the plug of devices.
This RCD will only protect from these kinds of problems, however. They are cheap (<£10 UK and I suspect cheaper in most countries if availible) and light weight.
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ash commented about Where to Go and What to Do, On Saturday October 11th, 2008 08:02:00 AM
I still think this is more a market correction than a crisis. The real bad news was unchecked, unrealistic patterns of growth- this priced so many people out of the market.
There will be a period where it's worse before it gets better, where banks are too tetchy to lend money, but eventually it will stabilise and it should be better for most of us.
Comment About Where to Go and What to Do
ash commented about Map a Budget Around the World, On Monday October 6th, 2008 02:16:00 AM
Thanks for doing these maps Andy, they are consistently among the best travel resources about!
Also, i've noticed you've started putting links to relevant information at the bottom of posts, this is also a great and useful idea!
Comment About Map a Budget Around the World
ash commented about PHP Developers from India, On Monday October 6th, 2008 02:10:00 AM
definately many things can be done quicker in programs rather than typing out the code- I have no problem with taking a pragmatic approach where it works. I just find it funny that someone could pay someone to do something and ultimately what they're doing is undoing the other employee's work.
But I wasn't paying me, so not my problem. I refused to work for him again as the dynamic was far too frustrating.
Comment About PHP Developers from India
ash commented about PHP Developers from India, On Sunday October 5th, 2008 07:27:00 AM
I once worked for an Indian student studying electronic engineering over here. I was making a website for him, he had me in charge of the project overall, and an Indian guy who worked for his father contributing aspects of the site.
The indian worker could not comprehend me working in raw code, and everytime he returned the files to me with his bits added in, he'd manage to completely screw up the code. I believe he was using some program or other to edit the pages, and this was ripping apart my codes.
But you're absolutely right about not being innovative. Repeatedly the worker in india would claim somethign was impossible, and repeatedly I could find ways to make it happen. Probably because I knew how to manipulate codes to do new things.
The interesting thing here is that it was an Indian working for an Indian- they both communicated in Hindi, but still couldn't agree!
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ash commented about Japanese Comic Book Girls are R-Rated, On Thursday October 2nd, 2008 12:52:00 PM
I believe Japanese comic-pornography is normally called 'hentai' in the west (see wiki ). I remember one of my japanese friends telling me once that it is (used to be?) illegal to show the male phallus in Japan, so in comic pornography there tend to be tentacled monsters instead...
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ash commented about Voted Best Commercial in Europe, On Saturday September 6th, 2008 02:43:00 AM
That's fantastic!!
Comment About Voted Best Commercial in Europe
ash commented about The Backpack a Thieves Paradise, On Saturday August 30th, 2008 01:44:00 PM
I don't want to lose it, but it is not the end of the world. I think the majority of places on the planet I can buy a towel or blanket, and to me a guidebook is a useful but non-essential luxury. I really don't think you need it, but it is nice to have.
I will not die if someone steals my blanket because I have an emergency space-blanket. This cheap, small, light item has saved my health before, and I think it could one day save my life.
Comment About The Backpack a Thieves Paradise
ash commented about The Backpack a Thieves Paradise, On Saturday August 30th, 2008 01:55:00 AM
See, this is very similar to my bag. I think I have shown you photos of the extra top flap I attacked to lock it.
The rest of the pockets in my opinion do not need to be locked. The solution is this, only use those pockets for things that you do not mind to lose.
My backpack has the top pocket and 2 long side pockets. the top pocket would either house my 'flip flops' (200 rupees) or a guidebook, and the side pockets would have a blanket in one (cheap, possibly from an airplane) and a towel in the other. I do not believe I will cry if someone steals any of these items, thus the pockets remain useful. You can replace these items almost anywhere on the planet.
I think it is not just the backpack that is at fault, it is how people pack it.
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ash commented about Who to Vote For President of the USA, On Thursday August 28th, 2008 04:14:00 AM
It's a curious election to observe.
On the face of it, you have 2 of the best candidates standing in my lifetime, so either way is better than before.
If we could trust both candidates equally to do exactly what they say they will, my vote would be with Obama if I was a USA citizen. But I think McCain is better than Kerry or Bush too.
Comment About Who to Vote For President of the USA
ash commented about People Love to Spend Money, On Monday August 18th, 2008 11:51:00 AM
You have a reason to make money last: if you spend it all too quick, you will not be able to continue to travel until you can earn some more. Most people are on a limited time-span trip. They may be going for 2 weeks or 2 months or a year... but they know it is a break from the norm.
If you work 50 weeks a year you may as well squandor your money on your 2 weeks off, otherwise you don't feel you are working FOR anything. For many people, work is a way to fund work... They will spend all their money on a house to work from, suits to work in, a laptop to work on, a fast car to get them to work quicker...
Doesn't make sense to me, but i can see why this lifestyle might make you want to spend your money on your 'holiday' or 'sabbatical'...
Comment About People Love to Spend Money
ash commented about Wireless Landline Telephone, On Thursday August 14th, 2008 05:32:00 AM
I've noticed this kind of thing too. These countries are begiing their development journey at a time when better technology is cheaper than when our countries began ours.
examples:
1) if I started a buisness today and bought office space, I would install wireless network not bother with wires.
2) If London today didn't have an underground railway it would be prohibitively expensive to start building one. It is best to build these before your country develops Health and Safety laws.....
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ash commented about TSA Recognized Baggage Locks, On Wednesday August 13th, 2008 11:35:00 AM
I use code locks so I don't lose the key, and my philosophy is if they cut it off they cut it off. I will buy another one.
Cable Ties are a good idea, except that the article you linked to is wrong about one thing: you CAN open a cable tie and re-attach it, all you need is a pin. When I was a kid I used to collect loads of used cable ties and open them so i could re-use.
So for anyone with the time or inclination to try and pick the lock as the article suggests, you can also pick the cable tie in about 5 seconds, as long as noone is around watching... then re-attach it afterwards.
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ash commented about Too Clever to Work, On Sunday August 10th, 2008 02:57:00 AM
i recently bought a little bluetooth dongle for my laptop. I was very excited, plugged it in, set it up, linked it to my cell phone...
...now what?
when will I ever need to send things from my phone to the computer? If I want to put data on it, it has a memory card i can remove... this is far quicker.
Useless product... I guess I was seduced by the shiney.
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ash commented about Make Your Travel Backpack Lockable Tip, On Friday August 8th, 2008 05:30:00 AM
this is a great tip. my small bag was not lockable, my solution was to tie together the pull-chords attached to the zip sliders in many knots. Again, no match for a knife or even someone with a few minutes, but at least stops theft while the bag is on my back unless they slash it.
Annoyingly, I had a couple cable ties and some duck tape with me, so I could have done this if I had thought to!
Comment About Make Your Travel Backpack Lockable Tip
ash commented about The Pendulum of Racism Swings, On Saturday July 26th, 2008 01:57:00 AM
I agree with you that the US president is the president of the US! But I think it helps to be popular in the rest of the world too.
Mr. Bush, whatever his good and bad points, has alienated most of his nation's allies, especially in Europe, less so in the UK where I am ffrom. I think for a nation so important in global politics, economics etc. as the USA, it helps if the people of the world like or respect the president. Not essential, but helps, especially in matters of global negotiation and foreign policy.
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ash commented about Squeeze it all in Tourist, On Sunday July 20th, 2008 11:56:00 AM
I agree with you about not teaching a child this!
i found the most interesting thing to do is to ask the locals what they think is worth seeing. If they don't think it's that interesting, why will I?
Comment About Squeeze it all in Tourist
ash commented about Airplane E-Tickets Need a Printer, On Thursday July 10th, 2008 06:03:00 AM
Andy, you might find this useful:
http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm
Comment About Airplane E-Tickets Need a Printer
ash commented about Sandals versus Shoes for Travel, On Thursday July 10th, 2008 05:58:00 AM
I 100% agree. I wear sandals whenever the weather permits me to in England, and took a pair travelling too. In fact, I've had this pair for about 5 years and use them maybe 5-6 months a year. they are ones with a cclip to hold them on though, as I find the kind you show here too uncomfortable for anything other than around the house, it grates between my toes.
I took worn-in walking boots too for when I was trekking.
I love reeboks, I used to wear black ones to school for most of my childhood.
Comment About Sandals versus Shoes for Travel
ash commented about Travel Versus Mountain Backpack, On Sunday July 6th, 2008 02:44:00 AM
i like outside pockets, but I only use them for not-worth-slealing items. A towel or blanket or bottle of water. If someone steals these, I am unlikely to cry.
Comment About Travel Versus Mountain Backpack
ash commented about Where are the Broad Bean Instructions, On Sunday June 29th, 2008 09:48:00 AM
I've had boiled broad beans, and you can eat the husk then, so I assume there is nothing particularly bad about it. I've also seen particularly zealous people eat raw...
I am not a fan of beans and lentils as a rule, I find them revolting, so I am no expert. But I have definately eaten the husk of brad bean when boiled from fresh.
you are correct that they are not a popular food. I know lots of old folk who grow their own... noone under 50.
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ash commented about No Batteries No Photos, On Tuesday June 24th, 2008 01:15:00 PM
I personally think AA batteries are the worst camera batteries in the world. I find they go flat too quickly, even rechargable ones.
My camera takes a rechargable lithium-ion battery, and I bought a second one for about the same price as my AA battery charger. Lasts much longer. It is not universal, but I think better value. But I have few gadgets that use AA batteries apart from my torch.
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ash commented about Best Value Seat on the Plane, On Tuesday June 24th, 2008 01:11:00 PM
one of the best conversations I've ever had at an airport was the Checkin with 'Spice Jet' from Goa, India to Delhi, India.
'Did you reserve seats, sir?'
'No, I booked online and there was no option'
'Ah yes. Well, you are very tall and fat, so we will put you next to the escape door where there is more space'
'Awesome!'
I think that is the first time I could thank someone for calling me fat!
Comment About Best Value Seat on the Plane
ash commented about Collapsible Water Bottle, On Wednesday June 18th, 2008 08:57:00 PM
I have one of those camel pack things, which I bought for a mountain climb, and they are aweful. This looks the same, except it has a lid where the tube would screw on.
The camel pack makes water taste worse than swimming pool water, and is a nightmare to clean. It also involves sucking on a tube to get water, which is more effort and can actually leave you breathless. Useless on a mountain.
This looks too similar and easy to rip or puncture. My caution would be to not buy!
Comment About Collapsible Water Bottle
ash commented about Captive Eye Carabiner, On Monday June 16th, 2008 12:01:00 PM
if you're planning to use two of these bags at a time, one for front and back, you could maybe use the carabiners to link the back and front pack together like a poncho or bib?
Probably vastly uncomfortable and impractical, but that's what popped into my head.
Comment About Captive Eye Carabiner
ash commented about Apple Peeler, On Monday June 16th, 2008 11:51:00 AM
why would you peel an apple?
Comment About Apple Peeler
ash commented about Buying Backpack Parts from the USA, On Friday June 13th, 2008 02:48:00 PM
one thing I wanted to find in India/Nepal was a good tailor. I really wanted to get a suit made, because it is so expensive in UK. However, I could not find anyone of good quality. You just have to inspect their other work... terrible!
Comment About Buying Backpack Parts from the USA
ash commented about Jamaica Smuggler Backpack, On Saturday June 7th, 2008 12:19:00 PM
i am constaantly wondering about a solution for the person who is travelling long-term but near mountains. For me, I prefer mountains to beaches, so I need a bag that is comfortable to wear on my bag for 15-20 miles a day on rough terrain.
However, if you're finding mountains whilst long-term travelling, not just making one-off trips (like I am at the moment) then you are going to spend long times on the train, bus and sometimes planes or boats.
The question is, do you need to compromise, and have a bag that is the worst of both worlds, or carry two bags? Neither is practical.
For me, i know if my travel dreams ever become more than dreams, I will need a bag that does both scenarios. I guess I need a mountain bag that has better security and won't get damaged by careless airport staff. One thing I truely hate is bags on wheels. If I can't carry a bag on my back, I need to dump some of the contents.
Comment About Jamaica Smuggler Backpack
ash commented about Customizing My Camera Computer Bag, On Thursday June 5th, 2008 12:38:00 PM
I think the worst travel tip I ever read was about camera bags/ camera straps. The person was telling people to sew a metal guitar string into the strap so that the strap wouldn't break when someone runs past to grap the camera...
This seems like the perfect way to slit your throat.
Similarly, I remember a website selling handgun lanyards supposedly so strong the would hold your whole weight so you could pretend to be James Bond hanging on a cliff...
What if the lanyard gets caught in machinary or on the back of a car? you're dead.
I know this isn't completely related, but it reminded me...
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ash commented about Explain Your Travel Backpack, On Monday May 26th, 2008 10:21:00 PM
hope that worked! will be interested to see what others put!
Comment About Explain Your Travel Backpack
ash commented about Great Backpack Ideas, On Tuesday May 20th, 2008 11:04:00 AM
I like this ability to incorporate webbing 'modules' into the design: very neat and adaptable. If you could also make the strap/ harness adaptable, perhaps using the same kind of technology? I personally do not like the single-strap backpacks, i think they are uncomfortable.
One thing I love about my smaller backpack is that it has a detachable chest and/or waist strap, which is useful when I'm carrying a LOT of weight over longer distances. Another essential thing for me in a pack is water bottle bits on each side (for balance) that do not involve opening the pack (quickly availible).
Comment About Great Backpack Ideas
ash commented about Poison or Burning Water Borne Bugs, On Wednesday May 14th, 2008 06:38:00 AM
a grek woman told me that if you eat a wwhole clove of raw garlic, it will kill parasitic worms in your digestive system. Don't know if it's true.
not sure citric acid is strong enough.
Comment About Poison or Burning Water Borne Bugs
ash commented about Tighten the Belt of get the Noose, On Monday May 12th, 2008 06:20:00 AM
I agree with you. I have found it hard to believe the price of gas in the US the last few years was so low. Even in India gas was around $2 a litre (and this was the locals talking, i never bought any). In the Uk it's been fluctuating between $2-4 the last few years (partly because of taxes) yet everyone was saying it was so cheap in the US. That had to break.
And we know that with China sucking up such huge amounts of materials, the price is going to go up for all of us: supply is lower than demand.
Comment About Tighten the Belt of get the Noose
ash commented about Off Focus Off Topic Reading Skills, On Monday May 12th, 2008 06:15:00 AM
I think I tend to read a whole blog post on here, but then choose which theme I want to comment on, as some posts contain multiple ideas, and I might not be interested in all of them. I also skip posts that I don't think are interesting to me. But if I read a post, I tend to read all of it.
This is not true of News sites, however, especially as I am normally not that interested in what a journalist has to say. I want the facts from the news, not the journalistic analysis, which is usually bunkum.
I was taught many years ago that comments on blogs should be significantly shorter than the post they are commenting on, and I TRY to do this (and I know I fail, and I apologise!)
Comment About Off Focus Off Topic Reading Skills
ash commented about Learning Spanish is Not 1 or 0, On Thursday May 8th, 2008 07:49:00 AM
This is very true. This year two of my friends and collegues speak german fluently. They are both reluctant to teach me 'officially' but i am constantly asking them 'what does this word mean' 'how do I pronounce this' and they are constantly helping me. Sometimes I just try new phrases, and they will correct my pronunciation even when I don't ask.
My German vocabulary has doubled or tripled in a few months. My next task is to go live in Germany.
Comment About Learning Spanish is Not 1 or 0
ash commented about Guatemala I Want to Show You, On Wednesday May 7th, 2008 07:31:00 AM
That is VERY cool.
Comment About Guatemala I Want to Show You
ash commented about Drug Dealers Using Their Drug, On Saturday May 3rd, 2008 08:53:00 AM
I am not claiming to be poor, nor am I claiming that citizens of my country or yours are poor, this is obviously not the case.
My point is that it is the system of world trade that keeps countries like Cuba and Venezuala in such a poor state.
In Cuba's case, the only superpower in the world, and neighbour, the USA rrefused to allow trade with Cuba. You do not need to be a genius to work out how this could completely destroy a nation's economy. It would be much easier and cheaper to import and export goods via USA. I do not understand why a difference in ideology with the man at the top would cause a country to try and starve out a whole island of people. This is just cruel.
It is also the case that the big rich countries are the ones buying lots of the cocaine. If there was not the demand, there would not be the supply. Our governments know about the drugs trafficking, and if they wanted to the could stop it. For all their talk of a 'war on drugs' they are actually allowing this trade to go on. Why? because it benefits our economies.
So long as arrible land is being used to grow cash crops- including cocaine- these countriees need to import their food from us. We can pay them as little as we like for goods, because we know they need every penny and will not refuse us buisness- and if they do, then who else will buy from them?
So I'm not denying that Castro and Chavez are in charge of god-aweful places to live. I'm simply saying it is nowhere near as simple as you like to paint the picture. Chavez and Castro bad, Bush and Blair good. It just doesn't work that way- all these men are culpable. You say the USA government is for and by the people. They are for and by the USA people, and that isn't good enough in the contemporary world, where you live and trade globally.
I'm also not saying that the war on Iraq was a bad thing. Saddam Hussain was a murdering nut case, and far worse a man than blair or bush (or castro or chavez), and I am glad he is not in power. I do, however, object to 1) my country lying to me about their motives- I vote for the government, and I expect them to behave transparently. If they had said to me 'we're going in to remove a dictator' I'd have praised them for their compassion. 2) I object to the poor tactical decisions made,, that have ended up causing loss of life and a country that is just as unstable as before. Now the terrorists have more power in Iraq, and outside of the zones controlled by our boys, life has not gotten better for the Iraqis. That kind of blunder should not happen when we have the best military forces in the world.
I do not and have never proposed anarchy. I do, however, promote the kind of socialism that we have in modern, western european countries,, including in Britain. Thanks to McCarthy and lenin, I know that the word socialism causes many people to think of collumns of russian tanks advancing through the world. But really, it's just this: the economic praxis of capitalism, with some of the social ethics of communism mixed into it. It's capitalism with a human heart. I am not a communist, and I am certainly not an anarchist.
I do not think our elected leaders will be remembered as those who got rid of Hitler and Pol Pot. Partly because our countries did nothing to stop Pol Pot's rise to power, they were too busy next door in Korea trying to keep the commies out. Similarly, if we are so concerned about tyrants, why the hell is Mugabe still alive? I'd kill him myself if I had a chance.
Comment About Drug Dealers Using Their Drug
ash commented about Drug Dealers Using Their Drug, On Saturday May 3rd, 2008 03:58:00 AM
I'd pay more to see Mr. Bush assasinated. He is far more dangerous, and responsible for far more poor people staying poor and being abused than Chavvez or Castro.
But as always, it is not one man's fault really. Not just George, but most of the rich countries of the world from Europe to China.
Comment About Drug Dealers Using Their Drug
ash commented about Thanks for Educational Emails, On Friday May 2nd, 2008 09:19:00 AM
I just re-posted it on Facebook with the warning that I will block all people from emailing me if they send me junk. (I also linked back here).
So yeah, they can sue me too.
Comment About Thanks for Educational Emails
ash commented about Thanks for Educational Emails, On Friday May 2nd, 2008 08:35:00 AM
:o)
On the upside, the people who spend all day reading, forwarding and worrying about these emails are reading, forwarding and worrying about emails rather than having sex. So maybe, just maybe, they're removing themselves from the gene pool.
I dream of a future where my children can grow up without any spam. ANY.
Comment About Thanks for Educational Emails
ash commented about Lab Test Found Entamoeba Coli, On Wednesday April 30th, 2008 04:38:00 AM
is this the result of badly prepared food? I've heard of E.Coli as a kind of food poisoning, but am pretty ignorant of it!
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ash commented about Leaky Coaxial Cable Wireless WIFI Internet Access, On Monday April 28th, 2008 07:23:00 PM
clever. This is exploiting a natural property of all wire: it 'leaks'. For example, if you get a powered speaker, and attach a very long, badly insulated speaker cable into it, it will probably recieve the radio/ passing taxi communications. Or if you run many cables with different uses through the same trunk, you might get cross-over interference. For sure, a pain in the backside in the theatre... but has one common use:
Induction Loops for Hearing Aid devices. people with a hearing aid need to hear the church sermon or the lecture so they turn their hearing ait to 'T' and it will tune into the loop frequency.
These work by running a 'loop' of copper cable around the room. because the cable 'leaks' signal, it functions like a small scale local broadcast antenna. higher quality loops use coax cable.
this is a clever utilisation of a normally annoying feature of cables.
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ash commented about Sign Up for Hobo Name Now, On Friday April 25th, 2008 12:38:00 PM
i registered as Ash... but i can't find where i make/ change a profile?
Comment About Sign Up for Hobo Name Now
ash commented about Photos of Volcanoes Orange Peeler Guatemala, On Friday April 11th, 2008 04:54:00 PM
I thought it was funny your comment about people not talking any more. This is very true! It's very strange if someone talks on the bus or tube/metro in london... maybe it always was, but it's easy to blame the ear-pod machines.
When I travelled, I took a personal CD player with me, and my friend took a pod-style mp3 player. The only time we made use of them was on the planes. There were many times we wanted to listen to music, but also wanted to talk. We tried to find some small speakers to jack in so we could create background noise, hear music without being antisocial. We even tried using doors, a guitar's soundboard etc. to amplify the noise from the headphones (a futile project).
The only time we found a use for these was in the bar/ resteraunt/ lounge of the place we stayed in Palolem, where they would let people jack their music players into the sound system, and some of the other guests did this as well.
I suppose perhaps we were odd in actually wanting to talk to each other still after living in the same space for 5 weeks, but using these things with headphones just seems antisocial to me.
But I do use in London, hehe
Comment About Photos of Volcanoes Orange Peeler Guatemala
ash commented about Waiting on Windows Explorer, On Thursday April 10th, 2008 09:49:00 AM
I normally only see the flashlight if I've clicked on a shortcut to an item I've moved since I made the shortcut. Windows Explorer then searches all files to find out if it's somewhere else or just deleted.
Which, I believe, means that windows' previous search-index has proven to be out of date, so it builds a new one. Re-searches the whole hard disk, and builds up a new index for you.
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ash commented about Hotel Fan in Eyes Travel Tip, On Thursday April 3rd, 2008 03:20:00 PM
why not move the bed 90degrees so that your head is under the fan?
Comment About Hotel Fan in Eyes Travel Tip
ash commented about Three Days to Adjust to New City, On Sunday March 30th, 2008 04:48:00 PM
My first time going into a new city on my own i had a miniature break-down. Everything felt too unfamiliar, and I decided to book a flight home for 10 days later. After a few days, I was more than happy in the city, and would quite happily have stayed longer or moved around more.
I wish I'd read this before I got there!
Comment About Three Days to Adjust to New City
ash commented about Number One Problem With Photos, On Friday March 21st, 2008 02:12:00 PM
I found this a pain the backside too when Travelling. I uploaded mini versions of the pictures to my webspace, and linked to the file index from my blog. To write code imbedding the pictures in a page with captions would have meant spending too many hours on the internet when I wanted to be travelling and seeing things.
I don't have an answer. The sites like FlickR where you can 'tag' things seems like it might offer a quicker solution, but until you can upload a similar peice of software to your own webspace, I don't think it is useful. FlickR will not help you make money, it will help some nerd make money from you.
Comment About Number One Problem With Photos
ash commented about Saving Money to Escape, On Thursday March 13th, 2008 01:22:00 PM
how do you take a holiday or vacation? I think of a Holiday as a break from the normal flow of life... for me that can include traveling some palce unfamiliar. But if you travel everyday, how do you make a holiday?
I am saying, when you figure out what a holiday is for you, perhaps you need one... I normally know I need a holiday when I start to think 'I hate these people' every time I leave my front door...
Comment About Saving Money to Escape
ash commented about Six Dollar Gas in USA with YouTube Girl, On Saturday March 8th, 2008 10:33:00 AM
if we used GM crops to grow the necessary vegetation for bio-fuels, we would probably be fine. People are too afraid to eat this stuff, but are they too scared to let their car eat it? We can make crops stronger and yeild more of what we need. This means that we do not have to rely on land that is traditionally seen as arrable, nor on traditional crop yeild averages. The USA is a huge, under-populated country. I do believe you can grow enough fuel and food to sustain your people, and have enough to sell to your friends in Europe.
In Europe, we probably don't have enough space to grow bio-fuels and food. But lets all remember that we rely on imports daily. We live on a planet not in a country. And this planet is capable of sustaining our population easily, if only people agree with each other.
And I like Hugo Chavez and the Castro boys. They are not a threat to our planet, and they are trying to do the best for their people.
Comment About Six Dollar Gas in USA with YouTube Girl
ash commented about Top History Travel Destinations, On Friday February 29th, 2008 11:17:00 AM
excellent map andy, thanks
Comment About Top History Travel Destinations
ash commented about Euro versus Dollar, On Wednesday February 27th, 2008 12:52:00 PM
I think minimum wage is not a useful indicator of actual earnings in the UK, because even many unqualified 16 year olds earn more than minimum wage . In my gap year, I was earning £10 an hour, or £19,500 a year (that's about $39,000). At the moment, I earn £7.38 an hour for one job, and about £8.50 for the other (but I work very few hours because i'm a student). very few employers pay minimum wage unless you are an apprentice. It is the minimum, not the average.
I argue that staple products can therefore cost more because we earn more. (They also include 17.5% VAT)
The other thing to consider is that most countries in Europe are old or ancient, and also small. This means that land prices are very very expensive. Unfortunately, London has been occupied at least since the Roman occupation of Britain. Fortunately, it had a nice big fire in 1666 that destroyed most of the older buildings. But London buildings do tend to date from centuries past, meaning they are all no more than 3 floors high. If you could build a new capital city today, you could build everything higher, in more sensible lay-outs for modern transport etc. and maybe the cost of land would be lower. The same is true of most urban areas in Europe- everything is old, there's nowhere to build, so costs are artificially high.
In the USA, you have huge amounts of space, a small (compared to land size) population, and don't have thousands of years of buildings to clear out of the way.
And land price is one of the major things that effects inflation and the cost of goods within a country.
Comment About Euro versus Dollar
ash commented about Euro versus Dollar, On Wednesday February 27th, 2008 06:13:00 AM
The US Dollar is still the base-currency of most of the planet, including Europe, Japan and Britain. Although many countris also keep reserves of the Euro, Pound and Yen, they will have more in dollars.
I do believee if I was earning an English wage and living in India, and you were earning a USA wage for the same job and living in India then I would be better off. This is because English people are paid more because English everything costs an obscene amount, and because the pound is worth more than the dollar. But that is the only context in which is makes a diffference.
A US wage in the USA is fine. a British wage in Britain will get you less, this is why rich Brits can afford second homes in other countries... because they cost a fraction of the price of their own home.
Also theres the tax. We do pay much higher tax. But then we get a lot more back too. I would be better off taking my money to USA and living there. Until I get ill. Then I'd be broke. I wish every country had free health care for all. I understand why a huge and poor country like India cannot. I still cannot understand why USA does not... Every American I meet is such a warm person who cares about others... it seems an ideal culture to be implimenting free health care.
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ash commented about Barefoot Hobo Budget, On Saturday February 23rd, 2008 07:59:00 PM
one thing to consider is using University or college residences in the summer vacation. They often turn them into bed and breakfast or hotels, and most will have internet in them because the students demand it when they are there.
In my residence, it would be £18 a night without the breakfast, but with access to bathroom and a kitchen, and you'd get good wi-fi, linen and so on. I do not know, but i believe ours is one of the more expensive. Elsewhere in UK or Europe may be much cheaper to look at college residences.
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ash commented about Can I Blog about Cuba, On Saturday February 23rd, 2008 07:41:00 PM
The main reason I do not have money is because I am a full-time student at college. So I don't think I would have much money in any country, unless perhaps they give you a university education for free and money to live.
I live in college residences, and have 2 jobs, but the residence is in the most expensive part of London. I live in bank credit.
This summer, I will be working full time here, and will probably make quite a lot of money. But I worked out, probably not enough money to have $1400 spare after paying off the bank and saving some for my final year.
But yeah, as a student I'm not a good case-study for economics!
Comment About Can I Blog about Cuba
ash commented about Can I Blog about Cuba, On Saturday February 23rd, 2008 12:00:00 PM
I reccommend you go. I really want to go myself, but it is £700 to fly direct from UK to Havana, and the USA will not allow me to travel from Florida to Cuba. I do not have £700 ($1400 US)
Suffice it to say, I do not approve of the USA stance toward Cuba at all. But I am interested in what you'd make of Cuba, regardless of your political stance. I suspect I'll learn something :o)
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ash commented about Why to Never Overstay Your Visas, On Thursday February 14th, 2008 08:50:00 AM
I find all this vaguely worrying. Especially since the blub in my passport 'requests and requires' in the name of the Queen, that I be permitted entry 'without let or hinerance'... hmmm
It's a dark time when the government I elect to serve me starts requiring me to do things for them... Someone needs to remind them we're in charge of them, not the other way!
Comment About Why to Never Overstay Your Visas
ash commented about Room 504 Alarm Clock Drunk, On Wednesday February 6th, 2008 01:13:00 PM
This happens all the time in my colleege halls of residence. Since I work here, Security or the Managers will enter a room and turn off any noisy thing if noone answers the door.
If there's a naked girl in there, we have to call a female manager to go in, and that is a pain in the arse.
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ash commented about Savior of Planet Earth, On Monday February 4th, 2008 07:31:00 AM
Aha! I've seen the install-in-a-building one of these... apparently very popular with librarians and church pastors... but I didn't know they'd gone portable!
Shame it says it doesn't block 3G though... Most phones in the UK come with 3G as standard :o(
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ash commented about Maybe I go Into Hiding, On Sunday February 3rd, 2008 09:55:00 PM
They say that if you meet the Buddha on the road you should kill him. The Buddha you meet is not the Buddha, but simply you applying your desires and longings onto a person. If you make this person your role model, you will be disappointed when you realise he is not the Buddha.
I wonder if the same is true about paradise.
First I thought, if I find paradise, don't tell anyone! This, I think, is the message of the film The Beach. Palolem Beach was a paradise once. Now it is a theme park. Any place that re-creates itself for tourists has become a package deal. 'Adventure without risk is Disneyland' (Douglas Coupland). If you can buy a mug with the place name on it, you ain't in paradise.
Now I'm thinking, if you find paradise on the road, hightail out of there. If you go into paradise you'll ruin it.
I hope this makes sense...
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ash commented about Giving Back, On Tuesday January 29th, 2008 10:46:00 PM
This is a very good argument for raising taxes.
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ash commented about Air Conditioning Sickness, On Tuesday January 29th, 2008 03:23:00 AM
I hate air conditioning. For sure, it is nice not to sweat, however, it dries the air so much that my throat dries uup. When I worked in an air conditioned factory I had to drink a lot more water, and I felt more tired inside.
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ash commented about Manila Mabini Street Hotel, On Sunday January 20th, 2008 09:59:00 AM
I wonder if we could convince every traveler and tourist on the planet to simply walk out of a hotel/ shop/ resteraunt when they quote a silly too-high price. If it is too high to even bother to haggle, just walk out and leave.
Perhaps then, people would realise that their bullshit is losing them customers! Imagine a world where everyone is honest and helpful?
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ash commented about Are There Pyramids in Thailand, On Monday January 14th, 2008 11:00:00 PM
I believe you have probably seen Swayambhunath on the edge of Kathmandu city. Again, a big gold thing on top of a mound.
This is typical of Buddhist stupa design in south asia. A big mound with a thing on top.
Many religions use tall things in this way... churches have a steeple, Hindu temples also have a sort of pyramid-tower part, the Muslims have minarets, the ancient Celts used standing stones, Babylon had the Ziggurats and mountains are always seen as holy places in early cultures...
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ash commented about Thank God for Travel, On Friday January 4th, 2008 06:37:00 AM
It's bad enough in Britain! The amount of background info they give about each candidate, anyone would think we had to vote aswell!
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ash commented about Around the World Trip Planning Map, On Thursday January 3rd, 2008 11:05:00 AM
Funny, I've been doing this the last few days.
At the end of the summer, I will have 2-3 weeks where I could go on a holiday somewhere. I was trying to decide all the places i'm interested in, that I can afford, and that aren't next door to other places I'm interested in.
No sense going to Mediterranean Europe, because I'm interested in all of it, and it makes sense to do it all at once. Same with Indo-China, same with South America.
So I need to go someplace small enough to see a lot of in 3 weeks. I'm thinking either Moscow or Iceland. Neither is next door to some other cool place for me.
Comment About Around the World Trip Planning Map
ash commented about Rodney Liwanag LAB Lightweight Adventure Backpack, On Wednesday December 26th, 2007 08:17:00 AM
I agree that breathing is important, especially for gadgets. This is why I think the 'gore-tex' style materials are ideal for backpacks... it is waterproof but breathable. My boots are gore-tex lined... I can walk in puddles and my feet stay dry. But also, my feet can breath, so they don't sweat then sit in pools of water like they could if it was just water-proof plastic.
Problem with real Gore-tex is that it is over-priced and gimmicy. My normal everyday shoes have a lining that is waterproof, breathable but much cheaper and not 'official gore-Tex'. Works fine.
Little mesh windows in the right places would also be a good solution. I maintain that I don't expect to be able to throw my backpack in a river and everything inside remain dry. If I was boating I would wrap it in a tarp. But being resistant to very heavy rainfall should be on the designer's mind.
Comment About Rodney Liwanag LAB Lightweight Adventure Backpack
ash commented about Rodney Liwanag LAB Lightweight Adventure Backpack, On Tuesday December 25th, 2007 09:06:00 AM
My big question in life:
Why aren't all backpacks water-proof?
My smaller 'daypack' that I took to india isn't water proof. That didn't matter in India, as I was in the dry season.
But now I use that bag to carry my textbooks and notes and sometimes laptop about in london. The other day I was caught in a massive flash storm whilst on a walking research trip. My notebook, inside my backpack and has plastic covers still got damaged by water.
My big backpack is for sure not waterproof. Why? Why do backpack makers insist I provide my own lining inside or out? Why don't they use some non-expensive version of gore--tex in there?
Comment About Rodney Liwanag LAB Lightweight Adventure Backpack
ash commented about Trendy and Fashionable, On Sunday December 23rd, 2007 05:09:00 AM
I was having a talk with some of my work mates here. All of them are from overseas and living here, and have travelled a lot before and during.
We all seem to have the same idea about wearing 'crappy looking' clothes to not get mugged. This idea seems to have crept into London-Living too. In London I know I feel exposed if I am walking home from a pub at midnight and I'm dressed smart. If I am dressed fairly scruffy, then I feel like I blend in more.
Travel rules permeate into non-travel life.
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ash commented about I do Not Like Your Home, On Sunday December 23rd, 2007 05:02:00 AM
I never understand why some hotel owners will offer you the crappiest rooms, even though there is noone else living in the hotel at the time. As if they expect suddenly the Queen or President to turn up and want to reserve the best rooms just in case.
In Nepal, I was given a room that had the glass missing in one of the windows. I did not notice this until it was night and cold and I had unpacked.
Since I was staying only one night, I decided to use my plastic 'survival bag' to seal the window and keep the warm air inside. I will not reccommend that hotel.
I must assume that some of the rooms still had glass in the windows... and noone else was there. Why was I offered the shit room?
Comment About I do Not Like Your Home
ash commented about Number 1 and 2 Padlock Hasp Sliders, On Thursday December 20th, 2007 05:07:00 AM
I'm not convinced the first one would be very good. If you look closely at where the zip-pull bit is connected to the bit that travels along the zip-teeth, it doesn't look like it's connected securely. Looks like it's a reverse 'C' shape around it, not a full loop... This could easily be bent off.
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ash commented about Videos Uploading make me Angry, On Wednesday December 12th, 2007 02:43:00 AM
As it stands, I believe that if you convert your video file to .flv (flash video) on your computer, then upload it to a folder on your webspace that also contains a flv-player (you can download these for free, with the liscence to re-use on your own webspace).
then make a HTML page that includes the player and tells it to play video1.flv (for example) and bob's your uncle.
the advantage to this is that once you have the flv-player on your webspace, you can do most of your work offline. and .flv video files are much more compressed than many other formats, so it's quicker to upload.
that is how you can pretty much run a 'HoboTube' right here. The most complicated bit is probably finding a program to convert your video file to .flv, but i'm sure they're around (and probably free).
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ash commented about Thailand 2007 Girls Fashion Leaders, On Tuesday November 27th, 2007 10:52:00 AM
those weird rubber shoes have been in fashion in London lately too.
Comment About Thailand 2007 Girls Fashion Leaders
ash commented about Traveler Diarrhea WARNING, On Tuesday November 20th, 2007 10:41:00 PM
Here is a link to the UK National Health Service information pages on Diarrhea: click here
You can navigate through sections such as 'causes', 'symptoms' and 'treatment'. This is designed for idiots living in the UK, not for travelers.
I was always brought up with the advise you and your friend say here: let the crap get out of you. The same is true of vomitting, sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes. Your body is repelling the bad stuff... let it do it's job!
When in Goa I got 'acute' diarrhea. after 4 days, I was quite dehydrated, and started taking rehydration salts. Also, living in a hut where the toilet is a long way away, I chose to take anti-diarrheal tablets for the night time, but to let nature take her course in the day time.
Eventually I took a course of antibiotics (after 6 days of symptoms: I took Ciprofloxacin 500mg, as reccommended in A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine by Eric A. Weiss, M.D.) and 2 days into the course i was fine.
The only time I think I took Imodium constantly through diarrhea was trekking in Nepal: the cause was altitude, not poisoning, so my body wasn't trying to get rid of any nasties. And... I was trekking...
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ash commented about Thailand Terrorist, On Saturday November 17th, 2007 10:05:00 PM
I just noticed this post. It makes me laugh.
I live in London, and there is a trash can everywhere, so long as you are in the STREET.
If you are using trais, especially the underground trains, there are NO bins anywhere. People are afraid the terrorists will blow up the bins as you say.
What do people do? King's Cross station now hires 7 members of staff to go round picking up litter, or if you see them you can give them your litter. They will check it is not a bomb, then put in their bag.
Most stations do not do this. So I drop and walk. Sometimes, I find interesting places to 'display' my litter to show the world how paranoid they are. Statues or vending machines are good places to attach coffee cups and newspapers to.
Increasingly I find that people put their used 'free newspaper' inside the metal box that dispenses the free newspapers first thing in the morning. By evening, they are full up again with the days free paper. This makes the people who give you the free newspaper have to deal with it before they can fill it with new ones next day. I like to think this is poetic justice.
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ash commented about Firefox Problems, On Thursday November 15th, 2007 09:18:00 PM
I've been viewing your site in firefox since I've been viewing your site... which is at least 3 years. I've never had any problems with your site.
The youtube video isn't Firefox's fault, it is the flash applett that the video runs on. Firefox may not have been synchronised with your flash applet, or may have flash turned off as a security/ convenience thing (I have set my firefox to let me turn flash on and off with a button- because MySpace.com lets people auto-start music and videos using flash and this pisses me off when I'm browsing).
Yahoo Mail might be a similar issue with a 'seperate' plugin/ applet, such as Java. All these things are built into your Explorer because you use it a lot and have installed them there. If you've just got firefox, it needs to install them as well (or needs to know where on the computer Explorer has stored these tools so it can share them).
I've always thought of Firefox as a great browser for the web coder/ ddesigner to use, because it will do exactly what you tell it to, and this helps you see where your errors are. Explorer realises you've made a mistake and corrects for you. This is helpful, but also unhelpful as you don't realise you've made a mistake.
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ash commented about Photos are Gone Computer Crash, On Sunday November 11th, 2007 08:16:00 AM
if you can't get ahold of one, you could probably modify/ invent it.
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ash commented about Photos are Gone Computer Crash, On Saturday November 10th, 2007 02:35:00 PM
I think they could fairly easily put 2 hard disks into laptops now... they make hard disks small enough to have 60GB Ipods... those are much smaller than 2.5"ers why can't they put 2 of those in?
Comment About Photos are Gone Computer Crash
ash commented about Photos are Gone Computer Crash, On Saturday November 10th, 2007 09:03:00 AM
I have an 80GB 2.5" portable hard drive that I carry around quite a lot. This is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, and only needs one lead, as it draws power from USB (which is generally good, except when you're using your laptop battery for power, then it's bad).
One of these won't weigh you down if you keep it with you most of the time. but it could break/ get sand inside etc. etc.
i suspect that this will all cease to be an issue within the next 5 years. Already you can buy 1 and 2 GB 'micro SD' memory cards, that are the size of my thumb nail. I have a 1GB one in my mobile phone. When these start to become 8, 16, 32 GB in size, it will be easy to carry around 10 of these in your wallet/ pocket.
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ash commented about Telling a Traveler to Go Home, On Thursday November 8th, 2007 05:32:00 PM
I like this post, Andy. It makes a lot of sense to me.
I hate wearing suits. The clothes I wear are suitable for travel, trekking and backstage technical work. I always need more pockets than I have. And I always need to spend as little as I can.
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ash commented about I stopped Trusting, On Sunday November 4th, 2007 09:54:00 PM
I would possibly trust more Europeans than USA people... guess I trust what I know. I'd trust the Norwegians, Germans, Swiss... I'd make deals with the Polish and the Lithuanians because I've worked with people from there...
I'd trust big-city USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africans.
I'm interested in why you wouldn't trust the Swiss? I see Switzerland as a good, neutral country. But I agree about France ;o)
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ash commented about Explain My World Videos, On Saturday September 1st, 2007 06:48:00 AM
I've seen all of Michael Moore's 'documentary films' and I wouldn't have made any connection between the word 'mini-documentary' and Michael Moore.
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ash commented about The Shower Step, On Monday August 20th, 2007 10:08:00 AM
Tiles are evil. I slipped over on tiles in my hotel in nepal because i was wearing 'flip-flops' on my feet to not get foot infections.
I slipped over, grabbed for the sink, and pulled the sink out of the wall and smashing onto me and the floor.
Painful lessons learned: 1) tiles with flip-flops are bad. 2) Sinks in the hotel may not be as well-installed as mine at home.
Happy lesson learnt: cost of new msink and guy to fit it is much cheaper in Nepal than UK.
Comment About The Shower Step
ash commented about Ghana Farm Tractor, On Friday August 17th, 2007 11:46:00 AM
I most of the problem is when big rich countries send government aid, the government insists the aid money is spent on their own products.
when the USA promised Africa millions in Aid money in the G8, for example, President Bush insisted they will only send USA products. USA food, vehicles, medicine etc. So in effect all the money for Africa was spent inside the USA economy.
'We will send you all our left-over food rather than help you grow your own, because then your economy would be a competition to our own. And this way we basically control your country.'
I use the USA as one example, because I remember this in the news at the time. However, nearly all rich countries do this with government aid (my own UK included).
only the NGOs occasionally suggest 'try doing some farming'... and from your reports, even most NGOs are crap.
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ash commented about Working Effectively in Africa, On Saturday August 4th, 2007 06:50:00 AM
If memory serves, the term 'serendipity' was coined while an Englishman was travelling Europe, because of the many serendipitous events inherant in travel.
The word came from an ancient story i think, and he introduced it into English Usage
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ash commented about Tearing up a Map, On Friday July 27th, 2007 10:06:00 AM
This is a good idea. When I was in India/nepal I had one huge map of the whole subcontinent that I bought in the UK. It was a really great map, but of course it was huge and fragile.
My own solution was to apply scotch tape along both sides of each of the folds to add strength. This lasted me fine through my trip, but made the map thicker. However, if I want to keep the map until I am old for posterity, I don't think it will work. Scotch tape goes brown and brittle over time.
Tearing up the map seems like a good idea. Ioften though it would have been easier if I had a book-style map like a UK road map.
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ash commented about Putting the Batteries in The GPS Correctly, On Saturday July 14th, 2007 05:08:00 AM
This is good. I also like that you have a bright orange GPS. I never understand why non-military travellers/tourist/campers/trekkers insist on buying cammoflage-green toys. To me this is sayiing 'Hey! I really want to drop this in the grass and not find it!'
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ash commented about Ok Coke No Problem Hello, On Tuesday July 10th, 2007 08:39:00 AM
It is odd that 'hello' is such a popular word, because its use as a greeting dates only to the time of the telephone. Thomas Edison suggested it's use instead of 'Ahoy' which was preferred by Alexander Graham Bell.
Prior to this, most recorded uses of 'hello' are in the context of 'hullo!' which was an exclaimation of suprise.
it seems to have boomed globally. maybe television helped.
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ash commented about The Six Languages to Learn, On Friday July 6th, 2007 10:40:00 AM
Surely you get 2.5 because you speak English?
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ash commented about Tapioca, On Saturday June 30th, 2007 11:44:00 AM
tapioca is famous in britain for being the 'school dinners pudding'. Schools of my parents' generation used to serve this as a cheap alternative to 'rice pudding'. Apparently, most kids hated it, so it has a sort of infamy.
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ash commented about Economic Feasibility of Travel Videos, On Friday June 29th, 2007 08:52:00 AM
would utilising something like www.youtube.com cut any of your costs? Youtube delivers video in the Flash format, making it a lot quicker to load than Mpeg or Avi files imbedded in a page.
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ash commented about Togo Group Generator for Electricity, On Thursday June 28th, 2007 09:54:00 AM
how much gas does it need per day?
Comment About Togo Group Generator for Electricity
ash commented about Comparing Danger of USA and Africa, On Sunday June 24th, 2007 09:18:00 AM
I think it is in Lord of the Rings, one of the Hobbits says 'The safest way to go is always towards danger... that way we might sneak by right under it's nose unnoticed'.
Seems backwards. But I think it is similar to what you say here... it is when you get complacent- or feel too safe- that you are in most danger.
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ash commented about Selfish on Saturday, On Saturday June 23rd, 2007 08:40:00 AM
it's probably inevitable, but I thought i'd leave a comment just to screw with your stats a bit...:oP
Happy Saturday!
-ash
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ash commented about Brave Travel Writers Write Real Budgets, On Wednesday June 20th, 2007 08:56:00 AM
The way I see it, I always try and get the best bargain. You could say 'I am tight with money'. I would say 'I am not used to having money, so I like it to last.'
When I went travelling, I took with me about £2000 (about $3,400 US at that time) in my bank account. I could afford to stay in the better hotels of the planet and get taxi instead of bus to far away places.
But my instincts tell me to always search the bargain. what is a) good quality but b) cheap.
After 2 months, I came home with still half my money left over, and that was after paying £350 ($600US) for a plane ticket home. And for sure, I was still ripped off at times, and I still got lazy sometimes in searching the bargains.
I always look for the cheapest hotel. If it is appaulingly bad, I will look for the next cheapest, and so on until I find somewhere that is acceptible and where the owner looks decent/ not drunk or asleep
Comment About Brave Travel Writers Write Real Budgets
ash commented about Peace Corps Invades Togo, On Sunday June 17th, 2007 08:21:00 AM
Thanks Andy, I understand what you mean now. I agree, it seems like accidentally rubbing people's faces in money to drive big cars etc.
Comment About Peace Corps Invades Togo
ash commented about Peace Corps Invades Togo, On Friday June 15th, 2007 08:18:00 PM
Sure, I wouldn't want American teachings in a British school (unless I was doing American studies or American literature). doesn't mean I don't get any. When I was at school I remember doing American history, religion and literature.
but I don't see why it matters what brand of car the government buys with your money. It might seem unpatriotic to invest American money in an overseas economy, but I think that's short sighted. the chances are that the country these cars are made in has its whole economy based upon the American model!
Thinking about it another way, I don't really care whether the medicines and military weapons my government buys are from the UK or the USA or India or France even, so long as they are the best.
America has taught the world to look for excellence in consumer products. I expect nothing less of America than to buy the best: regardless of where it is made.
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ash commented about Peace Corps Invades Togo, On Thursday June 14th, 2007 09:07:00 AM
Why buy American made vehicles? If they're buying Toyota, then perhaps its because Toyota is either cheaper or better at the job?
American cars do not have a good reputation. they are renowned for consuming a lot of fuel and not going very fast. In the USA or the developed world, there is a petrol station every few miles, so it doesn't matter that the cars use lots of fuel. But in other parts of the world, perhaps not so useful.
If I was buying a Vehicle, I would buy German or Japanese, in that order.
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ash commented about I Once Was Lost but Now Am Found, On Tuesday June 5th, 2007 07:12:00 AM
Interesting... 2 of those readings are from the Book of Mormon.
Comment About I Once Was Lost but Now Am Found
ash commented about Inca Kola or Irn-Bru or Cocktail de Fruits, On Saturday June 2nd, 2007 07:35:00 PM
I agree about coke. I gave up drinking Pepsi and Coke a couple years ago as a new year resolution, and I have had maybe 3 times since. I am not perfect.
I originally gave up coke because I was convinced they were evil. It would be better to say 'I do not understand their buisness plan.' 1) their aim seems to be 'to get everyone on the planet drinking coke'. I don't see why this is good... water is better for you, so the plan seems wrong. 2) I don't like the aggressive marketting. Why would you spend so much money trying to win a market that you spend more than you earn, as Wiki talks about Peru? strange.
I no longer think Coke is evil, I think they are ultra-capitalists, and I don't like extreme forms of anything. I do not drink coke or pepsi because I do not like them as much as other drinks, and they are bad for me. But I drink Mirinda or Fanta or Tango, and they are owned by the same people. I too prefer orange and lemon flavour drinks.
Anarchism is not a system I would espouse. I would espouse a liberal, free-market socialism. I think it would be a good system, however it needs an experiment. It might be aweful, and I am not a politician.
I saw Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine yesterday, for the first time (saw the 9/11 one a while ago), and you are right, it is anti-intellectual. The guy pretends to be the voice of reason, but he is like a tabloid newspaper. If he cared about politics so much, he should run for office- challenge Bush straight on instead of making a film about it to make money.
I do not support President Bush or his government. I disagree with more of his ideas than I agree with. Doesn't make him evil, and doesn't mean everything he does is wrong.
However. President Bush is the President of the USA. Not the leader of the 'Free World', the leader of one country- the biggest, powerfullest country right now, but one country. Not my country.
The people who have a right to vote for him are American citizens, and they have voted for him. This is their right, and I woul dhave it no other way. I don't like Bush, but I don't want him removed from office because I personaly don't like him. I only want him removed from office if the American Electorate want him removed from office! it is their choice.
I am a British Citizen, so I have to vote for whether or not I like Tony Blair. I do like him, I think the first half of his leadership of Britain was truely excellent. However, the second half has been not very good, and I am glad he is retiring. I did not vote for him in the last election. I would have done the election before hand, but I was not old enough to vote.
It is too easy to demonise people as monsters. Michael Moore says 'I think Bush is a monster'. I say 'I disagree with Bush, as one human being may disagree with another.'
Comment About Inca Kola or Irn-Bru or Cocktail de Fruits
ash commented about Inca Kola or Irn-Bru or Cocktail de Fruits, On Friday June 1st, 2007 04:28:00 PM
Irn-Bru is a strange but delicious drink. It's availible widely in scotland and the UK as a whole.
The picture you have is of the Energy Drink variety, not the classic brand.
Comment About Inca Kola or Irn-Bru or Cocktail de Fruits
ash commented about Quote from Tony Blair, On Friday June 1st, 2007 04:10:00 AM
Of course, there are many other people who offered to die for someone. For example:
the Vietkong
the suicide bomber
the iraqi insurgents
the afghani militias
the Red Army
etc. they all fight for something they believed in, many of them because they believe it would make them free.
Difference isn't what people who fight believe, it's what you and me believe from where we're sitting. We believe one side is good, the other bad. The enemy think the opposite.
Comment About Quote from Tony Blair
ash commented about Commonality of Values, On Friday May 18th, 2007 12:32:00 PM
Tony Blair is a great public speaker. When he retires in June, it is considered likely that his successor, Gordon Brown, will hire Tony's speech writer. (though, obviously, it's not just the writer that makes Tony a great speaker!)
I don't agree with everything Tony has done in office, and I didn't vote for him (although I was only able to vote in his final election, not before). However, I think he has tried hard, and done lots of good too.
Comment About Commonality of Values
ash commented about Electricity I want for Travel, On Wednesday May 9th, 2007 11:50:00 AM
if you are really stuck, you could use the flow from a tap to run a small hydro wheel. Of course, this would be abominably wasteful for normal use, but it's an option.
Comment About Electricity I want for Travel
ash commented about One Word of Common Sense, On Wednesday May 9th, 2007 03:00:00 AM
Penguin did a whole series of very cheap paperbacks called 'great ideas that changed the world'. most of the stuff was out of copyright, so they could print very cheap.
Most of the books were very short, too. Things like The Communist Manifesto, Locke's Social Contract, Sysiphus etc.
Comment About One Word of Common Sense
ash commented about Movies About Travel, On Tuesday May 8th, 2007 05:48:00 AM
most movies i've seen about travel end with someone planting drugs on tourists and the tourist spending the rest of their life in a Thai gaol.
which might be why I wasn't particularly keen to add Thailand to my asia trip.
Comment About Movies About Travel
ash commented about Transportation Stops Africa Tourism, On Monday May 7th, 2007 07:31:00 AM
Transport sucks in some places. You are right about the soap opera drama.
When I got to Sunali Nepal/ India border town, I wanted someone to take me to Pokhara. Everyone is scared of the maoists and is saying they will not do it for less than 5,000 rupees (Indian, at that). well if i wanted to pay $120 on getting around I could have flown there from Delhi via kathmandu.
Me and Joel got surrounded by people all arguing at us... Now we are both on a Rickshaw, and the man refuses to cycle off... I don't know, maybe a caste thing, he will not obey us even though we are paying him not them.
So I do get angry. I have been on a train for 36 hours and a bus for a few hours and I am not as calm as i could be. I lose my cool, start shouting and telling them to back off, that they are liars and they should be ashamed. I convince Joel and Rickshaw man that we can't stay in this town, we need to just go straight on to Bhairwa. at the very least, it is not the India border, so we could pay in Nepalese Rupee and save some money.
The Rickshaw man took us to Bhairwa, we pay him 250NRs (far too much, but kind of pity him carrying 2 fat men and their luggage for 3 miles on a tricycle).
Find a hotel with resteraunt, go in to eat, find the owner, talk to him. He says there is a bus to Pokhara in the morning at 7:30am, which will cost us 30Rs, and we can stay in the hotel for 200Rs.
By going to another town, and staying a night and getting a bus, we saved a heck of a lot of money. I think if I wasn't so angry with the mob of dishonest taxi people, if they had been polite and nice, I might have decided to be lazy and just paid their stupid price which they wouldn't haggle on.
them making me angry turned out to be helpful.
Comment About Transportation Stops Africa Tourism
ash commented about One Use Gear Problem, On Saturday April 28th, 2007 11:20:00 AM
I agree- Swiss Knives are a waste of time.
I go camping, trekking and did some backpacking, and There are rarely a use for the swiss knife.
the number one problem for me: the 'tools' do not lock in place. This means you cannot use any of them, which makes the swiss knife a hunk of junk.
I prefer those multi-tools based around the pair of pliers design, with knives, screw-drivers etc. which lock in place (like the Gerber Knives or some Leatherman).
But these are still over-priced and easy to lose. The best one I saw was flourescent yellow so you don't lose it if you drop it in long grass! These are better if you are a techie in a theatre, as i sometimes do, than on the road.
I have a very small swiss knife someone gave me as a gift. 2" long maybe. It has a USB flash drive, an LED light, a pen, and then small blade, scissors and nail file. the USB drive is useful, and so is the LED. I would never buy it, but it is a kool gift toy.
The USB part removes from the knife so you can use it on an aeroplane. FINALLY they are thinking!
Comment About One Use Gear Problem
ash commented about Street Children Photo Request, On Saturday April 28th, 2007 10:55:00 AM
I've had a look at thier website, and read some of their stuff, and they look to me like the kind of organisation I wouldn't work with.
I study theology academically, and unfortunately i do have prejudices. But people who claim "NOTE: we do NOT express an opinion, but purely God's holy word, we cannot stress this enough..." are, in my opinion, not trustworthy. They believe they are god or speak for God.
Comment About Street Children Photo Request
ash commented about Street Children Photo Request, On Friday April 27th, 2007 08:30:00 PM
I guess the danger for kids on the street is kinda in what you said... they can't get up and beat you up... That means they are vulnerable.
in some places, children can be sold into the sex trade or forced into labour. They can't defend themselves.
So until the government does pull their finger out, the NGOs are getting some children off the streets.. ultimately they are safer from bad people behind the bars of that shelter.
I don't htink the problem is food or shelter or anything, but abuse by other people.
but this is one argument. I do agree that you need the government of the country to take the lead. get the local people to 'own' a project so that the ideas are theirs. They are the local experts, and if they feel they own it, they will be more inclined to help it.
Comment About Street Children Photo Request
ash commented about Buying Mosquito Nets, On Friday April 27th, 2007 08:22:00 PM
I am convinced that insect repellant is a con. In Kathmandu, I had one mosquito in my room. I knew he was there because i kept waking up with a bite or two, and if i stayed up late reading a book, he would think i was asleep and swoop at my face.
I sprayed myself and my bed area with 100% DEET- the stuff every traveller/ soldier/ Ranger/ tourist/ guidebook/ TV presenter tells you to use for total emergency repel.
Nothing. Still saw him swoop at me. And this stuff STINKS and makes me sneeze a lot. it is apparently natural, but it makes me sneeze.
I was in a room with white walls and ceiling, and couldn't see the my mosquito on the wall. Eventually I decided he must be sleeping on the curtain, and so I shook up the curtains. He flew up, landed on the white wall and I splatted him.
Much more effective. 1 mosquito in a non-malaria season/area is not enough to make me want to suffer a mosquito net. It was enough to make me try the repellant, and I am convinced it does not work. Maybe if I had many mosquitos in my room some would give up... It doesn't work on Commando mozzies.
Comment About Buying Mosquito Nets
ash commented about The Morals of a Mop, On Friday April 27th, 2007 05:28:00 AM
I think this bothers you because you are a long-term traveller, so the hotel you're in is essentially your home, and so you want home-level cleanliness, or close.
for people who travel for a few months, they know the trip is limited. This means they don't often see where they are as 'home'. People are able to shift their dirt acceptance threshold for the short term.
When I go camping, or camp at festivals, I will tolerate much higher levels of dirt than I ever would in my home.
i think maybe this is why this bothers you more than most travellers/ hotel users.
Comment About The Morals of a Mop
ash commented about Togo Pig Accident, On Wednesday April 25th, 2007 10:57:00 AM
hope you heal quick, Andy.
I think they might have been confused about the word 'cut.' 'Couper' is the infinitive verb 'to cut'. if you say 'do i have a cut' the verb becomes a noun, and i don't think this can happen in french... certainly i can't find the noun version.
the word for wound is 'blessure'. if you wanted to say 'do i have a wound on my head?' you could say 'il y a une blesser à ma tête?' (literally, 'there is a cut on my head?')
Comment About Togo Pig Accident
ash commented about Difficult Mosquito Nets, On Sunday April 22nd, 2007 08:20:00 AM
I was lucky when I travelled, my friend lent me his mosquito net he used in Zimbabwe. Was fairly lightweight and free!!
My first night in India, in Bombay, me and my friend wanted to use our mosquito nets, but could not concieve of how to do this... The room was so high we couldn't reach the ceiling even standing on the beds or chairs, and I am 6'2".
I figured we could maybe run a line across the room to tie onto, but i only had five meteres of chord... not enough. in the end I slept in a shirt and kept my sleepsack over me.
The only time i really used it was in Goa... we stayed in a shack on the beach, and I didn't want any bugs on me!
I discovered the best cure to major snags or holes in the mosquito net is to put duct tape on both sides of the hole. fixes it good. I don't travel without a little duct tape.
Comment About Difficult Mosquito Nets
ash commented about Alcohol Still, On Thursday April 19th, 2007 01:22:00 PM
coconut feni or fenny from goa, india, is made from the sap of the coconut tree... it is collected at the top of the tree...
Wikipedia has some info under 'palm wine- tapper' and 'toddy tapper'
Comment About Alcohol Still
ash commented about Hotel Guide Photo Standards, On Wednesday April 4th, 2007 03:58:00 PM
When I was in Pokhara, I moved around the hotel, and had 3 rooms in the same hotel. They all came with toilet paper, 2 towels and a bin. one had a soap.
The best hotel i stayed in whilst trekking was in Gorepani. They had a western WC, toilet brush, towels, extra blankets, soap and flip-flop/ thongs for you to wear in the shower (ok, not designed for my foot size!) a little pointless, because if everyone is using the same ones, that's no different to everyone using the floor.
In Kathmandu, in Via Via cafe, there was more storage space than any other room, and was a room for one. When the power went down for load shedding, they came to my room to give me candles and matches. I like this. I had my own, but it is a good thought.
Comment About Hotel Guide Photo Standards
ash commented about Travelers Mouthwash, On Monday April 2nd, 2007 10:38:00 AM
too much teeth cleaning is as bad as none at all for the enamel on your teeth. be careful.
Comment About Travelers Mouthwash
ash commented about WIFI Annoys Me, On Friday March 30th, 2007 12:09:00 PM
google won a contract a while back to provide free low-speed wifi to the whole of San Francisco, and high-speed wifi availible to people who pay $20 a month...
Some people have touted this as a trial-run before going state-wide and eventually national.
A global (land) wifi network would be extremely costly to install, but a very good idea. I wonder if Google plans to use the local cell towers...
original The Register article
Comment About WIFI Annoys Me
ash commented about WIFI Annoys Me, On Thursday March 29th, 2007 12:25:00 PM
most WIFI is useless.
However, my university residence (500 people, across a whole street in north london) installed wifi over Christmas, so we all now have internet. And the WIFI is linked via satellite to the rest of the campuses across london (because the University is in london, it's impossible to have us all on one site, so he have 3 teaching campuses and 9 halls of residence).
Works like a charm. But then there's no real shortage of money in London...
Comment About WIFI Annoys Me
ash commented about Alternative Gear, On Monday March 26th, 2007 11:15:00 AM
I like this idea... it is very true. One of the gear items i took was an LED torch. very small, battery lasted 2 months being used every day or so. watertight. So small I lost it on a camping trip once back home. Doh! $20 or so gone... and a gift from mum!
I found the worst problem was when moving around a lot... how to wash my towel.. or rather how to dry once washed. If I want to use it today to dry me, I can't wash it today. and if I want to pack it today I can't wash it today. I used the bed sheets option you suggest a few times.
My friend buys two towels.
Comment About Alternative Gear
ash commented about Togo Phosphate, On Tuesday March 20th, 2007 06:09:00 PM
maybe it is just chalk? they are wittling it into stick shape to write on a blackboard with?
you can eat chalk too. It's the main ingredient in heartburn/ acid reflux/ indigestion remedy.
Comment About Togo Phosphate
ash commented about Togo Phosphate, On Tuesday March 20th, 2007 07:19:00 AM
my encarta translator dictionary says 'Phosphorus' is 'Phosphore' (masculine) in French
and my little paper translation dictionary says 'phosphate' is the same in French. (again, is masculine).
Comment About Togo Phosphate
ash commented about Languages Learned Naturally, On Thursday March 15th, 2007 02:26:00 PM
I also struggle to learn languages. I am fluent in 2 or 3 computer languages, and can learn them easy. And I do sometimes find it hard to understand why some people cannot understand computer simple functions.
Yet, learning to speak a language I am pretty slow at it. I have never learned a language well enough to say 'yes I know this language.' I can say random phrases, maybe introduce myself.
I am determined to learn German this year, I think I said before. But it is difficult, because everyone wants me to remember tables and tables of declensions and conjugations.
I am not good at memorising information. I am good at understanding concepts. So if I 'know' something it means I 'understand how it works' not that I memorise facts about it. I 'know' how to use computers. I 'know' how to hack some programs to make them work better for me. I 'know' how to set up a sound system and a lighting rig.
I understand how it works, and I can explain it to you in a number of ways. If all I knew was facts, then all I could do is to copy out what I had memorised and make you memorise it. Then I am just a hard disk storing information but without a processor.
Comment About Languages Learned Naturally
ash commented about French What I need to Learn, On Sunday March 11th, 2007 07:50:00 AM
for my course (theology), the university tried to teach me to read the Greek of 2,000 years ago. I failed to learn.
In the past, I did French for 5 years at school, and I probably can't go far with the language. For sure, I could book a hotel room, specify the layout of that room, and set a price. And I can say a lot of useless things about pets.
This year I have decided I want to try and learn German. This is my late new year resolution.
I am bad at learning languages. But I figure I should learn at least one (modern) language. More useful maybe would be Hindi or Japanese. But I don't think I stand a chance!
Comment About French What I need to Learn
ash commented about Three Month Rule, On Saturday March 3rd, 2007 09:25:00 AM
Where do travelers go on holiday/ vacation?
Comment About Three Month Rule
ash commented about Skype.com, On Friday February 9th, 2007 05:43:00 PM
I remember when internet was free. We used to have a free connection. now we pay £30 or $60US per month. bad.
At university, I get internet for free. It didn't work for the first semester, so they deducted the total year cost from our residence contract. 2 semesters free!
Comment About Skype.com
ash commented about Annapurna Nepal, On Friday February 9th, 2007 07:30:00 AM
Those mountains start to feel like home, which worries me a bit.
I lived in Pokhara for 3 weeks this time last year, and we had good weather most days. I nearly always saw the mountains.
A few weeks ago, I saw a TV show with this guy trekking in the mountains.. they pan out, and I instantly recognised the Annapurna mountains, and Annapurna II mountain. Yet when I was there, I didn't remember the names at all.
I must have assimilated them without knowing.
Comment About Annapurna Nepal
ash commented about Pokhara Nepal, On Thursday February 8th, 2007 12:22:00 PM
Ghorepani is a nice little town in the hills. They apparently started building a road to link it to Pokhara, but then all the crap hit the fan, and the political situation fell apart. No road.
probably easy to get to... we trekked there, but we took the scenic route. There they have filter systems installed because they are forbidden to sell plastic bottle water.
Our trek cost us $24US per day, including guide, all food and accommodation, and all the permit, taxi ride stuff included. To me, that is not much money. Maybe 2 hours work maximum.
Comment About Pokhara Nepal
ash commented about Types of Internet Connections, On Monday February 5th, 2007 07:29:00 PM
I met a guy in India using a cell phone to get his mac-book on the net. He linked the computer to the phone by way of some cable, and told me the phone worked as a modem.
However, he was doing a free-lance job for the UN, and I believe he was fairly rich. He knew how to travel cheap, but also loved expensive gadgets. Noone has a Mac and an I-pod who is poor.
Comment About Types of Internet Connections
ash commented about Pokjara Trekking, On Monday February 5th, 2007 05:12:00 AM
I felt more prepared than my guide whilst trekking.
For sure, I was a lot slower than him. I am not a fit person, so I think I am maybe 45minutes behind everyone else by the end of a day trek.
My guide was afraid that we would not get to the village by nightfall, and couldn't pick the trail in the dark. I say 'it's ok, I can make lots of light' (i had 3 flashlights, including one that goes on my head for reading).
He is still worried.
I say 'We could easily camp here in the woods. I have stuff to make fire, and I have bivvy bag etc.' He looks even more worried, and I think maybe there is something in the woods I don't know about.
We get to the village and the power goes, and he borrows a flashlight.
I am convinced he is afraid of the dark and superstitious. Fire would keep Yaks away, and even he said the Maoists were no where near where we were.
Comment About Pokjara Trekking
ash commented about Skype Not on Machines, On Monday February 5th, 2007 05:04:00 AM
True... I never called home once while I travelled. My friend I travelled with did a couple times, and he used the skype system while I was with him.
When I got home, first thing I had to do was call the person who was meeting me at the airport... how to use a phone? took me 4 attempts to remember.
Comment About Skype Not on Machines
ash commented about McFlight.de, On Monday February 5th, 2007 04:50:00 AM
Hi Andy,
I used Spice Jet for internal flights in india. PRetty cheap if you book a long time in advance, however, taxes are not included, and, like many low-cost-carriers, the taxes are about the same as the flight cost.
Comment About McFlight.de
ash commented about Pokjara Trekking, On Sunday February 4th, 2007 08:30:00 AM
I did a 5 day trek from pokhara, through some of the foothills, and to some small villages. We trekked for about 8-9 hours per day.
It was pretty exhausting. But I am far from a fit and healthy person. I think someone who was army-level fittness would find the trek pretty easy going. But there are longer, harder routes too.
Comment About Pokjara Trekking
ash commented about Skype Not on Machines, On Saturday February 3rd, 2007 10:15:00 PM
i think i forgot to say, but the point of my comments was to say all the machines in this place had skype and seemed to work for me.
Comment About Skype Not on Machines
ash commented about Skype Not on Machines, On Saturday February 3rd, 2007 10:14:00 PM
if you walk along the main tourist street of Lakeside, until you get to a building with a slightly rusted, slightly too-steep yellow-metal staircase outside it, with stairs going up from whichever end of the street you come at it, so that it looks like an upside down 'V' of stairs...
walk up these, and turn and there is maybe 3 more stairs going into the second floor of the building. In this building is the best internet café i found in pokhara in my 3 weeks there.
reliable internet, skype availible, phone availible, printing, CD writing, drinks availible, even one machine with skype set up to call land-lines as a cheap alternative to the phone. everything was reasonable price, and the internet cost was the pokhara flat-rate (everywhere was something like 99Rs an hour, which is bad, but all the same. someone told me the price was fixed by the king, so maybe different now).
This place also has a generator somewhere, and a UPS battery on their computers, so the place is one of the only places in Laskside that is still open in the blackouts.
I wish I had taken a photograph of it to show you better where it is. I was in Pokhara 3 weeks, and I took maybe 3 photos. I think I was there so long everything became too ordinary to photograph.
Comment About Skype Not on Machines
ash commented about Cooking with One Cup Cooker, On Sunday January 28th, 2007 07:43:00 PM
I really wish I had one of these gadgets when travelling. If I thought, I could have brought one in bombay at the place I got my plug-converter.
It is a good gadget and for sure, I am British and I need a cup of tea every half an hour. ;o)
Comment About Cooking with One Cup Cooker
ash commented about TIME The Best Photos of the Year 2005, On Sunday January 28th, 2007 07:40:00 PM
I saw many men sleeping in Taxis in India. Was helpful for me and them, because I needed to be at the train station at a stupid time, and so I just woke one of them up.
Comment About TIME The Best Photos of the Year 2005
ash commented about Solar Cooker Kathmandu Katmandu, On Sunday January 28th, 2007 08:55:00 AM
The place in Nepal where I had 100% guaranteed hot water was in the Trekking over-night places along the trekking routes.
All of them had the shower next to the kitchen on the ground floor level.
with over 20 people staying one night, they still have very hot water all night.
I am convinced they simply run the copper pipe through the back of the cooking oven in the kitchen to heat water.
Comment About Solar Cooker Kathmandu Katmandu
ash commented about Third World Business Blues, On Thursday January 25th, 2007 07:47:00 PM
The most well-run hotel I stayed in in Nepal was run by belgians and owned by a Belgian chain. However, it cost more than most other places, so I didn't stay there.
I bought some waterproof trousers that were knock-off Northface. It is a good pair of trousers except one problem: the Northface logo is embroidered on the knee. So this area is not waterproof, because they stupidly didn't seal it from behind. So this logo actually lowers the value of the trousers to me. But I didn't notice until a wet day. So more fool me.
Comment About Third World Business Blues
ash commented about Flickr.com, On Sunday January 21st, 2007 09:17:00 PM
I explored using Flickr before I went travelling. In the end I decided it was easier and more reliable to buy websppace, and upload pictures using the FTP command line in the windows command prompt. This worked everywhere, even on a slow connection.
I have recently started using Flickr, as I can no longer justify paying for webspace (I was paying just under $100 US equivilant per year), and Flickr is free, and I have a yahoo password already.
But it is still not an ideal system. Next time I go travelling I will probably buy webspace again. I could also store all kinds of important documents on my webspace in hidden and encrypted files etc. More versatile.
Comment About Flickr.com
ash commented about Tagish Lake, On Sunday January 21st, 2007 09:07:00 PM
This looks fun. I like the bit where he says 'if three other people book at the same time, then the 4-person rate applies' instead of having to take 3 friends. This is good thinking.
Comment About Tagish Lake
ash commented about Nepal Electrical Outlets, On Saturday January 20th, 2007 10:01:00 PM
Sounds like a very bad socket! the worst device i took with me was a power plug for my CD walkman. It was heavy, as the transformer is in the plug, not in-line like a laptop. So it would fall out of the plug if it was too loose. Had to Duck Tape it to the wall.
Stiff Copper Wire sounds like a good idea. Pins on the plugs are very weak. I nearly snapped them off of a TV's plug in India.
Comment About Nepal Electrical Outlets
ash commented about Nepal Electrical Outlets, On Saturday January 20th, 2007 10:01:00 AM
if your hotel has the sockets with the odd 5-hole formation, then try to get a converter that includes the earth pin. It is totally unnecessary, of course, but I found that it helped stabalize my plugs...
my converter was three-pin, and stable. But my digital camera was only 2-pin, and wobbled a lot. You can also take the converter apart and remove the earth pin, so that it is still usable only when there is 2-pin socket availibe.
Comment About Nepal Electrical Outlets
ash commented about Load Shading in Nepal, On Friday January 19th, 2007 12:18:00 PM
When I was in Nepal, my hotels called it 'load shedding' too. The words sound similar, so to non-native english speakers I guess they get confused about spelling. Hell, even I spell stuff wrong! hehe
I got the impression it allowed them to re-distribute electricity to stop things overloading or stop some people being cut out of the loop... it doesn't seem like a good infrastructure, but I would not like to install an electrical grid in a country like Nepal... too unplanned.
My grand parents tell me that when they were young, there were 'power-cuts' or 'blackouts' for a few hours every week or so. My granddad apparently used to run several appliances, mostly light bulbs, off a circuit linked to a couple of car batteris, which he charged with jump-leads when the power comes back on.
Not back-pack suitable to carry a car battery! but if you can get one cheap and you're there for a month or more, might be an option for you...
light bulbs do not care about voltage lower voltage, they simply burn dimmer.
Comment About Load Shading in Nepal
ash commented about Top Travel Site Research, On Tuesday January 16th, 2007 09:45:00 PM
The sites I found most useful when I was travelling:
Hobotraveler.com - no flattery- genuinely more useful than anyone else's site.
http://mail.google.com - Gmail- reliable webmail, and has option of text-only for slow connection.
Wikipedia - always answers, however, too much for some connections.
blogger.com - free, reliable way to blog and keep mum up to date.
my bank's e-banking page
bbc.co.uk/news - world news
www.guardian.co.uk - britain news to keep me in the loop while away
Hostelworld.com - bit slow on most connections, but useful for booking rooms in advance when that is necessary.
Bad sites:
Lonely Planet- too slow for most of the planet to use
A site I would want:
place to store all my RSS feeds online.
Comment About Top Travel Site Research
ash commented about Being Clean When Cold, On Wednesday January 10th, 2007 12:05:00 PM
A lot of the popcorn men use rolled up newspaper to hold the popcorn... if he is one of these, then maybe his hands are covered in newspaper ink, it comes off easy.
Comment About Being Clean When Cold
ash commented about Skype Problem Mute Checked, On Wednesday January 3rd, 2007 05:35:00 AM
Hi Andy,
I've been experimenting with Skype for a year or two now (it has taken so long because i do not know many other people with it). The little 'mute' box for the microphone is a constant annoyance for me.
When using programs to record input, or if I want to run my voice through the laptop to amplify, then normally the mic has to be on mute for those programs to recognise the input. Otherwise windows just plays it live.
For Skype, it seems to vary.
Comment About Skype Problem Mute Checked
ash commented about Best Travel Sites Research, On Sunday December 24th, 2006 07:04:00 PM
A tourist works 50 weeks a year to spend 2 weeks a year on holiday seeing sights or getting drunk/ laid.
A traveller works the minimum amount of time necessary to spend the maximum amount of time on the road.
That is the way I see things.
Comment About Best Travel Sites Research
ash commented about Hotel Key Card Turn on Electricity, On Saturday December 23rd, 2006 12:29:00 PM
I had this problem in Bombay. The huge plastic lump was permanently attached to my key. That particular place wanted to keep the key when i left too, which meant that I locked all my things into a wardrobe and in my bag all the time. Annoying.
However, there was a seperate key for the bathroom (you have your own bathroom, but it is not en suite). this too had a plastic key thing. So we used to use that one to keep the room electricity on when we left.
Comment About Hotel Key Card Turn on Electricity
ash commented about Selling Luxury Travel, On Friday December 15th, 2006 11:26:00 AM
as a british person, i use BBC everyday at home. However, when i travelled, the BBC World channel is among the worst channels I have ever seen. It is full of crap. I do not understaand how it is made by the same people as the many BBC channels you get in britain which are much higher quality.
Comment About Selling Luxury Travel
ash commented about Chinese Korean Font Invasion, On Friday December 15th, 2006 11:23:00 AM
i've learnt that, when communicating with web-admin people, you need to show your knowledge to them in the first email, like some kind of mating ritual among animals showing your greatness.
I don't like to do this in life, but tech people need it. Otherwise they will treat you like an idiot and ask if you tried all the obvious things that you have of course tried.
So you have to tell them what you've already tried, using lots of jargon. Then they treat you like an intelligent person, not an idiot customer.
it's sad.
Comment About Chinese Korean Font Invasion
ash commented about Thailand Eye Glasses Teeth Cleaning, On Saturday November 11th, 2006 03:05:00 PM
I buy my glasses in the UK, from an internet seller. In the highstreet, average UK price for non-designer glasses is over £100 ($200US) often over £200 ($400US). Some student guy foiund out how cheap they are to make, and set up a online company at glassesdirect.co.uk
and i buy them from him for £15 ($30 US) including glass lenses and scratch-proof coating, made to my prescription.
Now I am happy :o)
Comment About Thailand Eye Glasses Teeth Cleaning
ash commented about Africa Mosquitoes, On Monday October 23rd, 2006 05:43:00 PM
i hear that eating Marmite keeps them away... i don't know, because i always eat marmite, so i can't really honestly say whether i don't get bitten for that reason, or because there aren't many around. but obviously sometimes i do get bitten if i'm out in a swarm.
i'm thinking, and my solution would be for you to sew a bedsheet onto the bottom of the mosquito net on one side, with a peice of webbing along the join and coming out of the ends. this would mean that you could attach the webbing under the bed and pull taught, to make flush with the bed. then the sheet can act as the under sheet for the half of the bed you wand to use in day time. but with enough give in it to not rip when you turn over etc.
maybe hard to explain. if i can, i'll draw you a diagram and email.
Comment About Africa Mosquitoes
ash commented about ATM Lome Togo Bank Machine, On Monday September 4th, 2006 05:04:00 AM
Cashpoint is probably the main term in the UK now. younger people will call it an ATM. people who want to be young will call it an 'ATM Machine'. it is like saying 'PIN Number'... it is in the abreviation, you don't need the extra word. However, people need to sandwich it.
Hole in the Wall is fun. Now one of our highstreet banks labels its ATMs as that. Big sign: Hole in the Wall. Amusing.
Comment About ATM Lome Togo Bank Machine
ash commented about Removing Norton Anti-Virus Program, On Monday August 21st, 2006 10:57:00 AM
Norton is a vile peice of software, these days. It used to be good, and has built a good reputation. However, they cannot piggy-back on their reputation forever. I think they are now lazy.
I use AVG anti-virus (click here) which is free for personal use on a single computer. I have never had a problem with AVG. in my opinion, it is much better than Norton, and it is free. And the only updates it does without asking are updating it's virus database. (and you can tell it not to, if you like).
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ash commented about Stereos Loud Speakers and Chickens, On Monday August 14th, 2006 10:15:00 AM
All I heard in Kathmandu all night was the sound of metal shop-front shutters being thrown up and down. WHY?!
Comment About Stereos Loud Speakers and Chickens
ash commented about Drums, On Tuesday July 25th, 2006 05:46:00 AM
One thing I admire about Indian people is that they will do all the work themselves to save money. Even here at home.
I was outside by some shops the other day, and an indian man, ownder of a kebab shop, was painting the outside of his shop, standing on a wobbly chair to reach the top. This is typical of Indian brains I think. The white-guy shops next door would have paid a painter a lot of money to do the same job because they are lazy.
This Indian man is, I believe, Indian origin, not British-born. the British-born Indian people become lazy like the other british people, unless they have good parents.
The scaffolding isn't advance or that safe. But I suspect they made it themselves to save money.
Comment About Drums
ash commented about Healthy Hot Water, On Tuesday July 25th, 2006 05:36:00 AM
I don't think I figured out how to use hot water once in India. Those Geezer things on the wall never seem to work... I can normally figure out how a machine works quickly. These things are either broken or disconnected somewhere. Maybe in Delhi I had a hot shower, it was cold outside. In Nepal, there was hot water everywhere. Even in the small hill-top villages when the power was out.
They have maybe 20-30 people there in one night, sharing one shower and it never runs out of hot water. This is better than my house. I am thinking they must run the water pipe through the cooking fire or something. cannot be gas or electric like here. simple works best.
How do you find the water of the Planet, Andy? We are often told that it will make us ill, so I drink a lot of bottled water when I travelled. Do you become ill often, or is this all a myth? Do you think it may be because you have travelled so long, you are more resistant, like local people?
Comment About Healthy Hot Water
ash commented about Premium Pricing, On Tuesday July 25th, 2006 05:28:00 AM
in the UK, there is a TV-ad for a French beer which says it is 'reassuringly expensive.' Frankly, it tastes of urine, but it is very popular.
When I was working for a construction contractor, we were put up in a Travel Lodge place for the night because it was a long way away. it cost them £55 (over $100 US) per person per night. And I had a much better room in Nepal with more TV channels, a better bathroom and a better second bed for about £2.50, or less than $5 US. WHY?
Comment About Premium Pricing
ash commented about Middle East Sleeping Habits, On Sunday July 23rd, 2006 12:52:00 PM
where I stayed in Goa, a few of the huts were on stilts. Under one of them, was a cot where I saw one fo the indian bar-men sleeping when I went to the toilet block very early.
Others slept in the porch of a shop next door. I am thinking, 'you need mosquito nets' however, there really weren't many at that time of year.
Comment About Middle East Sleeping Habits
ash commented about India Cow Cart, On Sunday July 23rd, 2006 08:20:00 AM
I notice the modern wheels with tires. India is odd like this... nice new Toyota cars beside cow-carts... two times are clashing here.
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ash commented about Delhi Taxi, On Sunday July 23rd, 2006 08:09:00 AM
this is the same in Agra the taxes. I am lucky, we paid so high for the golden triangle tour we didn't want, that the driver covered the cost of all taxes and things. No extra costs. Good.
I will email you the phone number of my driver if I find it. He isn't that cheap, but he can probably take you to that area ok.
Comment About Delhi Taxi
ash commented about 6 Days in India, On Saturday July 22nd, 2006 12:00:00 PM
I ended my time in India by getting on a train at Agra and travelling to the india-nepal land border (Gorakpur station, then to Sunali). Me and Joel, my travel buddy, we both were VERY glad we did not have to stay a night in Agra. I would much rather sleep on a clean air conditioned train with my luggage locked up safe. Agra is a too-old too-dirty city. Put the Taj Mahal somewhere clean, and it would be better fun.
We ate in a resteraunt in Agra that our driver knew. We eventually got him to stop tricking us into going places he is meant to take us to. We figured out he gets a book stamped at wevery shop and resteraunt on his list, and gets told off by his boss if he doesn't get it.
So we said 'okay, take us to these places, we will go and look, when you have the stamp, we will leave and go somewhere cheaper'. worked a charm. Suddenly our meals cost about a quater of the price.
Comment About 6 Days in India
ash commented about Taj Majal, On Saturday July 22nd, 2006 11:54:00 AM
The Taj Mahal is a massive, beutiful place... surrounded by people with ugly hearts. I am glad I went there, however, I think I would rather go there on my own with no other people.
Inside the Mosque part, we spent the whole time running away from this man who wanted to make himself our guide. 'tell us facts now, tip me later'. We dodged him and disappeared into the crowd. However, this means my memories of the insides are of avoiding an annoying man, not of being in one of the wonders of the world.
Very easy to think the world will all be peachy and sanitised. In reality, it is a mess, and people will make money off the back of anything.
Comment About Taj Majal
ash commented about Agra Red Fort, On Saturday July 22nd, 2006 11:50:00 AM
It's nice to see pictures of places I have been to, for a change. I remember my experience in Agra quite well.
We had been suckered into doing the golden triangle, but ending in Agra. We were tired, and had seen too many sights in 3 days to feel really excited. But I did enjoy it. I am a person who loves architecture, and here at home i visit old castles and churches a lot. I never pay for guides.
I probably should pay for guides sometimes, however, I never trust them. I should have had a guide at the Royal Observatory, Jaipur... it is too complicated to make it up.
In Agra Fort, we followed behind a guided tour, carefully hearing what the person was telling the Beige Trouser Brigade. cheap.
You are right. The humans at all India's sights make it a jaded experience.
Comment About Agra Red Fort
ash commented about GREAT My First Ignorant American Email, On Thursday July 20th, 2006 07:05:00 AM
it was a funny tip. I wandered around chowpatti beach in Mumbai looking for a place to dump the sticky container my dessert was in. the only place i could dump it was the place i bought it from. huh.
sticky rubbish got dropped. light, clean rubbish, like a crisp packet, got taken back to my hotel room, and tied up in one of my million plastic bags, and taken downstairs for the hotelier to deal with. Probably still ended up on the streets.
I don't like to litter, however, I will not carry stuff all day. Why should I have more pride in and respect for a country than its population do?
Comment About GREAT My First Ignorant American Email
ash commented about How clean is Delhi, On Tuesday July 18th, 2006 11:42:00 AM
yes, Delhi is quite a nice place. I have mixed feelings, because I was scammed here- or sold something i didn't want at a high price. my instincts were against it, but me and my buddy were talked round. Their gain, our loss. They did a good job.
I liked Delhi as a place, though. I could walk around ok, not so many beggars or people selling crap. I was there on Republic Day, though, so the tourist sites were completely full and the rest of the city was empty and closed.
We walked to Connaught Place and found a Pizza Hut. Since we'd been scammed, we decided we needed some good old western comfort food. given the price, it's hard to eat in a Pizza Hut here now- I feel I'm being ripped off in my own country!
our hotel was pretty good, cheap and cheerful. The owner was reliable. This is good. the hotel wass in a back-street off a back-street off a back-street.... not that clean backstreets, but hotel was clean.
Delhi is good, but my stupidity in being scammed means I am not so fond memories.
Comment About How clean is Delhi
ash commented about Last Day in Nepal, On Sunday July 16th, 2006 10:18:00 AM
I miss Nepal a lot. I wonder sometimes whether it was wise for me to go there so early in my travel experiences. It may be that I will not want to go anywhere else. Maybe not. But, I think it is a dangerously good place.
Comment About Last Day in Nepal
ash commented about Fighting Nepal Culture, On Wednesday July 12th, 2006 03:52:00 PM
You are right: Nepal/ Asia will copy anything. They do copies very well. I have many good copied items. One problem item: I have some gore-tex water-proof trousers. I use them home more than I would in asia. They work great except one small error. They embroidered a fake North Face logo on the right thigh. So now they leak where they embroider. this is foolish. They would be so much more valuable without the logo! They should learn to seal over it.
Comment About Fighting Nepal Culture
ash commented about Inadequate Nepal Photos, On Tuesday July 11th, 2006 07:17:00 AM
I see pictures of Nepal, and it feels almost like home now. huh.
When Britain was making her empire large, the army moved into Nepal after India. The word is, the Army were so impressed by the skills and courage of the Nepali Gorkha Army, that they stopped trying to conquer them, and invited them to join the British Army instead.
Since then, the British Army has several permanent Brigades of Gorkhas. The Nepali government likes this, as when these men return they are rich and boost the economy. The Nepali men like this, because they get rich and become UK citizens if they want to. The British Army also does favours for local people... when trekking, many of the bridges we crossed had plaques saying they were donated to the village by the Army because of a Gorkha Soldier who lived there or something.
I miss Nepal now I am in the UK. I know I will not go back for many years. Too many places to see.
Comment About Inadequate Nepal Photos
ash commented about Empathy Impaired, On Sunday July 9th, 2006 07:24:00 AM
Only time I used a Credit card was to buy my flight home.... Noone carries $500 or so in cash i don't think!
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ash commented about WIFI in my room, On Thursday July 6th, 2006 07:16:00 AM
I am starting to think WIFI is losing a battle. In my mind, I see hotels and hostels with old-fashioned internet... instead of WIFI, they will have little network plugs on the wall, and they give you a lead when you arrive.
You jack in to the network using a lead, which will work. You always have internet.
I think they should be thinking more of this. Is copper wire that expensive in the world today? mabe...
Comment About WIFI in my room
ash commented about Why People Are Not Friends, On Wednesday July 5th, 2006 08:09:00 AM
Anonymous: you do not have a right to comment, you have the privellidge granted to you by Andy. Whether you think you have a right to 'freedom of speech' is irrelevant, because this site, nor any other, falls under no constitution.
Further, even if it did, you do not have the right to insult or indulge in libel.
One right you do have, however, is to choose not to read something you dislike. I would suggest you don't waiver this right.
I, of course, don't speak for Andy. But I like and respect him, and I value and respect what he writes here, even if I don't agree with it. I want to travel, and I do... for me, reading the writing of someone who travels a lot more than me is like hanging our with a Master Carpenter if you want to be a carpenter... listen, learn... say thankyou.
Comment About Why People Are Not Friends
ash commented about Why People Are Not Friends, On Tuesday July 4th, 2006 07:13:00 AM
I am impressed you put a picture of a toilet on a blog and explain how to use it. This is information I really wanted to know when I went abroad, and Noway was Lonely Planet going to help me. Until I left my home and got in a plane, I did not even know what toilets they use in India. It varies, I know now.
Some people have always told me I am 'old for my years' I don't know why this is, but I know I enjoy hanging out with people older than me. Because I like to learn. Young people can teach us too, but not so much... maybe they teach us to be enthusiastic.
Comment About Why People Are Not Friends
ash commented about Thailand Squat Toilet, On Monday July 3rd, 2006 05:49:00 AM
I wish I'd seen this before I travelled. It took me a while to figure out how to use a 'squat 'n' splash' toilet. I get the squat part easy, but the clean up takes a while to master.
Once you get the method down, it can be kinder on yourself than toilet paper if you have dissentry!
I never figured out how to clean up without removing my trousers completely, though. I guess I didn't have to use them often enough. (mostly when trekking: it is very hard to squat after trekking all day. your legs want to fail).
Thankyou for posting this though!
Comment About Thailand Squat Toilet
ash commented about Refuse the Plastic Bag, On Friday June 30th, 2006 06:25:00 AM
at first in india i was glad of the plastic bags... i thought 'i can use one for laundry, one for storing laundry, one fro trash, some as packaging...' blah blah whenever I don't want to use a zip-lock bag.
Then I realised I was getting several a day. maybe I should carry one in my pocket all the time and use that one. When I got home I realised it's the same here, except here we have bins.
I try to tell them 'no' if I have another way to carry the product. If it will go straight in my backpack, or in another bag. The big stores here- the walmarts and the big guys, they have places to recycle your grocery bags into new bags. This is good, but people are too lazy to use.
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ash commented about Courteous Cities on Planet, On Thursday June 29th, 2006 07:21:00 AM
There are some suprises on there for sure.
Comment About Courteous Cities on Planet
ash commented about Journalizing Problems, On Thursday June 29th, 2006 07:18:00 AM
When I was travelling I also kept a paper diary as well as the blog. The paper diary was for my personal reflections... things I don't want the world or my family to read, don't want them to worry. Sometimes It was simply 'today went to X, Y, Z. was fun' sometimes I wrote pages of things to try to make sense of.
For me, the blog was largely for my friends and family, and people who have read my non-travel blogs in the past. It was also a pilot with Google Ads, but I did not get enough visitors- no advertising.
When I started blogging, it was more like a private journal- noone knew about it, only strangers who I don't care about. Over time, I became more guarded and so on. 'do I want the world to know this?' maybe not.
Blogging and journalising scratch different itches. I don't journalise regularly when i'm at home, but sometimes I take it up again for a period becasuse i need to sort out my hard drive.
Comment About Journalizing Problems
ash commented about Blue Screen of Death, On Thursday June 29th, 2006 07:11:00 AM
ah, the dreaded blue screen of death... glad you got it sorted.
I remember when I first started to blog, often the pages would time out and I would lose everything. That was frustrating. Eventually I typed everything in 'notepad' or somethign first.
Comment About Blue Screen of Death
ash commented about Good and Bad in the World, On Thursday June 22nd, 2006 07:39:00 AM
BBC did exist in WWII I believe, but as radio. Allegedly they helped send coded messages to the French Resistance... They played peices of classical music, and in some, the beat could be translated into Morse Code or something.
Noone suspected a thing!
Comment About Good and Bad in the World
ash commented about Tao wants to stay in Philippines, On Wednesday June 21st, 2006 08:54:00 AM
Andy, that last post from 'Rach' should have my name on it.
I was logged in on my friend's account because I was helping her change her template! oops!
Comment About Tao wants to stay in Philippines
ash commented about Subic and Angeles is Sodom and Gomorrah, On Tuesday June 20th, 2006 07:11:00 AM
This is the kind of feeling I had when I got to Anjuna Beach in Goa. I stayed there less than 12 hours because I could not see any good in people's eyes there. There was a lot of drug-haze in their eyes. A lot of being lost. but not a whole lot of good.
I will not go to Anjuna again.
Comment About Subic and Angeles is Sodom and Gomorrah
ash commented about Hotel California you can never leave, On Monday June 19th, 2006 07:01:00 AM
In Delhi, we met 3 Welsh guys who were doing a similar thing to us.
They said the last hotel they stayed in was utterly bizaare. The hotellier did not want them to leave at all.
If they wanted to go get food, he would tell them he would get it for them. If they wanted to buy clothes, he would go for them. If they wanted to sight-see, he would tell them how dull the sights were.
We have a comedy show in Britain called The League of Gentlemen. One of the 'stories' is set in a small village. When you enter the town, there is a sign which says 'Welcome to Royston Vasey: you may NEVER leave.'
Surreal, creepy, weird hotellier who wanted to keep hold of his guests and wrap them in bubble wrap (and probably get money out of them).
They checked out.
Comment About Hotel California you can never leave
ash commented about Occam's Razor, On Saturday June 17th, 2006 10:46:00 AM
I guess, my immediate reaction at an airport is to assume people are seeing a close friend they have not seen in a long time/ or they will not see for a long time.
However, if i had reason to suspect they were lesbians, this does not make me think it is wrong: it would have, once, because of my religious background. And, for sure, many people in my Church would say it is wrong. However, I do not often agree with the theology of people in my Church.
I think this is also an example of what you say. we both have different views: maybe both are normal.
Comment About Occam's Razor
ash commented about Making Money with Hotel, On Saturday June 17th, 2006 10:40:00 AM
See, I only stayed in one place with a permanent maintainance man. You can probably guess it was the place run by the Belgians in Kathmandu. He was fixing their toilet, their painting, fixing a chair that had broken.
In Pokhara, in one hotel, I broke the sink in my bathroom. Now, for sure, in this country i would not have been able to: we fix our sinks real well. However, my flip-flops caused me to slip on the floor. I grab the sink for support, the sink flies off the wall and lands on the floor, and smashes. Also, hits my toe, causing me to need to do clean a bleeding toe up and make sure i am not going to get infected if i walk around in sandals.
This was my fault, the sink was not hanging off the wall. However, in my hundrth of a second, I assume the sink will hold my weight and stop me from falling onto the floor. My sink at home would have! However, I could have chosen to grab the towel-rail. Mine at home would not have helped me. The one in nepal may well have. I tested it afterward- maybe would have done.
They got the sink replaced, and I payed them for the sink, not the labour. They had a friend who did the labour. I think I paid Rs2000 nepali, or not a lot of money for me. About what I get paid for an hour and a half of work.
Now, in the new room they gave me, the sink was much sturdier. Investigating the scene afterward, the broken sink was hald up by 2 bits of angle steel stuck intot he wall, and it balanced on top. One bit of steel had corroded seriously, and just snapped off. Because the pipe-work was plastic flexible tube, this did not steady the basin.
a hundred reasons why my sink at home is stronger. However, one main one: I would not allow my water to leak for so long that it corroded a peice of inch-inch angle steel.
Comment About Making Money with Hotel
ash commented about The Rat Trap, On Thursday June 15th, 2006 12:32:00 PM
Why would anyone want an English plug?? ;o)
Comment About The Rat Trap
ash commented about Traveler Malnutrition, On Wednesday June 14th, 2006 12:10:00 PM
The NHS (National Health Service, for UK) published a leaflet recently about the '5-a-day' quota of fruit and veg. I was suprised at how much you had to eat to make 1 portion.
2 facts you might not want to know:
1) however much fruit juice you drink in a day, it only counts as one portion of fruit/veg. This is because the juicing process breaks down the cell walls, and releases sugars which are normally contained. So it's not THAT good for you, and it will rot your teeth if you don't have good toothpaste.
2) vitamin suppliment pills do not take away the need to eat 5 portions of fruit or veg a day. They lack some minerals and they lack fibre. (However, I suspect they are better than nothing).
If I find the leaflet, I will scan or photograph for you.
-ash
Comment About Traveler Malnutrition
ash commented about The World is Small, On Tuesday June 13th, 2006 09:27:00 AM
My constant problem is finding good flight deals. It takes a very long time, and I hate doing it. Currently I am trying to figure out how to travel my own country in my budget. My budget has become smaller. There is a lot in the UK worth seeing, and there are ways to do it if you have a tent and know how to camp out.
I camped in Norfolk on sunday night for one night, and cost me £4 to pitch a tent, that is maybe $7.50 US at the moment. For sure, this is still a little more than a bed in India, however, not a lot more. £3-10 a night for camping in UK. Cook your own food, have a shower, use washing up facilities, all included. The expensive thing is travel, I do not drive, so I have to use trains and buses. Or hitch a ride.
Comment About The World is Small
ash commented about Consuming Me, On Tuesday June 13th, 2006 08:42:00 AM
When I was in Kathmandu, the first place I stayed in was a proper hostel. Cheap rooms with character, but not one to stay in for long except to sleep.
A bar upstairs with good food, a library of books (okay, many in French) and a common room downstairs. It was run by Europeans, so for sure, they know how to run a hostel. (European hostels are great, except for the prices; however, a eurpoean hostel in nepal has nepali prices). Also had cookery lessons and other things. Lots of people in the bar, willing to talk, friendly staff. ARG! fully booked! too good reputation... They made a big effort to accommodate me, however, by the time they told me they had found some place for me to stay, I had another room booked.
The second hotel had nicer rooms, and internet cafe downstairs, however the TV room was deserted. Noone wanted to stop and talk here, they came to sleep or use the net, then leave. Not nice.
And the resteraunt was closed. If I wanted food, they would go to someone else and get it for me, however, not having a resteraunt means less people around.
I spent a lot more time on the internet or in resteraunts and bars, because I was lonely at the hotel.
In the first hotel, I could lock my stuff inside a wall-closet and leave my door open so people can pop in and say 'hi' without taking risks.
So I moved to a lesser hostel.
Comment About Consuming Me
ash commented about Dangerous Travel Mindset, On Friday June 9th, 2006 06:30:00 AM
When we ended up on a tour of the golden triangle by car, we had no choice but to leave our big backpacks in the car. We did not ever fully trust our driver until we had left him and knew he had not wronged us.
when he was not looking, we took photos of him and the car liscence plates. Memorised the address of the place we got sold the tour from. And kept our most valuable items and documents with us always. I was on constant high alert, and hard to relax.
The night before we left, he bought a big bottle of rum and we went into a resteraunt. We made sure we did not drink as much as he did, we needed to remain on-the-ball. Later, he gave us the rest of the bottle as a gift.
luckily, he was just a lovable drunk, and was trying to impress us so that we would reccommend him to others. However, I would be equally vigilant in the same situation again.
Comment About Dangerous Travel Mindset
ash commented about Frustrated in Bali, On Wednesday June 7th, 2006 05:31:00 AM
If you find a really good beach, don't tell anyone, or it won't stay good. he he.
When I was at Palolem, I was thinking 'this is a really nice place. But I bet it was nicer 20, 30, 40 years ago when I wouldn't have heard of it.'
Comment About Frustrated in Bali
ash commented about Mount Merapi, On Monday June 5th, 2006 06:30:00 AM
I saw a few UN and Red Cross veichles in Lakeside, Pokhara in Nepal. This is the tourist part. However, I only saw them here at night, or when driving through to some other place.
I assume they work in the day, and come to relax in the evening.
I saw many Red Cross and UN (Humanitarian teams and the WHO) veichles in the hills and remote places, and they still drive around during the official maoist strikes when everyone else is afraid. I think they do work, but they are people and people need to rest too.
Also, I suspect there are many times when they have nothing to do: waiting for funding, waiting for aid shipments, maybe waiting for a disaster to happen.
In most countries, the Red Cross are bound by government legislations too, so that they cannot just start work unless they are allowed to. Unless a situation is very bad, then international law supercedes local legislation. (and, of course, the Red Cross are protected by the Geneva Conventions).
Comment About Mount Merapi
ash commented about Volunteer Indonesia Earthquake, On Wednesday May 31st, 2006 04:31:00 AM
When I travelled, I always had a survival bag and a 'space blanket' (really thin silver plastic sheet thing which is designed by nasa or soemthing stupid, but only cost $2).
Luckily, I never had to sleep outside. When I was trekking, our guide was worried we wouldn't make the town by nightfall and that he wouldn't be able to pick out the trail in the dark.
I could not get him to explain why he is afraid of the woods in the dark. We were not in Maoist country. To my mind, the danger would probably be some wild Yak going on a rampage. But as our distant ancestors discovered, animals do not like fire.
For sure, I know my english woods are not at all dangerous. Your only danger there is from a mob of drunk teenagers who've found some fireworks. But I know Nepal doesn't have much dangerous wildlife, because the guiode told us this before, and the climate is very much like home- indeed, aside from monkies and Yaks, the natural world could have been in England [if a bit closer to sea level]
So I do wonder at this. I do not fear the woods by night. I have tools to make fire, and knowledge about making fire. I have shelter and warm clothes, and I can figure out which plants to eat sometimes too. I am suprised my guide cannot do this.
Comment About Volunteer Indonesia Earthquake
ash commented about Nepal Photos, On Monday May 29th, 2006 04:34:00 AM
I was always spelling it as Kathmandu. I did not know there was another way.
Comment About Nepal Photos
ash commented about Katmandu Nepal is Home, On Thursday May 25th, 2006 05:46:00 AM
It took me 2 days to decide I could spend time in Kathmandu. At first I thought 'hell, it's as busy as Bombay, I don't want to do that again!' then I relaxed a bit, became less suspicious, and had a better time.
I feel I can be less guarded in Kathmandu, even outside the tourist parts. I spent a day walking up New Road buyuing electronic gizmos. It interests me that some things are the same price the world over: graphics cards, hard disk drives. Yet other things, small things, are cheaper.
But yes. Kathmandu is not like Bombay: I could not live in Bombay. I think I could live in Kathmandu, but maybe I would like a more stable government.
Comment About Katmandu Nepal is Home
ash commented about Searching for Guidebooks, On Wednesday May 24th, 2006 05:28:00 AM
I was paying about $5 a night for my room in Kathmandu. I'd spent 3 weeks in Pokhara before that, and so I knew how much to pay for drinking water, toilet paper, books, internet, rooms, taxis. Internet cost 3 times more in Pokhara. It is price-fixed byt he King. everyone charges Rs99 per hour. the upside to this is, when all costs the same, you will look for the fastest internet.
I stayed in Hotel Florid most of my time in Kathmandu. I forget, but I think it was Rs250 or 300. no more than that. No TV, but the shower was just opposite my room. And there was TV and (slow) internet downstairs. This place was okay. Not fantastic, but okay.
I did not have a guidebook at all in Nepal. I bought a Rs100 map and figured out from that and the internet. When I was at Via Via, They had all the guidebooks on a shelf, but they were all in French. I can get the gist of French, so I read the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides pages in French... :oS
Comment About Searching for Guidebooks
ash commented about Katmandu Nepal, On Wednesday May 24th, 2006 05:16:00 AM
This is very strange. One thing I found in Nepal was there is no shortage of political opinion to be shared. If people are suddenly quiet, I am concerned. The only time Nepalis would not talk about politics was when they thought the police or maoists were watching.
The owners of Via Via Café at the top of Sat Ghumti Road are belgians. This place is a cafe, bar, nightclub and hostel. The food is okay, so I would maybe go there for a meal and see if they will talk to you. Europeans love politics, and will not stop talking about it unless someone has a gun to their head.
I found at the airport people were desperate to carry my baggage from the cab to the door. It is maybe 20 metres. I just say 'I will not give you money' and they laugh and go away.
I think you are right, they are becoming desperate for money. I found this when you enter a shop, they do not want you to leave without buying something... a lot more obvious than normal. They will drop prices much more than they will in India, because small profits are better than none. Although, I try not to exploit this.
I can imagine things have only got worse since I came home in early March.
Peace,
-ash
Comment About Katmandu Nepal
ash commented about Andy of HoboTraveler.com in Katmandu Nepal, On Tuesday May 23rd, 2006 06:10:00 AM
the best connection speed I found in Kathmandu was in an internet cafe in the corner of a street, up near where Sat Ghumti Road starts, and next door to a barber shop and a place called 'pizza hut' (but was not the multi-national one!)
Comment About Andy of HoboTraveler.com in Katmandu Nepal
ash commented about Compared to Perfection, On Monday May 22nd, 2006 06:55:00 AM
you're probably right. Shows how much I know about advertising revenues ;o) I do remember the dot com crash, when advertising revenues dropped massively. People are realising now that we will not click on pop-up ads, we will develop software to destroy them instead. As advertising grows more effective, there will be more money to be made.
Comment About Compared to Perfection
ash commented about Compared to Perfection, On Sunday May 21st, 2006 10:47:00 AM
your website is among the last of a dying breed: websites that make money through advertising.
Outside of pornoland, most websites either don't make money, or make money by their functions: e.g. they are a shop or you pay for a membership.
Those websites that do make money through advertising are normally big communities sites, like blog sites or online games sites, and the advertisers will advertise there because they have 2million members who will all have to see their ads to log-in.
Or, they are subsidised by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc. (I assume blogger doesn't make money, I can't see how it does, they don't advertise or pay to sign up. I think it must be subsidised by some Google philanthropists).
So most people in the West are great at making a website for Joe's Scaffolding PLC. and Congressman Bloggs of No-Wheres-Ville: these sites do not have to make money: they are advertisements themselves. You go there because you want to know more about Joe the scaffy or Congressman Bloggs, or to get in contact with them.
It is very easy to present information on a page. I can do this very well, it is about logic and clear design. It needs to be monkey-proof.
So all the cheap western techies who do a bit of this on the side, like me, can present information. If you want to create Amazon.com or Google.com or Ebay.com style websites, you probably have a degree in computer science, and you're probably charging a fortune per nano-second.
Comment About Compared to Perfection
ash commented about 220 110 Room Heater for Nepal, On Saturday May 20th, 2006 07:05:00 AM
sounds like something I wish I'd had in Nepal. One night while trekking, we were in a room where the windows were not sealed properly. There were gaps between the frames holding the glass and the walls. big finger gaps. so I asked for 2 blankets. fine.
Still froze. I was wearing my trousers, my fleece, my own blanket, their 2 blankets and i was freezing. I very nearly climbed into my emergency survival bag. those are problematic. They will warm you up, yes, but you'll wake up in a bag of sweat because they don't breathe. Still, beats getting ill.
Comment About 220 110 Room Heater for Nepal
ash commented about Tuk Tuk Thailand, On Friday May 19th, 2006 05:06:00 AM
I got ants in my hotel room in Pokhara. They smelled some chocolate I bought... but it was a bit too expensive for me to want to share with them.
so I put the chocolate inside of one of my cotton-zip pockets that I hadn't sewn into my clothes, and saturated the tables with DEET.
I don't like DEET. It's sticky and it smells horrible. And it aggravates my allergies. but it seems to work.
I don't like the huge ants. I went on a killing frenzy with them. zero-tolerance. walking poles are good for squishing.
Comment About Tuk Tuk Thailand
ash commented about Talking, On Thursday May 18th, 2006 06:42:00 AM
I noticed myself speaking in odd ways when i was away. I found quite often I was speaking in india-english. And in Kathmandu, I was speking in euro-english a lot. Even, occasionally, with a euro accent. I have no idea why, but I have 'wandering accent syndrome' I adopt the accnet which surrounds me.
I was in a shop in Sat Ghumti Road, KTM, and I was speaking in a euro accent to the owner. I did not realise, until he said 'so where you from?' and my accent turned into a la-di-da british accent 'I'm from England'. oops.
My travel Agent near Kings Cross has a world accent. We kept thinking, she is Australian. She is South African. maybe New Zealander. She is from Essex, North London. but she has travelled too much: now she has a world-accent.
It's nice buying a plane ticket from a traveller. I was impressed by her. When I came back a week later to get my tickets, she remembers me, my name, the name of my friend, and goes to get our tickets. That is not British service... British people don't serve well.
Comment About Talking
ash commented about , On Wednesday May 17th, 2006 03:37:00 PM
that looks like a long version of a tour i got suckered into doing. You end up spending your time in all the same places as the Beige Trouser Brigade, not fellow back-packers.
In the Hotel, my travel buddy pointed out how the wall decorations were all hand-painted, not patterned wallpaper, and how classy that was. I explained that we generally tell children off for drawing on walls, and that I don't want to know how much more per night a room costs because they've hired some guy to draw all over the walls. Ultimately, did decorated walls and decorative curtain-rails enhance our stay there? No. The beds were uncomfortable, the 'free' shampoo was unusable, the food was disgusting, the air-con didn't work and we were stuck with the beige trouser brigade. Oh, and the swimming pool was out of season.
Give me a cheap hostel any day.
I just spent 2 days working in the south of britain, in the coastal town of Chatham, Kent. We staid over night, as people in our trade do.
Now, this was one of those mass-produced road-side 'travel inn' places. you get a bed, a TV with 5 channels, a shower and a towel. It's clean, but smells a bit. And you could go into any one, any place, and it is the same. same units, same artwork, same brand of cheap shampoo.
This cost my company £55 a night per person. (British rooms you pay per person, not per room). that's over $100US per person.
I'm glad I don't pay the bills. I'd have kipped in the parking lot.
Comment About
ash commented about Nepal or Indonesia, On Tuesday May 16th, 2006 08:12:00 AM
Bhutan: if you are going to Goa, you'll need the India Visa. So I'd suggest you get a flight to Kolcatta from there with Spice Jet (book in advance, and you're looking at under $80US) and then get a train into Sikkhim and cross the land border into Bhutan.
Notes: Sikkhim is restricted access, so you need a special pass. but apply when you get a visa: it's the easiest restricted part of India to go to.
Bhutan visas take a very long time.
Better and cheaper than flying Goa-Kolcutta would be to use the railways. better for the environment, cheaper, more comfortable. But take longer.
Comment About Nepal or Indonesia
ash commented about Capturing the Feeling in a Blog, On Friday May 12th, 2006 04:44:00 AM
The way I see it, the beauty of the internet is the lack of copy-editors. Noone can censor what you say, Noone can refuse to publish you (well, almost).
And, this is why books will not die out, too. Because people place more authority in a book. These are different media, and they work in different ways. Not many people on the internet bother to make their sentances grammatically correct, or even to punctuate them correctly. Even in E-mails between company executives, the writing is more sloppy than it would be on paper.
Let it roll!
Comment About Capturing the Feeling in a Blog
ash commented about Philippines Copy of Da Vinci Code Movie, On Monday May 8th, 2006 04:51:00 AM
When I was in India/ Nepal, I wanted to buy music, because I was getting bored with the stuff I had with me. So I looked around the high-street shopping areas, the local ones and the tourist ones. Every single one is selling copies. Right in real shops that must be in some way registered or authorised to sell.
I am forced to conclude that copying DVDs, Softwares and music is legal in asia. I bought the latest Encarta DVD for a couple of dollars. (I have last year's one legally. I haven't actually tried it yet).
If it is legal in Asia, as i think it must me, then I don't have a moral problem with it. I think we should obey the laws of the country we are in. Copyright is not, i do not think, covered by international law, as much as big corporations would like it to be.
Comment About Philippines Copy of Da Vinci Code Movie
ash commented about Why there are very few backpackers in Philippines, On Sunday May 7th, 2006 08:32:00 AM
My friend, who travelled with me for the first month in India, is currently in Peru. He is there for 2 reasons: 1) to help out the community, doing missionary things. (i th ink building an orphanage or something) and 2) to trek the Inca Trail.
I found I largely had more fun when I was in a place with Trekkers. Trekkers seem to be easy-going people. Active: they don't want to sit on a beach drinking beer all day, they want to be challenged.
Most of the Trekker people were encouraging to me, who does not normally do much exercise. They were friendly, and look out for people. This is a person type i can get alogn with.
If there are people going to Peru to trek the Inca Trail, then maybe I can see why this is a good place. People will be attracted to Peru to Trek, or to see a culture or a history. Not just for cheap beer and cheap girls.
If people are atteracted to a place for a long time, not just a 2 week vacation, then maybe it is a good place, attracting good people.
In Goa, I had fun in Palolem. Nice people, although for sure, most of them on vacation. Adventurous vacation, however. But Anjuna, in North Goa... I could not wait to leave this place. And I will not go back there.
Comment About Why there are very few backpackers in Philippines
ash commented about World Class Solution for Healthy Teeth, On Thursday May 4th, 2006 06:29:00 AM
if the world could merely convince coca cola to take some sugar out of their drinks, then maybe our teeth would benefit...
I remember in science class we put a human tooth in a glass of coca cola and left it over night. It had reduced in size by 2/3s or so by the next day. Now, I dunno how they get a stock of human teeth... some deal or other with the tooth fairy no doubt.
But coca cola is really very very bad for teeth... even if you don't hold it in your mouth for 24hours.
One of my resolutions this year was to not drink any cola, and to cut down on fizzy drinks in general. I only miss these on 2 occasions:
1) when I'm drinking whiskey with friends. Jack daniels lasts longer if you mix it. If everyone around you is drinking pints of beer, you should mix your spirit. or drink water.
2) when I go tot he cinema. It is cheaper to buy coke than it is to buy water. I find this so odd. coke is water, with other things in it which cost money: sugar, flavours, caffeine, colours. it comes in a bottle, like water. yet, even though it contains more than water, it costs less. how?
I am interested in flouride: I use a flouride toothepaste because my mum used to be a dentist. When she was a girl, my grandma never bought flouride toothpaste, because it tasted sweet, so she thought it had sugar in. so my mum's teeth have lots of fillings, and I have none.
However, there is a rich class in Britain who will always drink mineral water. You cannot sell filtered water here, people won't buy it, there is no reason to. (Coca Cola tried a few years ago, and got shut down). But people will buy water if the label says 'filtered through volcanic rocks over millions of years.... blah blah'.
they do not add flouride to this water. And some people drink it religiously. I wonder if they are doing themselves more harm than good... not just financially. (a litre of mountain water here is between $1 and $2 dollars US). hmmm.
Comment About World Class Solution for Healthy Teeth
ash commented about Rosary Friendship, On Tuesday April 25th, 2006 09:17:00 AM
This is very interesting for me to read. In India, the girls are not really interested int he white men. I think they know only too well that most tourists in India are not really good people. They are looking for mischeif.
I am interested in Rosaries. A man at Swayambhunath temple in Kathmandu tried to give me Tibetan prayer beads. His idea is that if he gives me gifts I will tip him well: higher than their value. He acted as my un-asked-for guide. I am talking to another man, and he interrupts and annoys me a lot.
Later, the first man, who I like more, explains to me the other man's tactics. And he asks if he can share my taxi back to Thamel. Sure, this is ok. I like him, I'm going there anyway, I know how much to pay, so he can't cheat me. So I get them to drop me a block away from my hotel, don#t tell them the name, then walk off in the wrong direction until he is out of sight....
Happy to give him a free ride. But not twice.
Comment About Rosary Friendship
ash commented about Hello Sir, On Sunday April 23rd, 2006 11:02:00 AM
In India, I always addressed the men as Sir. And I found they did it back. I even addressed servants and low-caste people as Sir. It makes them happy- the big fat white man respects them.
Comment About Hello Sir
ash commented about Does TV and WIFI Make Me Happy, On Friday April 21st, 2006 07:35:00 AM
Yeah. I like to blog, so I do. :o)
I found I was much happier without a TV in my room in the end. I would read a book every 2 days or less. At home, I am lucky if I read a book every 3 weeks. I have many books, however, they take me long times to read. With a TV, my reading goes down.
Since I am home, I use the TV less. Much less. And when I go to study, I will not have one, I have decided.
I had a channel called 'Star Movies' in Nepal and some places in India. once I figured out when a film would be on (they advertised the shcedule in Hong Kong and Malaysia time only) that was useful.
I was walking home one night, about to watch a movie I wanted to see, and I bumped into a guy I had met and got on well with. A friend on the road.
He asked if I wanted to go grab a coffee, but at first I said 'well, actually I am about to watch a movie. How about lunch tomorrow?' but he left Pokhara in the morning to go back to Kathmandu university for term time.
So I go for coffee with him there and then. I realise, I can watch a movie at home. I can rent this movie. It is far more important to spend time with people.
turns out, they showed the movie channel in the coffee house anyway, so we watched it together!
Comment About Does TV and WIFI Make Me Happy
ash commented about HOTEL SHEETS, On Friday April 21st, 2006 07:27:00 AM
I woke up most of the time with a face full of old matress. Not pleasant. When I was in Nepal, they used the same size sheets on my double bed as the single beds. so on the double bed there just wasn't enough sheet left to tuck into the sides anyway. I could only tuck the top and bottom in. This started to annoy me a lot.
I make my own bed everyday, because I will not let anyone into my room. Everyday I was in Pokhara someone would ask me if I wanted my room cleaned. Every time I say 'no, I bring my own rubish down. where can I put it?' and they just say 'no no, give it to me' crazy people.
Good work ethic: me, I'd let the stupid rich tourist clean up his own crap if he wanted.
There were many times I was glad to have my sleepsack. Many times the sheets or matress were not clean. or not covered at all.
Comment About HOTEL SHEETS
ash commented about USA Friendly Country, On Thursday April 20th, 2006 11:16:00 AM
Are the glory days of Swiss banks over? in the old days, if you held a lot of money in a bank in Geneva, they'd do anything for you, including recieve your mail.
You need a broker or something ;o)
Comment About USA Friendly Country
ash commented about Yossi and Avraham, On Wednesday April 12th, 2006 10:04:00 AM
The kid in the hat reminded me straight away of one of my cousins. This cousin is Jewish (from his mother's side). Funny that.
Comment About Yossi and Avraham
ash commented about Rain and Gloom in Budapest Hungary, On Wednesday April 12th, 2006 10:02:00 AM
That is very true.
Comment About Rain and Gloom in Budapest Hungary
ash commented about Rain and Gloom in Budapest Hungary, On Wednesday April 12th, 2006 01:37:00 AM
Europe rains... that's what we do :o) that's why when all the Europeans went over to America they had to find better crops because the land is not so rainy.
I figure I'd be an illegal immigrant if that was the only option left to me. If potentially being thrown in jail is a better end than living back in your own country, then that says something about freedom back home. An American or a British jail is probably a much better place to be than many other places on this earth that are not behind bars...
In an ideal world we could make it easier for people to do it all legally. but then people abuse the system. it's difficult.
Comment About Rain and Gloom in Budapest Hungary
ash commented about A Volunteer Idea, On Monday April 10th, 2006 11:31:00 AM
Andy, this is real good stuff. I wish more people did stuff like this :o)
Maybe I should explain now why I am leftist politically. I did say I would do it another time!
Firstly, I'm not a Communist. that's an extreme. Stalin and the USSR did not impliment a particularly Leftist system. Lenin's Bulchevic approach was not Marxist. Fundimentally, Communism is meant to come from the people. Lenin decided the people were stupid and imposed it on them. Bad start, terrible period for Russia.
Anyway. I believe in Socialism, loosely.
In Britain, as in most western Europe, we have or have had a socialist government in recent years (last 100 or so). In Britain, it is the reason we have a National Health Service and Pensions and Workers' Rights etc.
These are the fruits, and I think they are good. Socialism says that Communism was right about the need to look after the working classes (Marx calls them proletarians). The argument is that it is unfair for a very small number of people to be rich and to control everyone else.
in 19C England, employers could emply who they wanted, to work the hours they wanted them to, pay them whatever they liked, and fire them for whatever they liked. For the average person (including, for a logn time, children) this meant you got paid less than you needed to live on; got no days off ever, except Mothering Sunday; no health care; and no pension: so if you couldn't work anymore, you died soon after.
Marx points out that this is wrong. Just because you spent some money on building a factory does not give you the right to treat others like this.
He also pointed out something which scared the people in control (the bourgeoisie): that the workers are the 'means for production'; if they stop working en-masse, then the rich people will loose all their money and, then, all their power. Marx tells people to form Unions. If every coal miner goes on strike, then the owners of the mines will have to pay them more to make them work again. And so on.
Socialism looks after all it's people. So a person who is disabled and can't work does not starve to death or freeze on the streets.
In the UK, we have the NHS: National Health Service. Everyone pays a tax called National Insurance, which goes toward this. And, in return, you get 'free healthcare for life.' And the government should legislate for the people, not for buisnesses. We the people elect the government, and they must serve us. They have no other duty.
This means they must legislate in our favour. they must set a minimum wage that enables people to live, not one that employers want. They must set in place laws to prevent people loosing their pension scheme. They must stop us being exploited. They must tell my employer to issue me with a hardhat, safety goggles, a dust-mask or whatever.
Socialism allows Capitalism, but not in it's extreme. it is good to have an open market, provided noone is being exploited. i am happy to shop at Walmart when their apples are cheaper than Tesco. etc. this is good news.
This is why i supported the workers in France for rebelling these last few weeks. Because their government was not legislating for the people, it was legislating for buisness. If employers can fire people without giving a reason, then people are open to exploitation. your boss could fire you because you won't sleep with him. your boss could fire you because you took a week off with serious illness. And so on.
It is true, that these things can be exploited by the workers too. And there needs always to be balance. too far left and you get the USSR. too far right you get Nazi Germany. the good is somewhere in the middle. Socialism is a left-of-centre middle-ground. I think your Republican government is right-of-centre middle ground. I would like America to raise the minimum wage, and to set up better health care. but that's not for me to say. I don't live there, and I don't vote in the elections there.
If people want socialist governments, they will form unions and create a workers' party and stand for election. That's what happened in Europe.
Sorry this was so darn long. I've read too many books!
Anyway, I think what you did for these people was fantastic.
Comment About A Volunteer Idea
ash commented about The Future of Travel I Travel as an Illegal Alien, On Thursday April 6th, 2006 10:46:00 AM
In the front of my passport it says:
"Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hinderance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary."
So a UK passport is essentially a letter from the Queen Elizabeth II of Britain on my behalf, which I may carry, and orders all whom I may encounter to treat me well.
Does being searched at Customs come under 'let or hinderance' I wonder? I have often wondered what the man with the gun would do if I 'Request and require him, in the name of the Queen, to leave me alone' ?
One day, if I'm exceptionally annoyed, I might try it. If I don't get shot, I'll let you know what happens :o)
Comment About The Future of Travel I Travel as an Illegal Alien
ash commented about I am at Penn State University, On Monday April 3rd, 2006 10:36:00 AM
what I love about your site is that it breaks all the rules of making a good website, on the surface of it.
Your front page is a little cluttered, sometimes you spell stuff wrong, and you state your own opinions which most people don't do because they are afraid of upsetting the stupid people, and the background code is untidy. Yet you make enough money to live, and you clearly get lots of visiters.
I think part of the attraction for me is that you're clearly genuine, and you say quite honestly and openly that you're doing it to make money. I respect this.
And I enjoy your opinions, and your experiences, and I like that it's not been edited by 5 people and a monkey before it gets published. Because it feels like I'm reading about a person not an entity.
And I think all of this goes to prove that most web-theorists speak a load of hot air.
I was told once that Google's original mission statement was
'1) make money
2) don't be evil'
Comment About I am at Penn State University
ash commented about The Dysfunctional World Future, On Wednesday March 29th, 2006 01:52:00 PM
I think I disagree with you on both fronts... but I'm too tired to explain why in a short comment, so I'll do so another time ;o)
But I've spent all week agreeing with French peoples. I hadn't heard of the USA thing, so maybe I wouldn't disagree actually, I should find out what is happening.
Comment About The Dysfunctional World Future
ash commented about Brave New World, On Sunday March 26th, 2006 11:06:00 AM
H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds refers to the Brave New World as an underground colony to escape the Martians...
the guy who dreams it up is mad, unfortunately...
Comment About Brave New World
ash commented about Recommending Travel Products, On Thursday March 23rd, 2006 11:41:00 AM
There was an article in the Guardian the other day called 'how big buisness barged in on the bloggers' talking about how people like WalMart's PR company are now approaching bloggers to blog good things about them. he he not so covert, they approach them honestly and say 'we arew working for them.'
the article isn't on the public page of the web anymore, only in the member's archives. I'll email you it.
Comment About Recommending Travel Products
ash commented about Traveling With Bookmarks or Favorites, On Tuesday March 21st, 2006 09:26:00 AM
I think I did this by exporting my bookmarks as a HTML file... I made it display them all as an auto-thing then saved the page. Put one copy onto my webspace, and one copy onto my USB pen. This was good for a one-off exporting all my bookmarks from home to the road. But if I want to update, it is more difficult! I would need to edit the HTML and upload the new version. Pretty easy, but not the most quick way always.
I ended up emailing myself links sometimes to that they were in my inbox.
Comment About Traveling With Bookmarks or Favorites
ash commented about Discrimination by Low Expectations, On Sunday March 19th, 2006 08:38:00 AM
hmm... 2 things..
1) in Nepal i became aware of my own prejudices. When I met (continental) Europeans and Australians, I was not suprised. When I met people from the US and from my country, I was suprised. I assumed that USA/UK people do not want to go to a country that their government says is unsafe. We trust our governments. And I assume that Europeans and Aussies don't care much what their government says.
On the whole, I met noone else at all from the UK in nepal, and about 5 Americans (although 2 had an accent which might have been West Coast Canada) and everyone else was either Australian or European. Or Asian/ oriental, but I figure people are always inclined to visit the countries near their own. Most british people go to Europe for holidays. It's cheap flights and similar culture.
This challenged me again. I was not suprised to meet British and American people in India. I was a bit suprised to meet Australians in Goa, because Australia offers very similar, if not nicer, beaches. The Australians agreed, but they wanted the more laid-back culture. figures.
2) development. I think you are right in many ways. I live in the UK, which is an ancient-macro-society. Europe has been living in cities and having elections and building sewers for at least 3,000 years. We began building machines a few hundred years ago, and so now we're quite good at it.
Africa is a new-macro-society. It wasn't until we collonised it that the people started to live in cities and cultivate large areas of land. They were more tribal, more localised; lotas of small communities with lots of small needs.
America is a young society compared to Europe, but caught up really quick. in 2-300 years America has arguably excelled us. Maybe the speed was upped because the collonising immigrants were Europeans, and thus already had ideas about building cities and having a constitution and a senate... because the ideas existed, it doesn't take long to create the physical infrastructure needed to live in that way.
I think we forget this when we rush countries up. In Iraq, people are upset that the democracy isn't perfect. Well, it's very good for how new it is. It took us about 2800 years to let poor people vote in Europe. About 2940 to let women vote, and about 2970 to let Black people vote. The American Constitution and it's laws and ammendments have been refined over time, added to, alterred, bettered maybe sometimes worsened. It takes time. It is still not perfect, and future governments and peoples will vote to change it again. The same is true in all the old societies.
We shouldn't expect and require all these ancient-micro-societies to go macro overnight. We couldn't do it, they will do it quicker than us because they have models to look at. But they still can't do it overnight. And we shouldn't try to rush them, and we shouldn't deny them the possibility of error. Europe has had it's bloody slaughters. So has the USA. We've had our famines, our drouts, our revolutions, our Coups, our genocides. From what we have learnt, we want to spare the developing world these errors, and humanely, we probably are right to.
But if we step in every time they fall over, they'll never learn to walk without holding our hands.
Comment About Discrimination by Low Expectations
ash commented about Travel Blog by Satellite, On Saturday March 18th, 2006 11:37:00 AM
he he, fair enough! You're right about solar too, noone in england needs this. I do not know why they sell this on the highstreet. Nowhere is away from a plug socket in this country. Hell, if you look real hard you can find them on the streets! Maybe something for the person who likes to camp in the woods, but only with a truck-load of gear. Me, if I'm off into the woods (and i think you've been to the UK, so you'll know that the wilderness here is as wild as disneyland) what comes with me is what I can carry. I wouldn't take anything that needs electrics. Maybe a flashlight. some people 'need' a hairdryer and a refridgerator.
I think I got the prices confused here too a bit. I am thinking you said '£4000' because I think in pounds sterling. You think in US dollars, and I think the exchange rater is a bit over half $1 = £0.57 or something last time I had to buy in dollars. So we say $4000 US is £2,300 roughly. This is more reasonable.
my apologies :o)
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ash commented about Travel Blog by Satellite, On Friday March 17th, 2006 10:05:00 AM
that gadget sounds too expensive. I know Astrium (military and civilian sattelite makes/ engineers/ designers) are saying within a couple years all mobile phones will have a chip in which makes you trackable by satellite. then it up to governments to pretend they won't use it.
cell phones do not have global coverage. but where they do, you can dial into the internet by linking it to the laptop modem. I saw the photographer guy in Goa do this. There is also the same technology availible that you slot into the card bit on the side of laptops. has the SIM in and everything, but no need for cell phone link.#
$4000 is too much money for satellite technology these days. Even a satellite telephone is now around $1000-1500. and a telephone is as a modem does.
in the UK, you can buy a fold-up solar panel that you can use to charge a cell phone or to charge AA/AAA batteries. it cost £70 ($130 approx.) in a highstreet electronic shop. (Maplin Electronics). But noone in the UK would buy one. we don't have the sun in the UK.
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ash commented about Micro Hydro Electricity Generator, On Thursday March 16th, 2006 10:28:00 AM
is that, by any chance, why you had a solar shower taped to a stick? because that could work as a runner to spin something if held in water flow...
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ash commented about Buying Plane Tickets, On Thursday March 16th, 2006 09:38:00 AM
I'm waiting too! I was searching for a flight to New York on Last Minute.com. Never bought from them, but always have a look just in case.
Well I type in that I want a flight roughly these dates, with return, blah blah don't care about stop overs, class of seat don't care, just want it cheap.
comes up wioth the result...
£7000 UK pounds (how much is that in dollars? i'm not sure... maybe 12,000). lots of swear words escape me. Surely I must have made a mistake, I must have asked for a solid gold seat. I must have asked for a military escort!
no... but what it did was give me a hotel in New York in on the price. Oh ok, that's so much better. So I can pay 7K and stay in a 5* hotel for a month. how many months pay is that? on my last job, which paid exceptionally well for someone my age. well after tax, that's around 7 months pay. for one month in New York. give me a break! I didn't want a hotel in New York anyway, I know there are hostels there for a few dollars, I know people who have been. Some sensible people, some idiot people who paid too much.
STA travel says i can fly there direct for £250 UK. yes, this is more sane. Not the best price I'm sure, but it is sane.
of course, I haven't decided I want to go. Normally I look at flights for a month or two before I decide to buy one. shop around. I'd never buy a shirt in the first shop I go into. I might go back there 10 shops later, if the price is right. Why should I buy the first flight I see?
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ash commented about Guatemala Photographer, On Thursday March 16th, 2006 08:08:00 AM
I nearly bought a nice big-lense camera. I could have got it for just a little bit more than my camera i did get. But... I dunno. I don't think I would want to carry such a big camera.
They take great shots, for sure. And great for at home and around. But can i fit it in my pocket?
I carried my camera in my pocket most of the time when I was away. when I was trekking, I could whip out the camera without holding up my friend any more than I was already. If I had to have it in my backpack, then that would have been a problem I think. So I got one that is the size of a double deck of cards all stacked up. And it takes nice pictures enough for me. better than my old 35mm cameras did.
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ash commented about Hotel Security Safe, On Thursday March 16th, 2006 08:01:00 AM
that's pretty amazing! I think only twice I had access to decent valuable storage when I was away. Once in Goa, I stayed in a place called Cozy Nook in Palolem, and they had a room with school-type lockers in, but you had to use your own padlock. good news! but only big enough for camera/ passport.
In kathmandu, the place I stayed that was owned by the Belgians, they had a cupboard set into the wall in my room with 2 doors on it. It had 2 handles on, so I could lock them together and they couldn't open it without pulling the doors off. There is always a way to vandalise your way to soemone's stuff, but it is too obvious.
Unfortunately, the handles were offset from each other diagonally, so i couldn't use my long-shank padlock. I had to wrap my small cable-lock around it a whole bunch of times to secure. if it takes a minute for me to unwind it all, it's annoying.
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ash commented about Guess What this IS, On Thursday March 16th, 2006 07:52:00 AM
the fact that you've taped it to a dowel rod confuses me... I would suggest some other water-heating item like 'hobo kettle' but I'm confused by the stick. the 'yuk yuk' at the begining also made me think it could be a travel urinal...
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ash commented about Who I want to Meet List, On Wednesday March 15th, 2006 11:40:00 AM
One of the books I searched for a lot in Nepal was Walden by HDT. Never found a copy, only online copies. And I am not yet at a stage where I can read books on a computer screen. It hurts my eyes to read for that long off a screen. Plus a book I can lie on my bed or on a beach or sit under a tree or whatever... even a laptop is too heavy. Maybe i can now see why rich people have those little pocket computers.
I think Bill Gates is an interesting guy. people love to hate microsoft... but everyone uses it, so they like it really. Otherwise they wouldn't pay a hundred bucks for it (maybe they buy it in India..)
I think I'd like to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury... I'm about to study theology, and i quite like him from what I know of him.
and maybe the dalai lama.
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ash commented about Guatemala Drinking Water, On Tuesday March 14th, 2006 01:19:00 PM
I remember when I was trekking in Nepal the amount tanks the people had installed to collect spring water as it flowed down the mountain and gathered in places.
In some places it was so clear. I asked the guide 'can I drink this?' and he said 'me yes, but you? no.'
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ash commented about Skype.com Praise, On Monday March 13th, 2006 01:21:00 PM
I think I was a migatory hobo... I worked in the UK, earnt lots of money, went and lived cheap on it abroad... unfortunately I didn't make any money from google ads, but it was a first attempt.
I met a guy in Goa who is a freelance photographer. I heard him talking to his latest commissioners, asking them to pay him from Geneva not New Delhi, as he doesn't have a work visa for India.
This is a good thing about the internet. You can pay me in the UK from yourself in Siberia via a bank in the USA. And so which country am I working in? which one am I payed in? and where the devil do I pay tax? I guess an honest person tells the taxman, and a dishonest person gets hammered by the revenue service when he retires. But when it comes to visas, it's interesting to think that if you are payed in your home country, it's not important where you did the work itself...
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ash commented about How to fix my computer when traveling, On Monday March 13th, 2006 01:12:00 PM
Okay... I know of two programs which should remove Adware, but you probably have them already. If you don't, try SpyBot Search and Destroy (free from Download.com i think) and AdAware which is made by Lavasoft, and is also free. AdAware used to be better, but now they have made the Look and Feel so complicated it almost kills my computers' RAM (I need an upgrade!). But it does the job well, you just may need to close a lot of other processes to let it run it's course.
On the Master-Slave thing, you don't actually need any additional software to do this, if both PCs are running Windows XP. there is a built-in thing called Remote Desktop Connection (Start> Programs> Accessories> Communications> Remote Desktop Connection). You should be able to find step-by-step guides for this in Windows Help or on the Microsoft website (or other techy websites). If you have a firewall, you'll need to either turn it off or give the other user a permission, but I couldn't tell you how to do that as I use a firewall which is different to one you would have (mine runs on another machine), and I haven't used a software firewall for a couple years, which makes me out of date.
If you knew all that already, then I'm sorry!
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ash commented about Cell Phone Travel Problems, On Monday March 13th, 2006 01:02:00 PM
you know, I was writing to someone earlier trying to figure out a word I wanted to use that I'd heard Bill Gates use... Asynchronous! I couldn't remember it. I think I put a-linear, which is both wrong and not a word.
Oh well... education all the way!
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ash commented about Cell Phone Travel Problems, On Sunday March 12th, 2006 09:34:00 AM
Skype is useful... It is basically like internet conferencing, but because they market it as a phone, all the people who are afraid of computers feel okay to try this. Clever marketing.
I bought a headset in Nepal for about $6US after haggeling. they had cheaper ones, but I wanted this nice small one that I could fit in my shirt pocket. I don't want something like a CANs headset that would take up half my daypack.
a lot of the better internet cafes had skype on their machines in India and Nepal. I didn't use it for voice, just IM. but It is good to know they have it there if you can tolerate the speed. I can use the headset back home, though, where it is half the price of the ones in the shops. and too small for Customs to see and want tax for... if they could prove i didn't take it with me anyway.
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ash commented about Blogging Photos or Word, On Saturday March 11th, 2006 09:23:00 AM
he he, man I wish I had a laptop with me when I was in India! I had to do all my work online as I had no way to type until I was on the clock. And it meant I had to use whichever software the crazy internet café thought was a good idea. No photo editing software anywhere, so I have to shrink photos on the camera itself. I could do this, but my friend could not on his camera. So we could not use any of his pictures because they were too big to upload out there.
then I had to transfer them to my pen drive, then upload them in MS DOS because these places do not have an FTP client. I am lucky, I have used computers a lot in the past. I am thinking maybe 90% of travellers would be in trouble trying to put pictures on the internet from a public computer.
and so typing in all the commands, writing the entries online, posting links to the images so people knwo where to find them... replying to emails from my mum and my sister, also online... all took me an hour if i was lucky on a photo day. and sometimes 2 hours if the connection was slow, or my webspace was troubled.
If I could only afford to buy a laptop computer! But for me, I had a choice... buy a computer, or travel. and a little longer in a cyber café compared to staying home? he he not a chance!
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ash commented about Eating Healthy When Traveling, On Friday March 10th, 2006 05:51:00 PM
Ah yes! In india I was quite cautios with fruit... didn't want to eat things with edible peels (at home I live off apples, so this was a problem) and oranges have too many pips.
There were times I remembered I need to eat fruits and started buying cartons of fruit juice in shops if I could tell it was lacking in chemical crap.
Goa was great.. pineapples! and they cut them for you, which saves a lot of effort. of course I made them cut a fresh one for me.
In nepal I couldn't always find fruits. I managed to find a tin of pineapple rings in a shop, which was better than nothing, but not fantastic. I am not a huge fan of GM crops and so forth, but seedless oranges and grapes are truely truely good!
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ash commented about Guatemala Vegetables, On Thursday March 9th, 2006 12:50:00 PM
I want a Sauna... would I use a sauna? I wouldn't in England, it'd cost too much!
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ash commented about Sustainable Social Help, On Thursday March 9th, 2006 12:48:00 PM
When I was in Nepal I bought some prescription medications. I have asthma and all-year hayfever, and am prescribed 5 different drugs, many of which i should get monthly.
In Nepal, I payed £3.30GBP for a month's supply of hayfever pills and an asthma inhaler. At home, I pay £13GBP for the same. £10 more back home, that's $15USD roughly.
I am thinking, maybe they are made by different people. So I read the labels (in English). No. The Inhaler is made in India but by Glaxo Smith-Klein, who operate in the UK. They have a huge research plant in my town... it's the second biggest industry in the town, and always has animal-rights types outside. (the other industry makes missiles, jets and satellites and so guess the crowd!)
So it's made for less there? or maybe they just charge rich countries mroe because they can pay more? or maybe our prices subsidise India? why not make them all in India?
I'm guessing it costs even more in other Western countries, as UK prescriptions are subsidised by the National Health Service, which is funded by taxes. Everyone grumbles about it, of course, but people don't realise how lucky they are! I know many American and European people who have been crippled by medical bills. there are only a very few circumstances that can happen in the UK... we are lucky, but people grumble. he he.
but i wonder why a global company like GSK charges different prices in different countries. It is good that the indians don't have to pay what I have to pay for medicines... they would probably die. But i'd like to ask their accountants how they do it. Especially when things like Sony stereos, Pringles and Haribo all cost the same.
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ash commented about Fat Topless Women, On Monday March 6th, 2006 01:18:00 PM
When I saw this on my RSS, I was wondering what advertisements Google would come up with!
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ash commented about I am not a Guidebook, On Thursday February 23rd, 2006 07:37:00 AM
I'm in nepal at the moment, and I decided not to buy a guidebook. I was fed up with carrying the India one around because it's too big and not very helpful.
So i booked 1 night in Kathmandu via HostelWorld and them went out looking for somewhere cheaper the next day (they charge commission for the online booking of course).
The people running the first hostel were Belgians and gave me a discount for subsequent 2 nights, but they were then fully booked. But they chatted to me about the city, told me some places to go see etc. much more helpful than guidebooks.
And I bought a city map for about a dollar US because the streets aren't named.
I have to say i find travelling on my own difficult. I have a lot of respect for what you do! there aren't many tourists or travellers in Nepal at the moment because of the crap politics, so it's hard to meet people.
I don't think I could cope with India on my own... I was with a friend in India, and it was hard to move for being surrounded by scammers and beggers. Not very pleasant, especially when they won't leave you alone.
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ash commented about Arrived in Grenada, On Friday February 10th, 2006 01:06:00 AM
Oh andy! since I've been in India/ Nepal I've realised just how crap english plugs are. Luckily i picked up a converterfor 35rupees in india, as opposed to about 4GBP at home.
the plugs here are so much more sensible. i can plug in practically any type of plug except UK ones. My camera came with a USA 2-pin round and a UK type plug, and so far I haven't used the UK one at all.
it is insane to me to think why we ever adopted the crazy square plugs.
A lot of appliances now don't need the earth/ground pin because they are made of plastic. We had a TV once at an event, and the ground was just a plastic pin to open up the live/neutral as so many are now. They don't need a contact, so they stick on a plastic pin.
anyway, the pin broke off and i had to try and jimmy the thing open with a lolly stick... which was harder as the plug is the shape to cover the hole :oS
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ash commented about Castro Dying Tour, On Monday January 23rd, 2006 05:05:00 AM
'What the hell, I would rather be like America then against America.'
i'd like to think there's other options... like be mates with america but not necessarily be like them... :o)
I'm preparing to go to Nepal... Looks like communism is on my mind too.
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ash commented about My Love Hate Relationship with Lonely Planet, On Saturday January 14th, 2006 06:01:00 AM
lonely planet... erugh. It reccommended a place in Anjuna, goa. was an utter hole of a place... no idea when the last time it was cleaned.
In Palolem now... far nicer place. Lonley Planet is hit and miss!
It also told us we would need onward tickets to get India visa... not true. :oS hassel.
it is also too heavy.
I think the person who turns lonely planet books into a pay-membership online database will make millions in a day. I would pay a bit more to not carry this bloody thing around with me.
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ash commented about The Road Ahead by Bill Gates, On Monday January 9th, 2006 06:37:00 AM
I think we need the stress to function.
Example: last week I had to go to london to get visas for travel. We got Indian visa fine. We then had to get to the Nepal Embassy before it shut at 12pm. we had 45 minutes.
we had never been there before, didn't have a map, only an address. we got there 3 minutes before it shut. running on adreneline, we made good decisions. logical.
The next day, we had to go back to collect visas. had 2 hours to do it, knew where it was, no rush. at our leisure. got lost twice, including getting the wrong train. made bad decisions.
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ash commented about Dummy Us Down, On Saturday January 7th, 2006 10:36:00 AM
I know what you mean. BBC is still relatively reputable inside the UK because it is government owned, and is therefore legally bound to be intelligent in news. (it's funny, a lot of americans don't trust BBC because it is government owned. But they are more openly critical of Tony Blair than independant Fox or ABC is of George Bush. ownership doesn't dictate clarity of truth).
In Britain, I do not know about elsewhere, there are 2 kind of newspapers. Broadsheet and Tabloid. Tabloids are small sized ones, about A3 size. broadsheets are double this size... not really a practical size to read from, true, but it tells them apart.
Broadsheets are what were read by intelligent people or rich buisness men. names like Financial Times and Daily Telegraph and The Guardian (my paper of choice).
tabloids tell us what new clothes david beckham has bought and sell it on as front page news. they are full of crap about celebrities and attractive women, often topless. papers like The Sun, The Star.
they appeal to people who don't read. people who will believe what they see. they are more interested in polemics than facts.
This is what I see TV doing: it is changing into tabloid and broadsheet.
BBC and CNN are still broadsheets, just. ITN, fox, ABC are just tabloids. not for people who think.
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ash commented about Learning in USA, On Thursday January 5th, 2006 11:42:00 AM
they do do a pre-pay SIM for quad band tho, but not sattellite. sattellite is more expensive than flying to the moon maybe will be if Easy Jet start running return trips from Florida.
Iran has an interesting history this last few decades. You are a reading person... try and get Persepolis by Marjane Santrapi. It is a graphic novel, so very fun to read and different. quirky. She grew up in Iran during the revolutions. this is about her.
It seems that Iran has a mad islamist leader because the CIA and the British wanted to put them in power. So we helped the process along. Even helped dispose of the alternative leaders.
This is all history, and I'm not pointing blame... my country and yours have done a lot of bad stuff, but so have most at one time.
but let us remember that it was not iranians who wanted this government. It was a small number of extreme Iranians, and a lot of overseas powers.
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ash commented about Common Sense is Magical, On Tuesday January 3rd, 2006 11:07:00 AM
I like the Red Cross too. Whenever I feel prompted to donate funds to humanitarian relief, it is through Red Cross I try always first.
Katrina, Asian Earthquake. They are normally there first, and they seem to get results. And they are a non-religious non-cultural group, so it it my hope that they do not offend people locally as easy as maybe Christian Aid or Islam Aid could.
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ash commented about NGO Watchdog by HoboTraveler.com, On Monday January 2nd, 2006 11:50:00 AM
for a lot of NGOs, there just aren't long-term solutions in their sights. for a combination of reasons, some their fault, some not. Unfortunately, I know when big names or companies invest money to charities, they want to see results of their money quickly so they can say "hey look, we're nice." it's a necessary evil.
but it means if i give Red Cross $2million this year, I want to capitalise on the publicity next year or the year after. They know this, and so if they buy a load of aid parcels or jeeps or soemthign, i can say "we bought them 100 jeeps and saved X lives" and people will buy my product.
also, many NGOs have mandates on them which mean they can only do some things in the country or whatever. Red Cross, one of the oldest NGOs, who are protected by the Geneva Conventions, are so bound up by rules etc, as are UN officials and NATO etc.
Part of the solution, i think, will be in GOs... government organisations. because they can legislate to help projects succeed. And International Government, lke the UN should also help more, but too many people have conflicting interests.
I watched the film Hotel Rwanda last night, and it's very interesting. The mass genocides in Rwanda were ignored by richer countries because they had all lost so many men in Somalia recently, and it was bad for public morale. You can kinda relate on a policy point of view, but on a human level... it's disgusting.
There are so many interests to guard. the UN first guards the interests of North America and West Europe. and NGOs are subject to those rules and mandates.
I'm thinking you are right, long term is key. But you're pro0bably going to have to start massaging political egos in Niger at some point to do anything long term helpful.
if you come up with a solution, let me know. I might be able to do something from UK. When i becoe a student, there are no shortage of people looking for a cause to support.
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ash commented about Happy New Year 2006, On Sunday January 1st, 2006 08:22:00 AM
And happy new year to you Andy! where are my manners, I am sorry.
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ash commented about Happy New Year 2006, On Sunday January 1st, 2006 08:21:00 AM
When I read Lord of the Rings a year or two back, There was a line that made my heart leap.
Legolas, the elf, is talkign with his friends. All other elves are going over the sea to leave the world of men forever. And his friends ask him if he will stay. "I will stay, for a time, as I have promises yet to fulfill. But I cannot stay forever. The call of the sea is too strong for me and my kindred. It calls to us. It calls us home."
I've always loves the sea. Sailing out on the sea, seasick or not, is one of the most amazing experiences. It is a whole other world: a world between worlds. A bigger world than ours...
It always calls me... whenever I see water... and I know that If I don't go to it, or cross it, I won't be me ... I'll fade.
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ash commented about GPS Magellan eXplorist 100, On Wednesday December 28th, 2005 08:06:00 AM
oooh GPS! last time i saw one of them in the flesh (except the cheap nasty ones in cars) was about 5 years ago on a yaucht... It had one built in, and we had a hand-held one as backup. They are extremely useful on the high seas... especially if you can't see any Bouys or land... just water. you could be anywhere. But you are actually here.
I think a useful tool for many people who go off the beaten track more than they stay on it. There are some now that bring up survey maps with routes on and everything.... but last i looked (year or so ago) the civillian ones weren't up to spec enough tyo hold every streetmap of the world on... you had to change them via the internet for where you are. Hassel.
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ash commented about Map of Countries Visited, On Tuesday December 27th, 2005 08:15:00 AM
I thought about going to Australia in my soon-to-be travels. But again, I think i will need a veichle and a friend. It is too big, and the railway doesn't really run anywhere interesting.
In England, you are always only 20 minutes from a tourist attraction... Britain is a smalll island, with a long history... so there's always something to see nearby (so much so that noone ever sees any of it, which is probably a sociology dissertation for someone).
Australia it looks like several hundred miles between anything. between supermarkets! gonna need to learn to drive. And, for sure, I'm not rich enough to go round there yet i don't think...
So India. And Nepal. And maybe Bhutan or Tibet. One day I will got to Russia too. When I do this properly.
When I leave on January 9th, it's a warm-up exercise.
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ash commented about Merry Christmas from Andy of HoboTraveler.com, On Sunday December 25th, 2005 02:48:00 AM
:o)
Merry Christmas to you also.
I was in a CD shop a few days ago and was served by a (very pretty) American girl. She wished me "happy holidays" and I think "but I'm not going anywhere..?" then I remember... holidays: christmas. vacations: holidays. :oS
it's a confusing world, but i think she was being nice. everyone in the shop was rushing and getting stressy. It is nice to be wished well when you are aggitated.
I think, in Europe, we would say "happy holidays" is "politically correct"... he he
Why am I on the internet on christmas..?! waiting to go to church.
Merry Christmas to you and all your family and friends. And may the new year be full of joy and peace for all.
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ash commented about World Cell Phone Quad Band, On Friday December 23rd, 2005 09:44:00 AM
triband would be okay if you don't need a cell in the USA though?
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ash commented about Hobo in USA, On Friday December 23rd, 2005 04:55:00 AM
Thanks Andy.
In the UK, the drivers' liscence itself isn't too expensive. But it is expensive to learn to drive.
Most kids pay about £18 GPB per lesson and have up to 30 lessons before they take their test and pass. (not many people pass first time... i think they deliberately fail you first time for some reason).
so that's £540 GBP to pass. or $940 USD.
You can buy a car quite cheap. most people don't spend more than £300 ($520) on a first car... everyone assumes you're gonna trash it.
The insurence company assuems this also. for a male under 21 who has a car, the insurance is not going to be less than £1000 GBP ($1700 USD) for one year. You must have insurence in the UK to drive a car.
road tax is around £120 a year, but this is ok. It means we don't pay tolls on our roads, just an up-front charge. except for major bridges where they still toll.
petrol (gasoline) costs a lot in the UK. It is quite heavily taxed, but also costs more to us now because we don't produce much ourselves (we ran out). I think it varies from around 88p ($1.52) per litre to 98p ($1.70) per litre, depending on supply and demand.
I think, once you pass your test, the drivers liscense is about £30 for the small laminated card. covers admin or something, like on a passport charge.
very few people are taught by their parents, as tests keep getting more complicated... it's different to when they learnt etc.
So I didn't learn to drive. I could maybe have afforded to learn, but then not afford a car. so I didn't see the point. Plus, I go to university in London in next september, and public transport in london is very reliable. And there is the congestion charge in london too. (you pay a tax to enter central london in a car. It is to discourage people from doing it and make them use public transport. London streets are built a long time ago, and are too narrow for today's amounts of traffic... US Consular Officers have refused to pay this tax on advice from the White House, and may very soon be getting a very large bill, depending on the various ins and outs of the law).
so it seemed to me that i wouldn't need to drive much just yet. I'm 18, and you can learn from 17 years old.
I might get a motorbike lisence... these are cheap and easy.
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ash commented about Charles Darwin, On Friday December 23rd, 2005 04:40:00 AM
There are probably quite a lot of interesting missionaries in the first few centuries AD...
Paul, for example, did a lot of travelling, although was largely restricted to the mediteranean.
St.Patrick might be a more interesting character, but after scouring google for the last ten minutes, I can't find a site that'll give me a simple map of where he went. and interesting things happen. "st.patrick's journeys" comes up with things where "journey" has a spiritual meaning. "st.patrick's route" brings links to marches on st.patrick's day... :S
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ash commented about Americans Amazingly Fat, On Thursday December 22nd, 2005 06:35:00 AM
When I was younger, my view of american people was that they are either super-fit break 2x4s on their ass types or super-fat eat a dozen big macs a day types.
your TV doesn't help your image as a country... it doesn't show your average joe... just the super fit and good looking or the super unhealthy.
mostly, european TV is copying US tv... i think they see dollar signs in their eyes... they want some of the cash!
A line from King Kong (the new one) "real heroes don't look like me. They got a pop belly, a bald spot and facial hair. I'm just a good-looking actor who's lost his motivation."
if you're in the US, go see Kong.
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ash commented about Hobo in USA, On Thursday December 22nd, 2005 06:29:00 AM
Is Amtrack worth travelling on? When I was planning a trip to America I was planning to use Amtrack for most of my inter-state trawling... I don't have a drivers liscense (too darn expensive!) and your Amtrak is a lot cheaper than the british railway networks I use when I need to get around here...
Comment About Hobo in USA
ash commented about Travel Blog Confusion, On Monday December 19th, 2005 10:56:00 AM
lots of thoughts there.
Blogging has certainly evolved. When I began, I was a 13 year old who fancied a girl but didn't have the guts to tell her and thought the world might care. to my amazement, with hindsight, a few people did, and so i stuck at blogging.
Now, I know theologians with PhDs and such who blog their ideas. discuss them with other bloggers, until they feel they have enough to write a book or do a lecture.
it's odd to me, because I started purely to speak and rant and so on. I started out by ranting my own views on presidents and girls and musical bands and here are people doing something useful to others... I blogged because it helped me. I didn't really care about the readership.
here is a blog I did on this subject a few months ago after going to a Greenbelt Arts Festival and hearing some discussions on blogging.
for the record, your blog is like a huge public service for me... It's been so useful, as has your site.
Comment About Travel Blog Confusion
ash commented about Why am I Grumpy, On Sunday November 27th, 2005 11:02:00 AM
i've found, in preparing to go to india, that guidebooks are bloody expensive. i put them on my christmas list. if i don't get them, I won't buy them.
i bought a good map of "indian sub continent" from a newsagent nearby (it's an odd establishment... he sells newspapers, porn, chocolate, cola and maps of every country... and he's nowhere near a tourist hotspot...)
anyway... it has small zoomed-in sections for Delhi, Mumbai, Kathmandu etc. This is useful. and tourist attractions are marked on. so i can look at the areas i'll be going to. i can then look the tourist sites up on the internet and see if i am interested.
also, i have a encyclopedia of geography at home here. so i can read about india and see that this place is a holy city and that place makes good rugs or wwhatever. and i look on my map and there they are. you can't carry an encyclopedia with you... maybe get one on CD-rom if there are any good ones. this was simply an old Dorling and Kindersly book.
the map... it folds small, is light and cost £5.99 instead of £21.99 for lonely planet, which is fat and heavy.
ideally, one day lonely planet will release a CD with all their guides on it. or let you join their website... that would be even better. probably expensive.
also... the fact that you recognise where you are in terms of your addiction... that's a strong place to be. remember the warning signs.
Comment About Why am I Grumpy
ash commented about Bamboo Construction in Hong Kong, On Tuesday November 15th, 2005 10:46:00 AM
in terms of ecology, I suppose it depends on the wider picture. If the bamboo are grown in sustainable ways for this use, then good. maybe they are not, probably. But steel works are not good for the environment either. It would be better to sustainably grow bamboo... but i doubt they do this.
On the site where i work, the steel poles get cut all the time. with big petrol-powered angle-grinders. sometimes if part of the scaffold is taken down but part stays up, they can't replace the pole. or they ran out of poles. or they are too lazy...
Comment About Bamboo Construction in Hong Kong
ash commented about What is Germany Doing, On Sunday November 13th, 2005 07:34:00 AM
Germany is in a very interesting political state, and It's one I see being the future of world politics.
Essentially, both the liberal and conservative parties got equal votes in the election. So they had to work together. Which is very hard because of their completely different views on politics. one is neo-socialist, one is capitalist.
The negotiations don't show instability, they merely show how much time and effort it takes to reconcile liberal and conservative politics into a workable coalition.
Imagine if The Republicans and the Democrates both got the same votes. Not one vote in it, but exactly the same. I don't know if American politics can allow this, or whether there are checks and balances for it. But to be truely democratic, we must let the people decide. And if they decide something odd like this, or something stupid like voting in a tyrant, we gotta let them do it. otherwise it's not free democracy, it's something other.
I don't think they are afraid of the USA. I doubt many people outside of Iran and North Korea are at the moment, especially with the presidents' support ratings at 37%.
Which is similar to here in the UK where Tony Blair has been humiliated in Parliament by a party rebellion (they didn't vote in what he wanted, and thank God for that too!).
politics is a fun game... I have been offered a career in it many times, but always turned it down. too much stress!
plus, most E uropean countries can still make decisions, even when they don't know who is in charge. They can't change laws i don't think, but say for example they were under threat etc. Parliaments can still meet in some circumstances in interim periods. I believe this is slightly different in US politicks?
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ash commented about United Nations of Hong Kong, On Wednesday November 9th, 2005 12:26:00 PM
i suppose that is the legacy of post-colonialism. lots of the colonisers move there, and, when the country is emancipated, the colonised move to the colonisers' homelands. there are lots of chinese people in England. And Indian/ indian subcontinent. post-colonialism.
I'm glad to live in a multi-cultural society. I just wish everyone was... then there would be a bit less hatred maybe.
Comment About United Nations of Hong Kong
ash commented about Bamboo Construction in Hong Kong, On Wednesday November 9th, 2005 12:21:00 PM
I'm interested: how is the bamboo held together? is it lashed with coard or is it held with steel clamps like western scaffolds?
I'm thinking bamboo would possibly be better than steel. I work on a construction site, and steel poles are very very heavy. especially the long ones needed for the verticles. some are too heavy for me to carry. (not that i need to, I'm not a scaffolder).
but it is interesting. I wonder how long bamboo can be before it is weak?
all our poles here are steel, but a lot of wood is used for the toe-boards. we don't use metal platforms. they lay planks on the metal poles. But the regs are tight... you can't hop along one plank anymore, you need it all boarded out like floor boards, but temporary.
thanks for this.
Comment About Bamboo Construction in Hong Kong
ash commented about Bakit Hindi - Why Not Philippines, On Saturday November 5th, 2005 06:55:00 AM
a friend of mine from work, who is from Azerbhijan, often says "and how?" for "how was it?" or "was it good?"
Comment About Bakit Hindi - Why Not Philippines
ash commented about Purchased Used Cell Phone, On Thursday November 3rd, 2005 10:29:00 AM
the model number on Nokia phones is printed on a silver label beneath the battery/ cell inside normally. this part cannot be changed as it is the insides of the phone. but you could remove the silver label if you needed to.
Nokia phones are good, but not great. I have used them for a few years for domestic use. The main problem i had with my current phone was that the battery life dropped after a couple years. but I ordered a brand new one from Ebay.com via Hong Kong for £4 including packaging and postage (that's less than $8USD). cheap as chips, but it's a very old model of phone now. newer ones will cost a bit more.
other than that, the screen may die on you. that happened with my old one.
Nokia, at least the simple ones that don't have "moving parts" like flip-open etc. will take a beating. I've dropped mine down the electric stairs on the London Tube Kings Cross lots of times, dropped it off a scaffold tower at work onto solid reinforced concrete, into puddles etc. and the worst to happen is the back came off and the battery fell out. but that can all be clipped back on, so no problems.
they are more likely to die of natural causes or get lost/ stolen before you can break them.
But I'd never buy a phone with moving parts. I don't trust them. I was a student of product design for a couple years at school, and you learn the kind of thing that will break easy. Most stuff I buy gets a good look over.
unfortunately, I was in a hurry when I bought my backpack and forgot to check for lockability. however, a few zippers, some denim and 5 hours of sewing with reinforced thread, and now it can be locked. £5 instead of £75, but a mistake i won't make again.
Comment About Purchased Used Cell Phone
ash commented about Text Message Capital of World, On Monday October 31st, 2005 10:45:00 AM
worth mentioning, it is more cost-effective to buy a sim for each country, unless you move around lots and lots. For example, if you bought one for Thailand, then didn't use your mobile...cell... in Manila etc. then you'd be ok... mainly have them for your longer stops and base station places. global SIMs are good if you want to be always connected (except when you're in deserts, then you need a stellite phone, and they are more expensive than I could ever reccommend)...
I decided I don't want to be connected. only when I want. but then I'm not going for 8 years...
Comment About Text Message Capital of World
ash commented about Text Message Capital of World, On Monday October 31st, 2005 10:41:00 AM
click here these are global SIMs. you prepay, so no monthly fees. They work by piggy-backing on the local network that has the strongest signal at any one time.
You will need a tri-band GSM phone to utilise this well. I could explain all that if you want, but you probably done research already.
you can get aweay with dual-band GSM (without the 1900 frequency) if you don't want to use it in the US/ canada. you don't seem to travel there much. But basically, most phones are tri-band or eve3n quad band (the latter frequency was isolated to New York last I checked) by default, so long as they are not locked down to a network.
Comment About Text Message Capital of World
ash commented about Travel Warnings by Andy HoboTraveler.com, On Friday October 28th, 2005 10:03:00 AM
you know, my biggest danger at the moment is leaving without a Visa card. I go in and out of the bank all day asking for a visa card. they won't give me it because I am a gap-year account. but i changed to that so i could get one. bad advice! because I've never had one before... not needed it, I am cautious about borrowing money. now they can't give me it.
maybe i will travel th world with grand in each sock and see how long i last ;o) If I find a bank to give me one, maybe i'll leave my other bank.
I have only a switch/ maestro with no overdraft. I need a card that will be accepted EVERYWHERE. banks are evil.
Comment About Travel Warnings by Andy HoboTraveler.com
ash commented about Singapore Photo, On Monday October 24th, 2005 09:38:00 AM
ah nice one, thanks :o)
I'm still trying to find the cheapest way to India from England. I can fly from London to Mumbai through STA Travel for £232 or so UKP. Was trying to see if it was cheaper to fly to Cologne, then go frankfurt-India, but there are so many airports it takes forever to figure out!
I don't envy the logistics of what you do, even if I envy the lifestyle!
Comment About Singapore Photo
ash commented about Singapore Photo, On Sunday October 23rd, 2005 07:25:00 AM
In the spirit of sharing knowledge, I just found a website: german wings seems to be a low-cost airline.
can fly london to Stuttgart for £1 UK ($1.80 US approx). Stuttgart being not too far from Frankfurt, and the gateway to Asia...
Comment About Singapore Photo
ash commented about Singapore Photo, On Sunday October 23rd, 2005 06:51:00 AM
Someone I know spends a lot of time in Singapore...
I cannot remember for sure, but i think the story is something like:
lots of war, evwerything is destroyed
fights for independance
wins
rebuilds.
i think that was it. would make sense, if you rebuild all at once, you would be able to plan more than if something evolves over time.
The town I live in in England was a "new town". After the world wars ended, they needed to create big habitation cheap, so they actually planted and built new towns from nothing or little. Stevenage, where I am, swallowed up about 4 villages.
They simply planned everything and set it out, so the roads, cycle-paths, walk-ways and so on all make sense and are named according to themes etc. Very easy to get about. And there are purpose located schools, shops and pubs and churches all over the town to help build local community.
Of course, 50 years on from then, it's evolved itself and looks a lot different. but it still has a co-ordination to it that works.
I think that might be similar to Singapore... a team of people looked at a load of feilds and saw a town.
Comment About Singapore Photo
ash commented about Argumentative Comments on Blog, On Thursday October 20th, 2005 11:18:00 AM
I think the forward to a friend thing is the button that looks like an envelope with a black arrow on it pointing to the right edge.
Comment About Argumentative Comments on Blog
ash commented about Singapore Hostel, On Wednesday October 19th, 2005 02:12:00 PM
Marco: whilst I recognise that Andy does not require me to defend him, I think there are a few things you should know.
1) it is generally considered rude, foolish and afraid to leave libellous comments to someone without publically showing your accountability. If I want to insult you, I will leave an email address or a weblink. I will not put a letter through your door with no return address unless I am afriad of you, or cannot stand by what I have written.
2) you are entitled to have an opinion on anything, and to declare it, if you have the guts to own it. However, you must also accept that not all people have the same opinions and views as you.
3) with 2) in mind, not all people see their lives as having to centre around the same thing. Not everyone wants to work 9-5 in a veal-fattening pen and drive a sports car home to his wife and 2 children and dog called rex. Not everyone will go to church on Sunday. Not everyone will pray to Allah every day.
We find life where we are, and we find reasons to live every day in each minute detail.
Not everyone is going to travel the world for the rest of their lives. If we all did that then none of us would run hostels or pilot planes. We all got our priorities. Just because we differ doesn't make us of any less worth.
I strongly doubt I'll change your mind here, but here's my 2 cents with a link to my blog at the bottom.
-ash
Comment About Singapore Hostel
ash commented about Singapore Hostel, On Wednesday October 19th, 2005 10:16:00 AM
Sorry, this cut off before I finished.
I am thinking of heading out early net year, and I have several months to kill. I am going to visit friends in the US toward the end (maybe July time), but I want to spend some time in India, and maybe do a trek of the Himalaya too.
If you could reccommend anything at all that might help, I would be most grateful.
I think you have my email address... ash_beck@ntlworld.com.
Thankyou,
-ash
Comment About Singapore Hostel
ash commented about Singapore Hostel, On Wednesday October 19th, 2005 10:13:00 AM
Andy, I've been meaning to ask you for a while...
could you reccommend any travel guides for India/ Nepal/ Himalaya? I've been pining over Lonley Planet, but I don't want to buy about 5 of their books to find a better one elsewhere.
Also, if you know of any cheap budget hostels, especially in Goa or Kathmandu, I would appreciate it. I only know of Hostel World ones, and hey... I'm guessing not all the world's hostels are onthere.
Comment About Singapore Hostel
ash commented about Great Advice on Factories in China, On Tuesday October 18th, 2005 09:01:00 AM
haha! you just lightened up my day and made me smile!
I love that poem. I had to learn it when I started senior school... we had a poetic drama teacher. wonderful!
Comment About Great Advice on Factories in China
ash commented about Bangkok to Singapore to Manila to Macau to Hong Kong, On Saturday October 15th, 2005 04:18:00 AM
I was never great at getting scale right from maps. But if these island areas are fairly close, and they seem to be, maybe you need to be looking for port towns not airport towns?
Unless you get chronic seasickness, it's probably worth trying to get a boat from some of these places. Probably cheaper. Will take you longer, but I alwayus get the impression that Time isn't a huge factor for you.
Port towns are generally smaller than airport towns, except in places like here in England and probably USA where we trade a lot of things like oil through our port towns.
just a thought. I like boats. I used to sail for fun. I get a bit seasick, but am not ever sick. just like being on a strange fairground ride that makes you nauseaus. doesn't last.
Comment About Bangkok to Singapore to Manila to Macau to Hong Kong
ash commented about Research and Travel, On Wednesday October 12th, 2005 12:12:00 PM
yes, I can also verify what Lost Budgie says... word verification works a treat, and won't turn most readers off posting unless they don't have a graphical browser... and most people do these days. times have changes for the better.
Comment About Research and Travel
ash commented about Research and Travel, On Wednesday October 12th, 2005 12:11:00 PM
It would seem to me that an atlas that big would be better suited to CD ROM or internet than books. Sure, it would be more handy in a fix for a book... but a hefty old weight in your pack for the hobo.
Maybe they shoudl print it on that paper they use for small bibles and dictionaries... very thin.
Comment About Research and Travel
ash commented about Internet Base Needed, On Monday October 10th, 2005 10:19:00 AM
I was in London a couple days ago. In one of my favourite streets, Charing Cross Road (full of bookshops of second-hand books, great prices for poor people like me) and I see many men holding plackards pointing to cheap internet access. I never used them because I am an hour from my house and I'm never that desperate for internet. However, I will be living in central London when I go to study. So If i check any of them out that are any good, I will post you directions.
I cannot reccommend what I have not tried. But I can say there are lots there... just not if they work or are cheap. But if you're in london, go to Charing Cross Road. If nothing else, buy and sell some books... it's attached to Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road tube stations... in between them.
If you're lost, Ask someone for "Foyles" bookshop, and you will be on the road and can see the cheaper shops round the corner.
I find books here cheaper than amazon... I rarely buy books new.
Comment About Internet Base Needed
ash commented about Blog Log Journal or Diary, On Friday October 7th, 2005 10:49:00 AM
Andy my friend... I know the feeling!
i've been blogging since the early days of this century. back in early 2000, noone except a few sociopathic nerds with an enormous amount of programming skill knew about blogs and blogging.
I got dragged into it via a site called "Open Diary.com" and ended up having to learn HTML, CSS and all that gubbins just to make something go bold, or to create a single-line-break (i wrote poetry, so i needed this).
back then I wrote about who I fancied, what i thought of the world, where I was at in life, my thoughts. Poorly spelt, poorly laid out, ungrammatical and always either ranty or hyperactive.
when I decided I wanted to study theology, I noticed there were theology blogs. This is how i found Blogger.com. proffessional, published theologians were thinking aloud.
and so my perspective changed... I thought maybe blogging could be an accompaniment to books. an alternative... books are aso darned expensive! especially academic works.
So now I have a blog on blogger where I try to be vaguely intelligent. And a blog on Open Diary where I write what I like from "today it rained, and I bought 10 jam dohnuts for 20p on offer. yum." to discourses on my favourite philosophers.
I admire what you're doing here. I love that you don't want to be a writer. I love that you're honest. I love that, sometimes, you offend me, and most times you challange my outlooks. I love that sometimes you spell thigs wrong, or you get grammar wrong. It makes you human and real. I am inclined to believe you. The first time I read your site, I believed that you were a hobo traveler, I did not think "this is a guy making a buck by writing good fiction." And trust me, I'm a cynical git a lot of the time.
So I'd keep going. If this helps you, keep goind. Blogging for me is theraputic. I like to write what I think. It helps me develop ideas, and it helps me look back (and cringe/laugh/cry/rejoice) at where I've come from, and how I've grown.
If you ever decide to retire and write guidebooks, I'm sure they'll be the best damn guidebooks in the shops. However, if you have them edited, I'll send you a stern letter reminding you of your roots!
Comment About Blog Log Journal or Diary
ash commented about Bangkok is Convenient, On Thursday October 6th, 2005 11:28:00 AM
taxis in britain are rubbish. too expensive. I only use them when I can't do anything else. if it's too far to walk, or unsafe. (or if i can charge it to someone on expenses).
sometimes if i go out and drink a bit too much to walk home safely, I will get a taxi with friends. cheaper that way.
this is why i find it hard to believe people tip the taxi driver in other countries... here it is too expensive already! I guess i assume everywhere is this bad.
buses are better in most parts of the country though. and trains are reliable and cheap (ish). London is great for public transport... can't wait to live there next year!
Comment About Bangkok is Convenient
ash commented about Bangkok Hotel Problems, On Thursday October 6th, 2005 11:20:00 AM
if it's just a visit, why do you have to meet at the hotel? you could go somewhere more public?
Comment About Bangkok Hotel Problems
ash commented about I am Amazed at High Price of Hotels in Mumbai, On Thursday September 29th, 2005 10:19:00 AM
I saw a thing on TV a while ago about Mumbai... really expensive place. It's cashing in on tourism large.
so is Dubai, which is really confusing.
Comment About I am Amazed at High Price of Hotels in Mumbai
ash commented about Quasi Intellectual Science Dribble, On Saturday September 24th, 2005 02:20:00 AM
I like the way you write Andy. It seems to me to be honest and open. And that is more valuable than any guidebook will be. Guidebook people will, eventually, want money for what they do.
Well, I'm sure we'd all like some money, but that isn't what you're about, and I am glad.
peace,
-ash
Comment About Quasi Intellectual Science Dribble
ash commented about No Shovels in Niger, On Thursday September 15th, 2005 09:33:00 AM
I read in some survival book that the best way of getting your veichle out of deep sand is to let the air out of the tyres. This gives a larger surface area, and works a bit like a catapillar track on a tank or a bulldozer.
Not having a veichle or a local desert (or beach), I haven't tried it yet...
Comment About No Shovels in Niger
ash commented about Buying Candles in Niger, On Sunday September 4th, 2005 07:16:00 AM
corporations like PDF because you cannot edit it. So i cannot take your report and stick my name on it and call it mine.
the new adobe lets you copy text, though, so it may lose it's appeal. but you still can't modify it...
Comment About Buying Candles in Niger
ash commented about World Vision Org, On Sunday September 4th, 2005 06:48:00 AM
my friends and I did a sponsored fast for World Vision earlier in the year...
Comment About World Vision Org
ash commented about Rogets Thesaurus says Arab is Hobo, On Thursday August 25th, 2005 08:38:00 AM
he he people are too sensitive. It is an accurate definition. We shouldn't use it as a word, perhaps, but we shouldn't lie about what things mean. it's long been known here as a word like "urchin". in the old times, street children and chimney-sweeps were called "street urchins" or "street arabs".
i once heard a christian preacher express anger that the first definition in the OED for "Jesus" was "an exclamation of surprise, dismay, etc."
people need to be less anal most of the time. we take ourselves too seriously.
Comment About Rogets Thesaurus says Arab is Hobo
ash commented about Telephone Call Cairo to USA -One Dollar Per Minute, On Tuesday August 23rd, 2005 02:56:00 PM
the plus signs are weird. in England, the country-code is +44, then the area code (mine is 01438) plus the phone number of 6 digits.
so, to call me from my town, you'd enter 555123
from another town: 01438 555123
from another country: +44 1438 555123
you see in the last one, the 0 comes off and is replaces by +44.
it's all rather silly really.
Comment About Telephone Call Cairo to USA -One Dollar Per Minute
ash commented about Jerusalem my Opinion, On Thursday August 18th, 2005 04:28:00 AM
Your view of democracy is considerably higher than mine, as is your view of Mr.Bush. I do not think it is possible to look at people like Mr. Bush and Mr.Blair and say that democratically elected peoples will not abuse power. I do not think they are evil men, but I do think they act outside of the powers they hold, and whether the consequences be good or bad, this is still not to justify the means; at least not in my approach to ethics.
Lest you disagree, and you likely will, let us not forget that Mr.Hitler was a democratically elected head of state... whatever our views on contemporary figures, there can be little doubt about this person's nature and abuse of power.
Marxism is based around an idea: the idea that all people are equal. This in itself is a highly biblical idea. So is the idea of not exploiting people for material gain. Unfortunately, the USA and the UK do not follow these particular fascets of the teaching of our Lord.
I will agree with you, that Communism hasn't worked how it should have. It has bred power-mad people, and has seen far more suffering on it's own shores than our own politics does. (Our politics is quite efficient at neatly keeping the suffering in other countries and out of sight).
But this is not what Communism is meant to be. Communism is supposed to come from the people, as a revolution, and would represent the views and the wishes of the people (the ultimate democracy). In the USSR, however, this did not happen. Instead, Mr.Lennin decided that he would try and force Communism onto the people. He, the other Bolcheviks and later people like Mr.Stalin, had a plan to use Communism to their own end.
We have never seen a proper Communist state on this planet, with the possible exception of Cuba (the poorness of which is largely due to the US and the rest of us refusing to trade with them and being, frankly, remarkably arrogant).
Anarchism is not about breeding hate and hysteria, even if a few nuts use it to that end (such as those from the Black Bloc who smashed up Glenegles at the G8 summit recently).
Anarchism proposes that centralised government (using the term "oligarchy") does not and cannot take into account the interests of all the people. It proposes instead a collective of local governments that serve a local area. Very similar, perhaps, to the system in the USA, with seperate judicial systems and laws and rules for your different states: taking into account the views of the people in those areas may be different from elsewhere in the US. It would work like this, but on a smaller scale still. In some systems these would be linked by a "federal" type system, in others not.
It is rather absurd to make such vast generalisations about things, and I am at a loss to find exactly how this is a biblical principle. I think you will find that Christ was rather against polemics on the whole..
Comment About Jerusalem my Opinion
ash commented about Rudyard Kipling, On Wednesday August 17th, 2005 11:18:00 AM
he certainly travelled a lot. He lived, I believe, for a breif time in the villiage neighbouring my town, in the house there which would once have owned the estate back when lords were big landowners.
I think his daughter or neice lived there more permanently. Knebworth House is the name of the place... these days more famous for hosting Oasis and Robbie Williams concerts (and Queen, i think, once upon a time).
Comment About Rudyard Kipling
ash commented about Jerusalem my Opinion, On Tuesday August 16th, 2005 09:53:00 AM
given the recent political history of Jerusalem, it is, perhaps, understandable why one may wish to see a system of government that does not have a system or a government... We live in- or come from- countries where the governments, however we may dislike them, do not oppress us and do not cause us direct harm (mostly). If they did, perhaps we, too, would want to be rid of them?
Comment About Jerusalem my Opinion
ash commented about Britain Says not to Visit These Countries, On Sunday July 31st, 2005 08:32:00 AM
I am suprised that India is still on that list when Nepal isn't... odd.
Comment About Britain Says not to Visit These Countries
ash commented about I am proud of England, On Saturday July 30th, 2005 09:34:00 AM
he he he France will always be different. That is why I like France... They don't really care what people think... in their eyes they are great, so fair play to them.
And they do make pretty good food...
Comment About I am proud of England
ash commented about Hobo Travel Tips Newsletter from Krakow Poland, On Sunday July 24th, 2005 10:18:00 AM
hey,
I found this book that is availible free online in various formats. I read, I think, about a hundred pages before i had to rebuild my computer and lost my version, but I found it again.
May or may not interest you, but it's free so I thought I'd pass on a link.
-ash
Comment About Hobo Travel Tips Newsletter from Krakow Poland
ash commented about Transliteration, On Tuesday July 19th, 2005 09:59:00 AM
Ah transliteration! comes in so handy for biblical scholars when trying to explain how to pronounce a greek word etc.
but yeah... I'm reading Hymalaya by Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame) at the moment. He notes that he didn't realise as first that the locals pronounce "Khyber Pass" as "Hyber Pass" (if they use the word pass anyway).
Comment About Transliteration
ash commented about Sadistic Hobo in Poland, On Sunday July 17th, 2005 06:42:00 AM
I come from the certain type of church background where you would probably be seen as quite normal and cordial...
There is a guy at my church who hugs people to make them uncomfortable. It's what he does. If people try to pull away too quickly, he kisses their ear... He will do this to men and women, old and young. It is quite amusing tto watch people squirm... but a hug can be invasive of people's boundaries so not useful for the hobo traveler I would imagine... you could get killed for doing that to the wrong people.
Comment About Sadistic Hobo in Poland
ash commented about Waking with the Sun, On Saturday July 16th, 2005 01:22:00 PM
I live in England, and the sun rises where I am (outside london) about 4am and sets about 9:30pm. Last night I walked through the night with some friends. The sun had already set when we begun (about 10:40pm) and we finished at 7am. We saw the world grow light long before we saw the sun on the horizon... the horizon was close, as there were hills and trees. It is best when by the sea, as is the moon-rise.
I read this week All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland- one of my favourite post-modern writers. In it, someone said "you never leave the Bahamas. You try, but once you've been the only place you want to be is there. Nowhere else compares. They call to you." or something like that...
Comment About Waking with the Sun
ash commented about I apologize to Korea, On Saturday July 16th, 2005 01:11:00 PM
I must admit I hadn't noticed it, and I studied the Korean War in history class!
It is true that Marxist countries normally emphasize their democracy and the fact that they are for the people. This is the theory of Marx, and the proposed outworking of socialism. In terms of communism, we all know that that didn't quite work out as it was planned to by those who tought it up- it was hi-jacked by some very crazy, very evil men.
Westernised (capitalist) countries generally don't bother to emphasize their democracy. And being about the people is not what capitalism is, per se. Although, ironically, a lot of people would argue that it serve the people better.
I am a socialist in political persuasion, but am a capitalist in practise. that is the nature of the place i live and the world I grew up in.
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ash commented about London Bombers - Are they the Devil, On Friday July 8th, 2005 07:01:00 PM
I agree that the Ugandan LRD are not representing Christians! my point is equally Al-Quaida do not represent muslims.
Muslims, under the rule of Jihaad, are allowed to fight. However, there are similar conditions on this to St. Thomas Aquinas' view on Just War in his Summa Theologica.
Muslims may only fight against a corrupt and oppressive government, and only if it is the last option. For example, Muslims in Zimbabwe wouild be justified in fighting Robert Mugabe's reign of terror and evil. They would not, according to the Prophet Muhammed*, be justified in killing innocents in London, even if Tony Blair's government was an evil regime.
Extremeists, however, will use religion to suit their own ends. They do not like the West, and they want revenge for what we have done agaisnt them (and let us not for one moment deny our history). They are in the wrong as the Ugandan "Christians" are.
And Christians are still responsible for evil now against homosexuals in the USA. There is a case now where a 16 year old gay boy called Zach is being held against his will at a "treatment centre" because his parents think he is evil. They are stupid morons.
There is the KKK, who are as Christian as Al-Quaida are Muslim.
And evangelicals still have a pretty negative view of women in the church.
I am a Christian, and I am a former evangelical. And I am about to do a degree in Theology. I do know a lot about religion, it is the subject I study.
And I tell you Christians have been responsible for as many evils as Muslims.
I stand in solidarity with normal Muslims, they are people and I love them as such. They have done nothing wrong, but some people take their name and make it associated with bad. Do not forget the log in our own eye.
*The blessing of Allah be upon him and peace.
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ash commented about London Bombers - Are they the Devil, On Friday July 8th, 2005 11:57:00 AM
you've clearly never been to London! The Muslim community in London is outraged. 2 bombs went off in predominantly Muslim areas of London. Muslims here were attacked by media and bigot after 9/11 when they had done nothing wrong.
The Muslim community here renounces this acts absolutely.
And I am not sure where Christians are so perfect all of a sudden. Christians in America are responsible for some of the worst persecution imaginable against the homosexual community. Christians in America and England and other countries used the Bible to justify the slave trade and the oppression of the poor and the oppression of women. Still do on some of these.
in Unganda there is the Lord's Resistance Army which rapes and slaughters many in the name of God and Jesus. And let us not forget the crusades against Islam itself.
These acts that happened yesterday happened not all that far from my town. I am not far from London. People from my family travel to London everyday for work, through Kings Cross Station.
And still I will tell you I do not hold this against Muslims. I am a Christian and I go to church. And I do not hate Muslims. Muslims are good people.
Some people do evil and use religion to justify their views. they say "I am Muslim, God says I should kill you/" they say "I am Christian, God tells me to kill you." They speak lies.
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ash commented about Lithuania Architecture Photos, On Thursday July 7th, 2005 05:12:00 PM
It looks like a stone building with rendering on the outside to me. A bomb shelter or silo wouldn't have windows?
I reckon it's a converted windmill... but then I like windmills so i'm biased.
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ash commented about London Bombers - Are they the Devil, On Thursday July 7th, 2005 05:04:00 PM
By that token, all Christians are racist, blood-thirsty, war-mongering rapists then surely? Of course they are not, yet some will act badly and use religion as a justification for their actions. These men are not muslims, any more than the Lord's Resistance Army or the IRA are Christian. It is an excuse for them to do the evil they will do anyway.
I am a practising Christian, and I am ashamed that there are people who act this way in the name of what I believe in. And it is the same for Islam. The majority of Muslims are normal, everyday law-abiding folk like you or I and they should not be thought as the same as these men who do this in London.
Besides which, they still have no absolute evidence that "Islamic" extremeists are to blame. It is merely their best guess so far.
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ash commented about Lithuania Architecture Photos, On Thursday July 7th, 2005 05:49:00 AM
that last picture looks cunningly like a de-commissioned windmill. There are a lot of them all over Europe. They used to have huge sails that powered machinery to grind grain into flour. Most of them, now, have had the sails removed and are either abandoned or converted into a home or sometimes museum.
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ash commented about Bauska Latvia Bed and Breakfast, On Monday July 4th, 2005 12:02:00 PM
The yellow flower is probably a form of rape/rapeseed. It is grown for oil.
They grow a lot of it near me and it it not good at all for hayfever.
click for a picture to compare.
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ash commented about Proper Englishman, On Friday July 1st, 2005 03:17:00 PM
It's always nice to know there are some "good" englishmen around out there as well as all the arrogant shag-aroung-the-world types there are. (there's nothign wrong with sex, just there's got to be respect in it, and more and more from here are out for the quick-****).
It's taken me time and many Americans to appreciate you guys. I'm ashamed to say that I used to think all Americans were the same, but you are not. I would not like to be judged by the bad people of my society, and after a while I came to realises that all people are different in their way, and we must take people as they come.
So it's been very interesting and helpful for me to read your blog, to see your perspectives on the world and see your openess and to learn a bit from it too. And you are very much a credit to your country and your family and yourself.
kudos.
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ash commented about Firewood Heating, On Wednesday June 29th, 2005 07:04:00 AM
i can't be certain, but it looks like a septic tank, but one that is overground which is unusual for the UK. It is possibly what you said about cow dung... that would seem to be a form of septic tank come generator device...
those little house-box things are fascinating. does the heat travel under the floor in channels like in the Roman days maybe? you're right though, if it is pine you'd have to go outside a lot to put in more.
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ash commented about Signs of Alcohol Use, On Wednesday June 29th, 2005 07:00:00 AM
i want a hip-flask... Makes drinking whiskey seem so much more sophisticated! I suppose the hobo-way would be the bottle in a brown paper bag... but hey... why not have luxary every once in a while.
I realised the other day that when I go to America I won't be old enough to buy alcohol. That is quite upsetting. Not because I drink a lot, but because I like going into bars, especially ones with live music. And I would assume that, like here, if you're not old enough to drink you're not allowed in at night. shame that.
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ash commented about Travel Writing, On Tuesday June 28th, 2005 03:15:00 PM
there are a thousand "pointers" we could give you and tyhere are about ten thousand you could give back. my spelling is crap and i never remember capital letters.
to hell with it. I was, until recently, an english student and i don't care. i'm here for WHAT is written, not how.
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ash commented about Wikipedia.org Convention Frankfurt Germany, On Monday June 27th, 2005 09:41:00 AM
actually, my address is not on my blog it seems. so click here instead.
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ash commented about Wikipedia.org Convention Frankfurt Germany, On Monday June 27th, 2005 09:38:00 AM
you might find This useful... it's the W3 (World Wide Web Consortium) tutorials site. Quite a good introduction to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which are really the best way of formatting anything to do with webpages.
i use some of it... it's more an extension of HTML than another language (unlike Java), and is very intuitive.
For example:
< *Span style="*color:red;*font-size:20px;*text-decoration:underline;*background-color:cyan;"*>Hello Andy< /*span*> (remove the stars)
would give you the words "hello Andy" in red, size 20 font, underlined, on a cyan background. For one command only, like underline, it's easier to use the <* U*> tags. but for doing lots of formatting, it is useful to use CSS.
CSS can also format all similar elements in a page (you could set it to make all links red and turn green when you hover the mouse on them), and can also be made into a seperate file which all your pages link to for their formatting. you just make it in Notepad and call it "something.css" and then tell your pages to link to it. Then, when you want to change your site you don't have to change every page, just this one file.
It tells you how to do a lot of that on that website. If you need pointers, email me (click on my name, my address is on my blog). If you know all this already, then I apologise!!
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ash commented about I enter the learning curve, On Sunday June 26th, 2005 07:35:00 AM
you should get a tent. Some european countries have laws allowign you to camp anywhere for 1 night. I think Norway does this, but you'd have to check for places. but normally, at least in england and westernised countries, you pay a small fee to pitch up, and you get access to showers, electric etc. Normally hostels will let you pitch on their land, and is cheaper than a room.
but tents are not for everybody. I like tents... but i would happily sleep in the forest on just a groundsheet with my sleeping bag. (despite my allergies).
not all places would be safe for tents though... I am used to a decent police force and a country where it is illegal to have guns and knives.. most people are no more dangerous than their fist-fighting skills.
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ash commented about Webby Awards, On Wednesday June 22nd, 2005 06:16:00 AM
I am happy to advise and help you if you know what you want. I won't charge you unless you want more than i could achieve in my free time (i have quite a bit of free time). I also use the same blogger template as you, so i have figured out how to change some bits.
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ash commented about Berlin Architecture and Recycling, On Wednesday June 22nd, 2005 06:13:00 AM
he he we just moved over from those ones to the door-collection boxes here, or at least in my town. We still have the big communal ones too, but they are like dumpsters now with labels, and they are locked into a cage so they don't get stolen. They can't lift the tops like a dumpster unless you are the collection people.
we now have a plastic box for glass, another for paper and cans, and a brown wheely bin for "garden waste" in every house. People are lazy. they won't bother to recycle if it's easier to throw in the trash.
Also, it mean someone now has a job who wouldn't before... combats unemployment and means we don't have to pay as much taxes because less people need the Dole. Or that woudl be true if there are enough jobs from it, i don't know.
They have paper-recycle boxes in my school now too... that is a good idea. Schools waste too much paper.
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ash commented about Travel 220 Electricity, On Wednesday June 22nd, 2005 06:08:00 AM
ah yes, English plugs! I'm not looking forward to trying to travel with them. .. As someone who "messes about with electrics" sometimes, I often wonder why we are the only country with Earth. Earth is the third pin... most appliances don't even use earth. Especially now with plastic casings. 30 years ago when eveything was metal, okay, earth was a sensible idea.
even in england things vary. I used to do stage lighting, and there are about 4 "standards" of 3-pin plug for that, mostly round. plus the "euro-socket" which is best called "kettle-plug" which is the 3-pin trapeze shaped plug for computers and kettles.
and then there's heavy-duty cables... some of those are 5-8 pins. it's silly.
but there we go. crocodile clips and solder it is! (if you carry a small bit of solder, you can normally heat an old metal nail with a lighter to melt solder for emergencies. I only recently got a solder iron and i wouldn't travel with one anywhere. Also, make sure you don't get burned on hot nail... needs a handle!!)
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ash commented about Webby Awards, On Tuesday June 21st, 2005 09:53:00 AM
I like it mostly... Sometimes i find the top of the blog a bit cluttered, but it's not hard to scroll down!
I can't every get your shop pages to work... I wondered if this was because you aren't open for buisness at the moment? Anyway, i'm not buying for about 8 months, so it's not important to me just yet, but it might be important for you if it isn't deliberate...
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ash commented about Let's Go, On Tuesday June 21st, 2005 09:48:00 AM
Andy- we can't use HTML to make links on your blog. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't allow me to...
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ash commented about Let's Go, On Monday June 20th, 2005 07:21:00 AM
says a lot about the reliability of their hostel-rating then! not sure i would want to trust the opinion of someone who hadn't slept there.
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ash commented about Eastern Europe, On Monday June 20th, 2005 07:16:00 AM
Enjoy germany first. I have not been, but i will. My friend's family are german. Go to the villages. The Baravian part is beautiful. See the Black Forest. trek through it if you like woods...
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ash commented about Where to Run, On Monday June 20th, 2005 07:14:00 AM
My home is where I am, and my job it whatever I'm doing.
Okay, so i have no money, But I'm alaive and I got friend and i got my sandals, so i don't mind much. Money is a means to an end. I do not desire money. Sometimes I require it to fulfil needs. Sometimes I wonder that it might be nice to have a billion cool gadgets and a mansion and twenty cars and perhaps a small brewery and a super-computer and a really really whizzy MP3 player...
But i don't want that really. I'd be bored. I don't understand the philosophy of work in the West. People work 49 weeks a year to fund the 2 week holiday in Ibiza where they get drunk, stressed, and come home feeling rubbish. They work to pay for a lovely house they never visit because they are at work. they pay for a computer to work from. They pay for their car to get them to work. They pay for resteraunt food so they can spend more time working. work work work work.
Work funds work unless you have a dream. if your dream is to travel, then travel. Do not stop until your dream changes.
This is why I am confused with Britain. I am confused with the West... the USA and Britain mostly... we work for work. We are told that we must buy buy buy. We are told that job is fulfilment.
I do not buy into that dream. I want to be truely free, not free to work. I want to learn. And I want to see things.
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ash commented about Belin Hostel, On Wednesday June 15th, 2005 08:44:00 AM
http://www.hostelworld.com/availability.php/DavidsCosyLittleBackpackerHostelBerlin-Berlin-2147
That is the place i looked at when i was thinking of doign germany (obviously i'll cheack again nearer the time).
in case the link doesn't work, it's called "David's Cosy Little Backpacker Hostel Berlin" and looks rather nice. it's $17.48 for the 10 bed room which is a few dollars less by the sound of it. (im' sure it looked cheaper in sterling!)
has all those lovely things like free kitchen and book-swap..
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ash commented about Berlin, On Tuesday June 14th, 2005 12:51:00 PM
just say "eine mass bitte" if you want a litre of beer...
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ash commented about Packing for Europe, On Saturday June 11th, 2005 06:55:00 AM
yes, Taxis here are extortionate. but then fuel costs a hell of a lot in most of europe, especially the UK, due to tax.
the best bet is always buses. Tehy ain't great, but they are ok. In london, you can go anywhere in the city on bus and tube for a certain amount... (for me it is £15 because I also have to get the ticket into london from where i live, but i think it's about £7 just for london... which is a heck a lot more than New York!)
if you're in England and you need to get between big cities, check out
http://www.megabus.com/
you can get around from anything from £15 to £1 depending on the times you go etc. it's made for students traveling to university, so it is generally cheap because students are poor and most of them are savvy about saving money. sometimes you'll get nicked, but you shouldn't get gouged.
as a breif aside, i was doing a google image search yesterday for "fish and chips" and "paper" to show my friend in Minnesota, and one of the better pictures was from your very own site :o)
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ash commented about Windows 95 in Chicago, On Friday June 10th, 2005 09:35:00 AM
not so helpful to the hobo or the money-conscious though I'd wager... ;o)
Of course, there are free alternatives to Windows as an operating system these days...or at least very cheap ones.
and Open Office and Mozilla provide all the rest really.
Eventually, if you sell a product cheap you make more money because more people will buy it instead of ripping you off. if you sell it really expensive, people look for copies.
CDs are cheaper here now. they used to be about £15+ they're now about £9. So now I buy them instead of using Kazaa and stuff, beacuse it's reasonable prices.
self-righteous i guess.
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ash commented about Windows 95 in Chicago, On Friday June 10th, 2005 05:06:00 AM
how comes you can't steal software in the US?
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ash commented about The Pre-Euro Tour, On Thursday June 9th, 2005 10:34:00 AM
if you find a decent hostel in Berlin, i'd be grateful if you posted about it. I'm going there for a day when i travel next year, and the hostel i found on the internet looks nice, but is about £7 sterling... which is okay, it's cheaper than it would be here, but if you find a cheaper one i'd be much obliged :o)
(by the by, i'm going to Germany only to save money on getting to India... I save quite a bit by flying Easyjet to Berlin, staying one night, getting a train to Frankfurt and flying from there. this saves me still enough money for it to be worth the effort.)
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ash commented about Mobile Hobo, On Thursday June 9th, 2005 10:29:00 AM
There used to be a rucksack in Millets that had wheels on the bottom, and a pull-handle that appeared magically from the top if you yanked it. (okay, less magical). Unfortunately, they appear to have discontinued it, but if i find an old catalogue i'll scan the picture for you.
It didn't look comfortable or practical, but it might give you ideas you can work from to make something better. (that was what we were meant to do for Technology (shop) class, but i managed to make up something that didn't really exist before... so i didn't have that luxary/ restraint.
This looks like a similar product: http://www.sailgb.com/p/tatonka_business_roller_l_50_litres/
As i said, I wouldn't wear this thing if they paid me, but it's a start. something with wheels that can fold/swing out the way would probably be better and wouldn't rip your back skin to peices as soon as it's nylon wheels had gone over a few pebbles...
alternatively, you could strap it to a skateboard!
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ash commented about Motor Home, On Sunday June 5th, 2005 02:31:00 PM
I've now updated my Blogger profile, so you should see a picture. Normally I have shaved of course, but on that occasion... well i didn't.
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ash commented about Motor Home, On Sunday June 5th, 2005 02:16:00 PM
yes... he he
it's spelled different normally, but you would only get that from the second syllable of my name i guess. I spell it Ashley, while most girls seem to spell it Ashleigh or Ashlee.
except the girl I know spells it like me, and so did the other boy with the same name in my class... so we all sat on the same table to piss off our history teacher!
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ash commented about Motor Home, On Sunday June 5th, 2005 01:29:00 PM
aah wooden ships... sailing has always been a fancy of mine. I'm only qualified to sail small dinghies on non-tidal waters though i'm afraid... but I have been on a yacht as a crew-member when i was younger. fun fun :o)
I shall send you some photos once i've got them together (the only digital camera i have is my webcam, and my scanner makes everything pink at the moment...)
I'm a male Ash, in case I have been ambiguous (I've been thought to be a girl online before when I wasn't being ambiguous... so yeah, i'm more careful now!) I'm 18 and trying to find a job to pay for my travels next year before heading to university to accumulate some debts, then travel some more to avoid paying them off... (you have to be earning 15K pa or more here before you pay back student loans).
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ash commented about Travel Gear, On Saturday June 4th, 2005 05:00:00 PM
I've never mastered the sewing machine. I can sew by hand, and do so as and when my "pants" fall apart and i can't get to the store. I was teachign my sister how to knit the other day, feeling truely strange about the whole thing... stereotypes are fine things!
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ash commented about Motor Home, On Saturday June 4th, 2005 04:54:00 PM
I'm England born and bred and, in true British style, am rather self-conscious about it ;o)
or something like that. I think we've all been watching American TV for too long and we're actually starting to be a proud nation once again... which is probably a good and a bad thing like most else.
My grandparents bought a VW when I was small and were going to tour Britain, but my Grandad died and my Grandma had to sell it. It was a nice custard-yellow one and all!
I remember reading your "travel companion specification" thingy and thinking how I probably don't fit any of the things all that well..!
yes, shaggin wagon... straight out of Austin Powers I think..
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ash commented about Motor Home, On Saturday June 4th, 2005 10:14:00 AM
isn't it sort of traditional to get the old VW camper van/shaggin wagon/ peace cart types? ;oP
I can't remember if you can get from front to back officially, but i remember jumpig over the chairs to it, so it's possible. They probably fold forward or something to make life easier.
They can house about 3 people in a suprisingly small space. There is a fold-out bunk-bed in the middle (which goes into the ceiling) and then there is a bit at the back (this is assuming they are all the same inside).
one danger, allegedly, is that people can jump on the roof and knife the person on the top bunk... but provided you don't enter a war zone or upset some crazy people you probably won't encounter that issue. (this is said because, when folded out, the bunkbed extends a canvas bit out of the roof to make room)...
see here: http://www.campers2go.co.uk/yellow.asp
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ash commented about StaTravel.com, On Monday May 30th, 2005 07:04:00 AM
I think it's like all things... When I want to buy a new pen or a new pair of trousers, I will shop around to find the cheapest price.
This week, we had to buy a CD as a gift for someone who was leaving my school the next day... on that occasion we had to go to the shop instead of ordering it from Amazon... and we payed twice the price. GOUGE!
Sometimes things gang up on us and we are forced to pay more. But if you plan in advance, and play it wise, you should come out tops mostly.
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ash commented about Uncontacted Tribes, On Friday May 27th, 2005 05:31:00 AM
indeed! TV et al. are not inherantly bad... they are only bad when we get addicted. Like alcohol. I'll sit here with a glass of whiskey sometimes and enjoy it and that's fine. But if I became addicted to alcohol, i'd be in a very dark place that is a whole lot different.
I think we can watch TV, listen to the radio, surf the net etc. without getting hooked... without relying on it so much that we would re-shcedule a night out if the VCR didn't work just so as not to miss *insert name of soap here*.
of course, i spend longer on the internet than i feel i should. But i'm trying to read more..
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ash commented about Colombia Airplane, On Thursday May 26th, 2005 07:14:00 AM
Thanks :o)
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ash commented about Colombia Airplane, On Wednesday May 25th, 2005 03:17:00 PM
do you generally take a coat with you when you travel? being a fairly large person i find coats take up a lot of room... And i've only travelled in the UK (where i live) so far. they can be squashed a bit with some effort (i don't wear things like trenchcoats) but i wondered if it's best to buy them on the road or take one?
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ash commented about US Immigration, On Monday May 16th, 2005 01:09:00 PM
hmmm you have another reader with my name it seems. How quaint.
We have a lot of words flying about over here (UK) about illegal immigration at the moment. Unfortunately, the media got dragged into the election a few weeks ago. Fortunately, that being the case, we still didn't end up with a more conservative or right-wing government. (dang media).
It is, of course, a problem, however much pseudo-leftys like me want to harp on about facsism and so on. I suppose the line is "if you have a genuine problem, seek asylum, but don't sneak in through the back door!"
ah I really must learn not to talk politics before i go off globe-trotting...
We once recieved a similar letter to my school (i was pased it being on student council) and however much I wanted to have compassion and send the guy money, it was obviously a scam. These people are suprisingly good.
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ash commented about Delirious and Stir Crazy, On Sunday May 15th, 2005 10:15:00 AM
:o( that sucks. at least you have us internet-y people with you in thought...
hope you feel better soon.
-ash
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ash commented about Cell Phone Tax, On Saturday May 14th, 2005 04:31:00 PM
this is, i think, the final nail in the coffin for me... I will NOT be taking a cell phone with me on my travels. I reasoned that "i'd have it off until i want to call someone" but screw it. I'll use a pay phone if necessary!
-ash
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ash commented about Jambeli Janbeli Jumbeli, On Friday May 13th, 2005 04:53:00 PM
it's quite hard to imagine people not thinking in terms of words for someone like me... sounds kinda fun!
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