My apps, my tablet

China's full of geeks, right? Every single of them has a smartphone, even the tribesmen of the least known tribe of the desert in Xinjiang. But not only do they have smartphones they have rooted them. What's rooting a device you might ask unless you're one of my dearly missed geeky friends.
Rooting a device, phone or tablet is getting full access to it. You can do things a normal user can't do. Like running certain more applications or running linux for example.
And as Nabila would say:

I think you can only understand the joke if you're french, sorry

I have one quite important reason for rooting my tablet but I'll keep that a secret until we pass the deadly trinity.
Among other reasons, I needed to root my tablet to put Linux on it. Rooting a tablet is a process in which you trick the system into giving you full access. There are several steps when you unlock different parts of the tablet until you finally can do whatever you want with it. It's a risky proces for some tablets, especially mine but if I succeed I'll suely earn the respect of all of the People's Republic of China so I guess that's worth it!
Unfortunately the internet went down before I had the chance to start the process. I was in the south-east of France at the time. In that reagion, public transportation is scarce and my distance-wise closest friend was 10km away so I spent afternoons and nights going there and away.
Even though we have our differences I am thankful to him for letting me there.
Once the tablet rooted, I spent days looking for useful applications. Applications are not as important as real gear but they can be really handy. Here's what I found useful:

• Maps: MapsWihMe is a great application that enables you to download very detailed maps into your device. You download the countries you want (you can download regions for Russia) and you can access them offline afterwards. It will even localize you on the map using the tablet's GPS chip. Finally, it includes a very nice function: it stores the maps on an external SD card if you wish. This is extremely welcome since the maps are 100Mo/country and my tablet doesn't have that much memory.
• Languages: Google Translate. Better than any dictionary. You can download languages offline just like the maps. Afterwards, you can translate things offline and even translate whole sentences, it has some knowledge of the language grammar. The only two downsides is that are that it doesn't translate from and into pinyin in chinese (and go figure the correct pronounciation from the sinograms!) and it cannot store languages on SD card.
• Wifi crackers: Free wifi is good, hacking into secure wifi is good too. So just in case I downloaded Penetrate Pro which is supposed to work pretty easily but unfortunately it only works on a small nomber of routers. In the real world you'll be able to crack one secure wifi out of about 100, at least here in europe. I am also taking Backtrack which only works on rooted tablets. I haven't tried it but I hope for a better performance than Penetrate.
• Facebook, google talk, twitter, gmail: for obvious reasons
• Weibo, the chinese twitter
• Communication in remote places: Spot Connect enables me to use my GPS beacon to write text messages on my tablet and send them via satellite even when there is absolutly no phone coverage.
• Hitchhiking spots: Hitchwiki is an application which lets you access all of online hitchwiki.org. It's not a very mature app but it has all the info. Offline browser is better. You can store web pages and whole websites to access them offline later. It's great for storing useful countries from hitchwiki and later use them to find the good hitchhiking spots.
• A photo processing program: Not some lame quick software with a few fancy looking filters applied to the whole image. Something closer to photoshop with layers, text insertion, brushes. I haven't been able to find a suitable one yet, if someone has any ideas.

16 kg snail

One day left until the end of Ilona's exams.
Ten days until I leave france
Two weeks until we leave home.
Not too long after that before we leave europe.
Facing these facts I had to face one more: shit I have no equipement. On most of the blogs I read this kind of preparations happen at least 5 months before departure. 5 months ago I wasn't even sure to have a partner, buying new gear would seem like paying for prayers.
For a long time I had trouble believing it would work out. Fate is fragile and capricious and you sure as hell cannot buy it with money. Luck is much more controllable but way less reliable. Don't worry, I'm not the superstitious type.
I saw quite a number of people lately among witch I was glad to see Alex. Alex is a special person to me in some ways  but I am not going into that now, I must stay on topic. You might hear from her in the future though, especially during the sea crossings.
But enough with the introductions, let's get the gear! The gear has to be extremly useful, each element has at least two different ways to be used in order to be accepted in the very selective bag. The weigh is important as so is a volume. It shouldn't be more than 14kg and 15 liters.
This is way less than what we brought with my cousin on our waaaay shorter trips. Usually I had a 20kg bag, food and water included and a 70L bag. My cousin had less than that but easily 15kg. Why pack smaller? Because I'll have to carry it... for a long time. Of course I'll miss things, I'll miss them a lot but I'll miss my body parts more if they collapse because of too much weight.
Alex found me a first aid kit but from the looks of it it's almost a mobile hospital. It's the kit they use in sailing boats therefore, everything isn't useful but I'll take all I can and sort it with Ilona.

Great thing to have but I'll take about 10% of it. Which 10% will be up to my random picking and Ilona's knowledge of medical stuff. After my first selection, I managed to get all the really important medical stuff in a 10cmx15cmx5cm bag, weight close to none.
For now, it includes some bandages, a lotion for dry lips, anti-malaria tablets, steril-strips, anti-diarhea tablets and some stuff for headaches.
Next thing we need is a tent. Ilona didn't have one so yeah, additional expense. The upside is that I can choose a green one. I don't know what is it with all the travel gear but everything is flashy as hell. Most living creatures on earth spend billions of years developping discrete colors to hide themselves from  predators and they design tents in bright orange. How are we supposed to hide that in your backyard??
And here it is! All green and light:

It's a two person tent, not the biggest 2 people tent I saw in my life but big enough. It's very easy to deploy, I mean really easy. The interior fabric is loosely coupeled with the exterior so you just have to insert the sticks into the the openings on the outer layer of the tent.
It weights merely 1.8kgs, I've checked which is a whole kilogram less than the tent we used to carry with my cousin. That's a really pleasant surprise. In a general sense, my heart pounds which joy each time I throw a kilo out.
I've left my sleeping bag in Czech Republic so I take a replacement one from my parents just to test the weight and volume. Mine is a bit smaller and lighter so I'll have a pessimistic estimation.
A lot of travellers would be content at this point but not me; I need my electronic stuff. This time I won't spend countless hours looking for internet cafés only to find they have merely become free wifi spots. No more crying next to wifi spots wishing you had a computer. This time, I'll take one. Not a laptop though, it's too heavy and doesn't have enough battery. 4 hours most of the time. Some say you might get 8 hours but that's just bullshit.
First off, what exactly do I need a computer for? Lots of things, here is a list:

• Internet. Access the wifi spots. Don't have to bother the people who invite us in to let us on their computers.
• The blog updates. If I have a computer, I can write offline and publish instantly when I find a wifi spot.
• Maps! How do you expect to carry around maps of whole asia? Even if we restrict to the countries we cross the size and weight of maps would be enourmous. With a computer, I can store the maps electronically, it'll take no more than an sd card. Feather-like.
• Hitchwiki. How many times have I got stranded in a city without a clue or where and how to hitchhike out. I can store all the hitchhiking places in a digital memory and use it at will. At the battery's will not mine of course.
• Dictionary. It'll still be fun learning new languages but we might be able to limit the frustration.
• GPS beacon control. I might be able to send text messages via satelite using a computer connected to my SPOT device. Sounds geeky and it is but it might work.

For a long time now I've faced this technological dilemma:

• I could take a netbook. It's small enough to carry and robust because the screen is protected by the keyboard. It's not very easy use while standing because the keyboard gets in the way unlinke a tablet. It's a PC though, therefore I can install a Linux on it. It my seem to be a detail but I really need my Linux. Cut out my Linux and you might as well do me a lobotomy because it performs half of the intellectual functions of my brain.
  The computing power will be reasonably big so that's a good point too.
  A big downside will be the battery. I can't have that much autonomy on a netbook. I might get the 8 hours if I'm extra nice to it but I know I won't be. And the weight. With the keyboard, screen and don't forget the power cable and transformer I'll be lucky to get under 2 kilograms.
• A kindle or generally speaking a digital reader. It's tiny, feather-light and has huuuge battery life. And yes, when you really need Internet, it can connect. I also heard some kindles had GPS chips and it's the only screen you'll see on a sunny day. You must have hawk eyes to something on the over-reflective netbook or tablet screen. Kindles however have the look and feel of paper. Are there any downsides? I suppose the performance sucks. It's designed to read books I'd be surprised if you could easily write blog posts with it. It doesn't have a keyboard and that alone is a a big slow-down. Some people would say you can't put maps on kindle but actually you can. You just have to root the device and hope you don't brick it whilst doing that. By rooting it I suppose you can flash an android ROM on it but I would be surprised if you could somewhat put a Linux on it.
• A tablet. A tablet will have more battery than a netbook but way less than a digital reader. The weight also will be in-between. I can expect 600 or 700g which is very reasonable. Power-wise it's not that slow, a good tablet can compete with the netbook actually. It runs android which makes it easy to search and install useful applications quickly.
  It doesn't have a keyboard which makes writing blog posts slower. It's also more fragile. It can connect with a spot sattellite beacon and transmot messages over satellite, there is an app for that. It has apps for maps, dictionaries. Putting linux on a tablet is not easy but possible. You have to root it and launch it in a superuser terminal.

So what did I choose? None but a compromize between a tablet and a netbook: a hybrid tablet.
Precisely this one, the asus TF300T:

It's a tablet allright but it has a tiny attachable keyboard for quick typing. It also has a mouse pad in case the touchscreen stops working. Spares are welcome on a trip like this as long as they don't take any additional space. The sun resistant screen will be dearly missed.
What about the battery life? It says 15 hours so I might expect 10 which is unexpected but still not enough I'm afraid. This amazing battery life is due to an additional battery inside the keyboard which recharges the second battery in the screen. However, even counting all the people who we'll meet, who'll share with us their electricity, all the public chargers, it'll not be enough to have electrical power wherever we want.
And no, I'll not carry a dead tablet in my backpack. Each thing I carry has to earn it's usefullness multiple times over. We will leave in late spring and I intend to use the sun for more than good mood and sunburns. I'll carry this solar panel:

I won't carry all the stuff on the picture but I'll carry the solar panel and the accumulator. It doesn't accumulate much and it's not very effective either. But with the electronics constantly plugged in and the panel outside the bag exposed to the shining equatorial sun I can expect the stuff to be reasonably charged throughout the journey. I can charge the tablet, I couldn't do the same with most netbooks because the requested tension (in Volts) required is more than my solar charger can output.
You would think that electronics are now setteled but far from it: still the phone and the camera left.
The tablet looks fancy enough, better not draw extra attention with a smartphone. I don't need a fancy phone, I need it to last. I need it to be operational in case of emergency. I need the battery lif; I've already my tablet to charge all the time and probably my camera too. I might be able to protect my dear tablet from the wild but my phone will take its toll of mud water.
I ended up choosing a Samsung Solid B2710.

It looks like your old Nokia and like your old Nokia you can probably break a wall with it. But unlike your old nokia it almost has all the features of a real smartphone. It has no wifi but it has bluetooth, gps, google maps with navigation, a browser, video streaming ability on youtube, facebook, twitter, all the classic stuff. But it doesn't look it and that's a good thing. It also has a flashlight which can really be used as a flashlight.
The last piece of electronic equipment is the camera. I've hesitated a long time before choosing that one. But let's face it. I used to capture my magic moments with my cheap 30 euro camera I got in Singapore. I got it for about 35 euros and I continued using it even after the lens had scratch marks all over. Even though I took it through mud and water and threw it from 6 meter heights, got its mechanisms infested by sand, it continues to work even now. But the last few trips left me frustrated with the quality of pictures. Unless the light was so bright my eyes hurt, the photograph did not match the beauty of reality and got me frustrated with the result. I could not convince my friends home how beautiful Finnish landscapes were, they just looked like dim forests. Do I need convincing others? Maybe a little. Do I need the memories? Definitly yes.
It'll be the biggest journey of my lifetime, the most exciting one. One I will want to capture and remember. I would be a fool to save money on a camera. So I'll take the Sony RX-100.

It's very expensive but fortunately, I got it second-hand from some brave fellow from Marseille. The pictures it takes are just mind-blowing. Maybe not to a real photographer who understands something about photography, but to me, naive user of a cheap compact which pale colors... it's something I've never seen. It might even compete with the cheap reflex cameras, at least some people say that. I've considered taking such a huge machine with me but the weight and size of the thing is just not an option.
I need to draw my camera quickly, I need to strike fast and true before the moment flees. I'd have to keep my giant reflex camera in my bag as opposed to in my pocket. I'd never have time for spontaneity. And spontaneity is what I like in my picture. I don't like set-ups. I think that if you have to organize your scene then most of the time, the photo isn't worth the take. You can do a proper set-up at home with a green screen and special effects.
That's about it for the electronics.
When I put all this in the bag, I am still at 18kg with all the food and water. But more importantly I struggle with keeping the volume down to 50L. There are two volume-geedy things in a travellers bag: a tent and a mattress. With the tent I have, I reduced volume to a reasonable minimum but the mattress still takes a lot of space.
I could have taken a very small mattress, the thing is even with a normal one, I kind of feel the hardness of the ground a little too much. I wanted to take a thicker one but with this weight and volume optimising, I just can't afford it. Of course I could throw out my electronics but let me make something very clear for the rest of this journey:
I'd rather do this trip naked and sleep on frozen ground than throw out my electronics.
For the mattress, I'll try a bold move: I'll take an inflatable one. It's lighter and softer than the normal ones. It takes more time to deploy but I guess that's the compromise I'll make. I'll just hope it doesn't burst.
Now the clothes. I really don't have much. A small towel, socks (5x), long pants (1x), shorts which also serve as bathing shorts (1x), shirts & t- shirts (3x, two with short sleeves, one with long), a jacket. Not even a sweater nor a raincoat, the jacket does that. That's it. Bare essentials. And a hat, I forgot about the hat.
And last thing of all, the backpack. By taking a smaller bag, I am able to save loads of volume and a whole kilogram of weight!
After browsing the internet and trying some backpacks in shops I ended up choosing a swedish brand, Haglöfs. It's a simple yet reliable design. For example it doesn't have many pockets, just the bare minimum. I wass a little confused when I recieved it, I wanted to put some stuff in a side pocket on the belt but there was nothing. Nothing that you absolutly need. Not even a rain cover for the bag because it's supposed to be reasonably waterproof.
One nice feature it has though is the bottle holders. Most backpacks have side compression straps. And in most cases, when you attach a 1.5L bottle to the side you put the bottom into the bottle holder and you attach the top with the top compression strap. The bottom compression strap usually goes over your bottle so unless you carry a really small bottle it'll be strapped to the side so tightly that I'll be hard to remove.
Try attaching a tall bottle to the side of your packpack if you have one, you'll see what I mean.
The reason for this design in most backpacks is that tourists don't use large amounts of water and therefore can do with 1L bottles whith they'll refill when arriving in a hotel or some kind of tourist spot made for that matter.
In this case though, both straps go under the bottle and there is an extra thingy to attach the top of your bottle so it doesn't fall. I chose this packpack for this reason alone.
Besides, it's very easy to carry. My weight now went down to 16kg and will drop to 15.5 with the much lighter sleeping bag I keep in Prague (the one I tested it with is way heavier).
Here is the sum of all preparations:

Maybe you wonder why for god's sake do I hold this stupid umbrella. Because I plan to take one with me. What? After all the talking about essential stuff I plan to pack something so tightly linked to civilisation as an umbrella and seemingly useless. Quite the contrary.
An umbrella is a walking stick. It provides protection against rain but also against the sun. It may be a fighting weapon and an effective defensive weapon against a baseball bat. I mean defensive beacause it can absorb the shock instead of your bones which makes quite the difference. And I'm sure I'll find countless clever uses for it on the way!
You thought I have now lised all the travel gear a traveller could have? Yeah but you forget the purpose of this journey! Remember the one ring? We're doing it!

Czech and french travellers a comparision of stereotypes

Being of two nationalities and consequently linked to two cultures, I often hear and read from experiences of my two fellow countrymens.
They are both european nations, both even in the shenghen space and one would say the differences are too small to be percieved. Granted there is not nearly as much difference between French and Czechs as there is between for example French and Chinese but still, if you experience living there for a long time, the differences will blow your mind.
As a blog writer and more generally, travel site designer, I developped a habit of looking at other sites of the same kind. I noticed a couple of things.

The websites

The french have pretty shiny websites, carefully designed and smartly made with the latest of available technologies. Not necessarily a lot of programming work but surely a lot of research for the tools that would be used.
During the trip, the content is rich in quantity, delivery and art potential. Photos are taken with the touch of a professional photographer (and often with a professional camera) and the whole trip is sometimes even filmed. Sometimes you'd wonder if french travellers didn't finish some art school beforehand.
The blog language is almost exclusivly French. English is very occasional, most of the time in the comments, when a merciful soul who a passage for an occasional foreigner. I couldn't understand the reason for this but it was the case for almost every travel site I went to. The weirdest thing is that the authors usually speak english.
Some Czechs do also write blogs but they don't seem to care that much about design. It's better than it was a couple years back but it stays pretty poor. Almost no video sequences. An awful lot of people still write in czech which is borderline useless but you often find either an english version or at least a button to do an automatic google translate to the language of your choice.
Other Czechs don't write blogs at all, mostly due to lack of organisation and preparation - this is linked to their way of travelling. In that case, you see a bunch of commented photos on facebook at the end of the trip.
Some don't write anything. What's the point of taking a break of civilisation only to connect to it virtually. The thing with Czech travellers is that they don't feel that what they are doing is so special. Therefore, they don't feel the need to write about it. Chances are a couple of their friends have done similar adventures and don't brag about it.
On one hand you could say czechs are more humble but on the other hand a lot of their stories have values and I think it is a shame to let them vanish to occasional word-of-mouth between friends.

Destination

To stereotype things, I will say this: French go to Cambodia, Indonesia and Australia, Czechs go to Russia. A notable consequence is that while almost all French return home to tell about their exciting journey, some Czechs never will.

Stereotyped paths, french in orange, czechs in blue

Press

Both parties end up having some amout of press. French press starts even before the trip starts. Media coverage is almost a part of preparations. The organisers are invited to local radios, newspapers, sometimes even TV. And they are wise to do this because French media is the main and often the only media the travellers will be able to interract with since their website and everything related to the trip is in French.
Czechs don't seek media coverage, in fact they don't need it. Contrary to the french they have no project and sometimes no idea where they are going and if they'll manage to get there. Nothing worth to talk to until it's done, if it's done. It's only after a while and far away from home that some journalist discovers soem crazed czech idiots who just crossed tibet without mountain gear nor visas and will write a piece about it.
Were they french, I feel they could be superstars but because they don't know, don't care or don't want a public presence, they will only be covered by media in places like Kazachstan or North-Eastern mongolia, their exploits will quicky fade away and they'll never be famous.

The Why and the interactions

This is, I think, the biggest difference between czech and french travellers. Most czechs will travel because: why not?. They don't have any project or reason to go there, they often travel for the sake of travelling. As a result they don't think that much about how leaving a positive impact on the world they go through. They just go and see what happens.
On the french side, everything has a purpose. Travelling is the big part of the project but that's what it is: a project. French travellers do not travel: they design and realize a project linked to the theme of travelling. This project is well imprinted inside the guidelines of modern ecology and often linked to sustainable developement or social developement.
To do so, they interract with numerous associations who help people in need and whilst doing this, sometimes establish partnerships with new sponsors.
Overall, the french traveller's itinerary looks more like a preseident's political campaign than an actual plan.
Maybe are they ashamed because they took too much vacation and they think that doing humanitarian work will redeem them as well as bring them interaction with the local culture.
The czechs on the other hand don't think. They just go to countries and expect to blend into the local population. But because they don't speak the language and they're caucasian they are mistaken for tourists. But is it really a mistake? So they get angry and only travel to remote places like Siberia or Kazakhstan so they won't be mistaken for tourists because they are no tourists there. In fact, there is no one there.
So don't count on czech travellers to rescue dying children in Africa. At least not while they're on the road. Instead, prey that the dying children in Africa rescue the reckless czechs!

How do they travel?

If you'vre read so far, you can take this quizz:
Two groups of bike riders, one French and one Polish travel the world and stop in a town called T.
Can you recognize the Polish guys?
HINT:Polish are like czechs but with a bigger country

What about us?

I like to think we'll take a bit of each of our cultures. As you've noticed I and my not-at-all humble nature are convinced that our trip kicks ass and that you and all your friends should hear about it. Hence this site.

I would argue this is my french side and that it is predominant. However I won't be going as far as actively seeking media coverage. If we deserve it, then we shall get it.
I also want to document the trip as much as I can. Maybe not in film but I do intend to publish photos and blog. I even go further by sharing our GPS position on a regular basis.
What about a travel project, working with charity organisations? Unfortunately, I'll be honest with you, this is where my french side stops. I do like the idea but I think that with our tight budget and way of life, we will be those in need of assistance. Secondly, the idea is to live outside civilisation, free of any obligations or ties society puts on us. Getting into organised help is a way of not leaving civilisation behind, to still be part of the system.
And most importantly, the more the start is getting near, the more I realise that you cannot do such a trip for another person than yourself. You can have all the humanitarian plans and projects, as many admirers as your ego wishes, all the media coverage in the world, in the end, it's just you and your fellow traveller facing the delusion of grandeur that constitutes such a project. Everything else is just air. Don't bother painting it, colors won't stick.
Does this mean I will not help people? Of course not. I will, as much as I can, but as an individual, not an organisation.
Ilona seems to be a more private person than me. Unfortunatelly for... everyone... you will be seeing much more of me than of her. I could write a paragraph about what I think is her point of view but I'd rather leave that to fate.
But she'll surely bring more of the czech element to the mix, though maybe not the stereotypical one I described above (the whole post kind of deals in stereotypes).

Meeting I.

I arrived at my great-uncle's place still quite tired from yesterdays expedition. My great uncle is now a very old but kind guy with some life experience I could say. We talked about my trip a little, it peculiar to get an old man's input. I would have thought he wouldn't even know where Kamcatka was. Anyway he greeted me with an enormous dinner as it seems to be the tradition in southern Moravia.

When I was getting sleepy because of too much food, old uncle decided we should drink to this occasion. I had some doubts but just didn't have the heart to refuse. By 7PM and because of my very low resistance to alcohol I was nearly drunk. I was supposed to meet I. in a few minutes.

At the moment, I. was my only shot, my ticket to the east. I can't say there won't be others but I didn't want to mess that one up.

I. studies medicine, it's her last year I think. She seems smart. Not the kind of person you could easily manipulate. Not the manipulative kind either. Those things are subjective but it's my quick guess. She did kickboxing and travelled to Syria. Crazy enough to come with me but not suicidal either. Not to mention the obvious benefits of medical studies. Her language skills might be rustier than mine but I must have some advantages musn't I, otherwise she wouldn't want to go with me. Overall, she always was the rational choice even though my intuition was sometimes shifting me towards K.

We met on a square with a replica of a giant dildo. My head was still spinning because of my uncle's slivovica and I was focusing on not letting it show. It would be quite stupid to sabotage this epic trip to the east because of some booze, right?

I recognized I. even though I only saw her on a few summer pictures. I am always dead curious about the people I meet in real life after knowing them on the internet. I don't know what particular stuff there is to expect, maybe I expect them to float or to exist in 2D or something. The encounter of the third kind went fairly smooth. It wasn't akward at all. Maybe meeting people with no goal feels akward but when you have a common project it's very different. We went to some german castle; I thought it was very nice actually. I like being on top of eastern castles, looking down on the effing city powdered in snow. Truly effing romandic if you ask me, especially during the night. I have the same impression on each eastern euroepean castle, not the western ones so much, don't know why, maybe they're too posh or something. It's kind of lame so I tried not to show too much enthousiasm otherwise it would look fake. I hope I didn't look bored because I wasn't.

Then a security guty threw us out. I thought we could climb accross the wall but I was feeling lazy and i didn't want to look immature so soon during the encounter. I mean, I am doomed to look immature at some point, I know that, I just hope she'll realize it somewhere in Armenia or something.

We discussed the important questions, whether or not each of us is hoping to return alive and well (and we both are, amen to us!), how annoying we are, what reactions should we expect of ourselves in various crazy situations. And there is the independence issue.

I need my privacy and my time alone after a while and that's a big issue when you're travelling one glued to the other. One of the few disadvantages of travelling with women is that a lot of them don't have that issue, I mean statistically. Or maybe that's my misunderstanding of female logic.

Everything went well and for the first time I felt this journey would be possible. I mean I really could see us both standing on the side of some mongolian dirt road with thumbs up.

We agreed on a definite maybe. If we depart it'll be in the first half of May and the final decision should be in April. Seems great but such decision lies still very far ahead. Who knows how many times we'll change our minds until then.

Anyhow, it's a wonderful perspective.

Winter test

My morals are down. My latest blog posts converge into philosophical nonsense. I need some fresh air.

Thank god, I left France and it's stressful computer projects. My plane landed in Prague where I was to meet my cousin Zevla. The reason for me being in Czech Republic is to ask for a Czech passport to which I am entitled to because of my double nationality. I also intended to meet I., a girl who I was writing to for some time now about going together to Kamchatka.

Zevla was kind of tired of constantly studying so we decided to pack our stuff and go visit an abandonned military airport around Prague. It was a two day journey and an occasion to test my new sleeping bag in temparatures down to -17°C during the night. And I proudly conclude that I doidn't freeze. I can't say it was confortable but enough to sleep. I guess I could do -20 but easier said than done. The morning was quite terrible. My wet shoes froze and became stone solid. It was like wearning ski boots.

Freezing in a cave, an only too common situation in the future

Our drinks froze, our propane-butane gaz cooker didn't have enough pressure to work properly, we managed to light a fire and maintain it long enough to cook some sausages. After that, it died quickly. I would say it's survivable for one night but a week in -20 would be very difficult. I just hope it won't happen, I cannot say much more.


Some images of abandonned the military complex:

Abandonned thing to put planes in

What's this trip about?

I have to get to preparations again. I'm getting really sick of my situation, of doing all this computer stuff. All this casual work.

I'm thinking about my life now. Or anybody elses but mine is as good an example as any. No matter what you decide, you always miss things. I was quite a naive, perhaps even completly clueless person until I was 13, until that semester in Vancouver woke me up to reality. Since then I tried to miss as few opportunities as possible. But still, I did miss a lot.

I certainly didn't miss the giant parties at Max's place or at my place for that matter but maybe I should've gone to Mary's too. I'm kind of glad I didn't continue hiking with Greg, he was a crazy bastard, I probably only missed my own death there.

I didn't have the opportunity to connect with Lucy and her friend Thé since we lost contact after a while, I feel there was some interesting stuff there too. Or maybe not that much, not for me at least. When I think about it, maybe I didn't miss that much, maybe I had quite a full life. Or maybe we all missed at life?

I certainly missed my two years of college since I didn't go to university but to the more recognized "preparatory school" where you basically do nothing besides working like crazy for some kind of final competition. But if I didn't go there, maybe I wouldn't have a choice of going on this trip now.

I don't really regret having done practiclally nothing special for my semester in Singapore. The people I knew there signed themselves up for nearly organized trips and a bunch of really lame parties, the memories of which were proudly recorded on facebook. Or maybe I regret not to have met the right people there.

I am not complaining, life is what you do of it and I had my decent share of craziness and I do believe a lot of people settle for less, not that it is a competition or something of the sort. But I want to use this trip to patch my past regrets and quite a lot of future ones too. I would publish a list of experiences I want to do in the following year or so but I'm afraid my potential hitchhiking partners are reading this and I wouldn't want to scare them off too fast. And my parents could be reading that too since they have the site and I didn't have time to design a parent-control filter yet.

Sucked into civilisation

I have not been writing for a while and that is beacause I've been incredibly busy.
Incredibly might be such a strong word, but very busy let's say. The reason for this that my parents kind of got in trouble. I don't mean trouble like gangster-related trouble, more like I-can't-meet-my-professional-deadline trouble.
My mother is a website designer. She started to learn how to do stuff with computers 5 years ago when she was approaching 50 and now she sells websites to some research centers or something.
The thing whith computer programming when you're 50 is that you are pretty much out of the picture, the web is evolving too quickly, you don't have the right reflexes long story short: people over 35 years old rarely do webdesign.
So came what should have come eventually, my mother got a pretty good web-developping opportunity to be done in a very short amount of time and it was just too fast for her.
So I offered to help because she basically didn't have a choice. I don't believe that parents should get professionaly involved with their children but I am not enough of a jerk to let my own mother down so I programmed the damn thing. I am actually not a website programmer, my job is to work with robots but I manage a thing or two website-wise.
So that was the why. But this raises a more important point.
The more I stay in civilisation, the more I only talk about leaving, the more civilisation is holding to me.
I always thought, as in revolutionary road, the hardest part would be to face all the people who will tell me not to go. But nothing of that sort came. Everybody I know has been supportive so far. People have been enthousiastically sharing my website and offering suggestions. Even the people who don't like me didn't say too despisable stuff about my project.
So the hardest obstacle are not people discouraging me. It's all the tasks they need me to do before I go. And at some point, I'll just have to say no. Because I am not ending up like the couple in that movie! It would be a shame and even more so now that I've gone public and people are watching.

Cutting ties

A few months ago I broke up with my girlfriend. It was a long and planned breakup, to sever ties efficiently while minimizing the amount of hate and suffering that most of people would endure.
A breakup, is a necessary step before starting such a trip because you just cannot keep a relationship while fighting bears in volcanoes with a 12-hour time difference. Be serious.
But as I plan this trip, I realize that there are way more ties I'll have to cut.
Here is a list:

Teach my parents how to set up a web server so they don't bother me with it.	48%
Quit my job	100%
Say farewell to Alex... and sail on her boat	0%
Meet my old biker friend from and say bye at the same time	0%
Say goodbye to my banker and my bank	0%
See my cousin who is so dissapointed that she can't go too	0%
Spacially leave my former gf who is now my best friend (this won't be easy)	0%
Say bye to my parents without triggering emotional explosions from my mother.	-40%

It's a little weird to think about cutting ties when you know you'll be coming back (at least probably). It actually doesn't feel like cutting ties for me but I think it feels that way for the others. I don't want to leave my loved ones but I don't feel that I do. I'm just travelling, I don't have time to think. It must be hard when you think too much.
On the other hand I'm getting more and more fed up with civilisation. I just moved out from my old appartment and now have to handle loads of ugly french burocracy and various negociations with the new appartment's owner about why he can't repair the heater this winter.
Yeah, I live in a new appartment, not mine, it's temporary.
But really, if it was only about me, I couldn't care less about water heaters, job opportunities and resumés, web servers, bus cards and what not. I can't see how this can affect me in any way in the nothingness of Kazakhstan.

I am saved! Or I might be.

I really thought It would be a waste of time to call Chinese embassies imagining they would employ the kind of people who follow instructions like robots and therefore the dialog would be something like:
- How do I get to china without air tickets?
- You cannot go to china without air tickets.
- But I enter through mongolia, by land (that actually might be the case) and I exit in Hong Kong, also by land (that's bullshit).
- You... shall... not... pass!

But I called anyway and all lines were busy. So I called action visa, a french company that proxies the visa process. I thought they would be even worse than the embassy but the guy I had on the line was actually very friendly. He didn't seem at all shoked when I wanted to enter without plane tickets and after understanding that my itinerary was a little too random for there-and-back planes he suggested I use the pre-reservation on the air france site.
You can actually pre-buy watever plane ticket you like for 15 euros and finish buying it one week later. So I'll just have to spend 15 euros to fake my tickets. Neat! Then I'll ask for the visa and then I'll not pay for any flights. I almost wanted to hug the guy or at least my phone or whatever neighbouring object. He really seemed to want to help me with my precise situation and I felt kind of guilty feeding him bullshit about me flying to Ulaanbataar and then taking trains to shanghai and to hong kong before continuing to the philippines.
But I told myself not to push it; maybe behind this kind voice was a beast that would notify the chinese authorities and tell them to strangle me if I told him I intended to hitchhike.
So things are quite allright again. I still have no visas, no partner so basically I'm still on square one. But I can feel the good vibes! And that's really great.

Should I destory the ONE ring?

The lord of the rings is in theaters. I was watching it the other night with A. since it's her favorite movie and all.

I've seen it many times but now I feel some kind of travel spirit associated with it. It's a travel story... isn't it obvious? It's actually weird I never looked at it from that angle.

Frodo and Sam travelled from the shire towards the dark and scary mordor to throw the One Ring into the mountain of doom.

Here's an idea: I could buy the ONE ring somewhere on the internet (shouldn't be too hard to get) and travel with it until I reach the mountaint of doom and throw it in there.

And when I think about it there are well-suited candidates for the mountain of doom on the way.

First there is the gates of hell in Turkmenistan. It a natural gas source that's been burning for decades. The locals also call it Darzava which sounds very mordorish. And it looks like this.

And of course there is Kamchatka, there is no better land for volcanos. I don't know if it's feasable to climb a volcano, I'd rather find someone who's already climbed some of them to come with but it would sure be super cool. Not literaly of course, it's a volcano dude.

But since it's not at all certain that I'll get to Kamchatka, I'd better just throw the ring in Turkmenistan. I don't know.

If somebody reads this, you can let me know if you think this idea is a shameless ripoff of the great lord of the rings saga. It kind of is but at the same time it's awesome to do such a journey bearing such a powerful symbolic. And while I do like the lord of the rings, I am not that much of a fan. I've read the books and seen the movies but that's it. I don't speak elvish (besides norolim asfaloth) so I am not sure how much I a entitled to reproduce such a quest.

I also feel that if I want to honour the quest, I shouldn't throw the ring into Turkmenistan, it's too close, too easy. I should throw it at least into some Chinese volcano if such things exist. I should look for more candidates for the mountain of doom on my path.

I also don't know how my potential travel partner will react to such an idea, I just hope she won't think I am too crazy just because I want to buy a ring on the internet, travel with it to Kamchatka and throw it into a volcano.

She just might be reading this... damn! I'll have to program some blog filter wich filters out some countries. And some regions of France too. My mom could be reading this. I really hope not.

Beginning of visa hell

Until now I was happily surfing over the borders of google maps. Now the harsh reality tells me that it'll be way harder to cross borders in life than on google maps.
Starting with China. Unless you're from some lucky country, you need a visa to go there. And not just any visa. A chinese-crazy-absurd visa. In order to apply you need:

• Your bank account transcript showing the money you have there.
• A hotel reservation. This can be replaced by an invitation letter for someone who is willing to sacrifice himself for you.
• An itinerary. You have to plan your irinerary and god forbid if there is tibet or Xinjiang written on it.
• Two plane ticket reservations. One to go to china and another to depart from China.

Seriously? I didn't expect the administration to be hitchhiking-friendly but that much hate? What did I do to you?
What about the travelers who travel to Mongolia, who visit the village 10km from the border what are they supposed to do? Walk back to Ulan Bator (the mongol capital) and fly to Beijing? How fucked up is that?! I won't even mention ecology at this point.
They want to see my bank account, I get that, honest business thinking, they want me to spend money without forcing me to. But forcing me to travel by air or booking a hotel? This is just nonsense. I am less attached to my money than to my freedom.
Just imagine the world if everybody lived by these peoples rules. There would be a few touristic circuits, a few strings of places which are easily accessible. The rest of the world... not worth visiting. When people would go to visit China, they would go to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. People who visit France would go to Paris and the Cote d'Azur. The circuits would be so cool and amazing yay! You must see them. Oh wait you already did, did you? Since there isn't anything else to visit, all of your friends already went there and you can as well travel on google street view.
When the night comes, people would all sleep in hotels, nice ikea boxes, to be recycled one day. Dear visitors, enjoy your stay and please, try to feel unique!
I hear people say: come on, it's not a big deal, just take two plane tickets and be done with it! And the hotels too. Actually it is a big deal, it's quite fundemental.
It's like the difference between a human and a robot. When you follow all the rules, when you visit alle the places you are supposed to visit, when you book all the hotels you're supposed to book, well you do not visit China. China just visits itself using you as a sophisticated walking automaton. Seriously... how do you manage not to get bored? Oh yeah I know, you're a fucking robot!
Now enough of this self-serving rant. I shouldn't be mean to tourists, it's that same kind of close-mindness that creates the fucked up situations I am in. We should acknowledge that there are people who like to travel in an organised way and other people who like the randomness of travel.
And there should be room for all of us.
So what will I do about it? Surely not give up China. I'd love going to China almost as much as I'd love to go to Kamchatka. Therefore, I have several solutions:

1. Buy those plane tickets and some hotels not use them. Lot of money thrown away but I get the visa. It's really silly though that travelling by hitchhiking would actually be more expensive than touristic travel.
2. Ask my chinese friend to write some letter with my intinerary saying that I am entering by train and leaving by ferry and getting my tickets when I can. I hope his mandarin writing will break their heart. Literary. Rip it to shreds. Sorry about that. I hope it will play on their sentimental side.
3. Fake my plane tickets
4. Buy real tickets, get the visa and cancel them. This amounts for a shitload of money and a lot of stress because if I missed a clause in the booking contract,I'll just end up with two incredibly expensive and useless flight tickets.

I am currently hesitating between solutions 3 ans 4.

My dear legality, you don't I how much I want to love you, embrace you and live by you... but when I see your ugly face I just want to puke and when I feel your heart of ice I just want to run far away from you before I freeze to death.

I actually do miss the albanian corruption which could be ugly but yet sometimes more humane than what I see here.

Am I free?

I've given up my badge and my office key. Am I free now?

Not quite. I still have to move to a new apartment  that's a lot of packing, way more than for this trip. Technically I'm helping to move my ex-girlfriend to her new apartment so it's actually her apartment  I won't really need an apartment where I'm going, do I?

I still have to find a hitchhiking partner, without that, there is no trip and I'll just be another dreamer with a website.

I'd very much like to go with that German girl who wanted to hitchhike with a dog I talked to on couch-surfing but I try not to get my hopes too high until we actually decide to do it.

And I have to finish this website, take care of a bunch of administrative stuff, the list goes on.

And now, I'll go cook potatoes.