Archives For Notes

A while back I had this idea. I get rid of my dive bag and put all of my gear into my backpack. Brilliant, don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before. My dive bag is ripped to pieces anyway, so that saves me having to buy a new one. Today I decided to give my idea a try. So in went my BCD, my fins, my wetsuit and my backpack was almost full. And I hadn’t even gotten any clothes in there, yet! So, I took my gear out and put one piece in at a time and stuffed the remaining space with clothes. This will mean that my clothes will always be extremely wrinkled, but then, I don’t think I’m likely to win a Best Dressed Man Competition anyways. At least this will work, although my wetsuit will have to stay home. And this I am really unhappy about, I mean I have no problem peeing into my wetsuit (can be quite an enjoyable experience on a cold night dive), but peeing into a rental one is just gross…

Just saw a documentary about Cambodia on TV. It was about the cambodian people still struggling with the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge Regime. Life is hard for the average Khmer, yet hardly any interviewee complained about their life. Near the end of the film there was this scene in a temple with around 50 kids. Once a year, at some holiday, all the buddhas in the temples get washed. And those kids had the biggest waterfight ever right there in this temple. It looked like so much fun… I wonder what a catholic priest would say to 50 children pouring water over statues and themselves in his church? I’d like to see that…

Decided to go back to a more conventional blog frontpage. Been wanting to do this for ages. I moved the Notes Small Print categories from the sidebar back into the main area, using Matt’s Asides if anyone’s interested (edit: renamed the Small Prints category to ‘Notes’ as this works better with the current layout). I think it’s better to keep all the content together and not spread it out so much. It’s simpler that way and that’s quite often better. Then, obviously the Recent Readers and Recent Comments had to go into the sidebar. I think the way it’s set up now makes it also easier for people to comment. I’m quite happy with the result. What do you think?

By the way, not even 4 weeks left anymore!!!

For some travelers it can be quite a hassle getting that hammock up there, getting it to stay up there and getting it down again. So first you need two pole-like things. The wider apart they are and the higher you can tie the ropes, the comfier it will be. The hammock should hang about 60 cm above the ground. Finally the best knot for this is the bowline. This knot is easy to learn and even easier to untie, as it will not jam up.

Not long now!! Time started to really slow down at work, so I taught Shithead to some of my colleagues. This cardgame is virtually unknown in Germany but now it’s spreading, kind of like the Plague, but in a good way. If you’re flying out of Munich Airport (that’s where I work), you might experience some delays because of it.
Soon I’ll have to hand in my notice as well, which I’m really looking forward to…

Just over one and a half months until I start on my big trip and it seems quite a short time now. Not like a week ago. Still have so many things left to do, mainly selling loads of my stuff at fleamarkets and working on a few internet projects with my brother. Time should pass quite quickly now.

Just passed the 8 week mark. My feet are getting itchier by the minute and I’ll probably have to work right up to the day I fly out. I set myself an amount I would like to take with me to oz and it’s starting to look like it’s gonna be close. I’ve kind of not been going to my second job as much as I should have, but I just can’t be bothered right now. It’s snowing here at the moment and it’s pulling me down a bit. I’ll have to make up for it next month, I guess…

Timen over at in my All Stars has proposed the idea of a Trusted Travel Blogs Network, where only quality and honest travel blogs will be listed. I am finding this quite exciting and a great idea with a lot of potential. If it takes off, then hopefully Travel-Junkie.com will be a part of it…

DAN is a non profit organisation, that operates a 24h network of alarm centers, provides you with diving medical advice and excellent diving insurance and does a lot of research into dive safety. Highly recommended for any diver and anyone wanting to become one.
Kinks to the local offices:

DAN Southern Africa
DAN America
DAN Southeast Asia - Pacific
DAN Japan
DAN Europe

The One Campaign fights the emergency of global AIDS, starvation and extreme poverty. Mainly a site for Americans, it doesn’t hurt if you add your name to the One declaration, if you’re from outside the States. Check out all their partners as well. You only need to give a little to make the world a better place!

On your way to the UK? Check out National Express and Megabus. With both you can get tickets starting from only 1 pound. But you have to book early. National Express is somewhat more flexibel when it comes to departure times, but tickets tend to get more expensive with time than Megabus.

Got sent the link to this video about the killings of whales and dolphins for meat in Taiji, Japan. Quite horrible video, so be warned.
Here you can sign the petition to make the japanese government act.