Jason Kester
Hey! I wrote Blogabond so I guess that makes me your host. Welcome!
I spend about 9 months a year on the road, chasing the sun around the world in search of good climbing and surfing. I...

National Everything Closed Day
Nador, Morocco
So we stashed the car in Almeria and hopped the night ferry to Nador, waking up Bright eyed and ready to make our way down to Fes. Stepped out of the ferry port, ready to face the wave of hustlers, false guides, and "freelance" taxi drivers that had plagued my every step the last time I was in this country. "Elbows up. Make for the taxi ranks and don't make eye contact or respond to anybody no matter what! Ready... Go!!!"
Uh... Stepped a couple more steps... (insert sound of crickets chirping)... watched a tumbleweed roll past...
December 22, 2007 happened to coincide with the Muslim calendar's high holiday of sacrifice, whereby the head of every household must find a tasty looking sheep and slaughter it for his family. This takes precedence over everything else, including taxi driving, hotel operating and restauranteering. Nador ferry port is 15 dusty kilometers from Nador town. Both are deserted, as is the road connecting them. We're screwed.
Somehow, we found a lift from a passing motorist who dropped us off on the dusty, empty streets of Nador, where we ascertained that the bus station was closed, no grand taxis were operating, and we were every bit as stuck as we feared. The only unlocked door in the whole town belonged to the 4 star hotel on the sea, which at least kept us from starving to death that afternoon.
Finding a couple other travelers in the same predicament, we arranged a grand taxi all the way to Fes the next morning, banged on the door of the cheap hotel across the street until they let us in, and waited out the day as sheep blood flowed in the streets and the smell of roast meat wafted from closed doorways.
written by  Jason Kester on December 22, 2007 from Nador, Morocco
from the travel blog: Morocco for no apparent reason

Tidal Wave
Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
So Thailand is treating me pretty well thus far. Beautiful weather, great beach, clear water, perfect rock, couldn't ask for much more.
So check out the first photo on this page:
http://www.megagrip.co.uk/Thailand/Thai7.htm
That is the route that I'm working on at the moment. The photo doesn't do justice to how ridiculously steep this piece of rock is. There is a 20
foot section where you gain 3 feet of elevation! Completely unlike anything I've been on. It's all sorts of fun, and plenty hard as well. I've put three days into it so far, and only just this morning finally got to see the top. That doesn't mean I'm done by any means. Now I get to spend the next few days linking together moves and trying to get the whole thing in one go.
Anyway, things go well. Plenty to climb, plenty of time relaxing on the beach, even some diving in the cards. See ya!
written by  Jason Kester on December 9, 2000 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, 2000-2001

First Inspiration
Portland, United States
I first got the idea to build this thing back in the summer of 2005, sitting in the coffee shop at Powell's books in Portland, thumbing through a Lonely Planet book on travel writing. My dreams of a comfortable life as a traveling author were abruptly dashed, but I came across a term that the author had used that stuck with me. Blog-a-bond.
Registering Blogabond
I downed the rest of my coffee and headed to the nearest Starbucks to register the domain. (Yes, it may sound silly to most of you that I would drink coffee in one coffee shop and use another one only for its wireless internet access. But if you're from Portland, you'll understand. Coffee is important.) Anyway, I had the domain even before I knew what I would build. I figured I'd probably throw up a set of tools that the average Joe could use to build something like I had going at http://www.jasonkester.com/ . Still, I was in no hurry to go ahead with anything. I just liked the name.
written by  Jason Kester on July 17, 2005 from Portland, United States
from the travel blog: Building Blogabond

France by train
Portland, United States
I'm going to be in France this summer with no car, so I'm looking for recommendations of sport crags that are within walking distance of train stations. Ideally, there would also be a cheap place to crash nearby (without camping), but that is secondary.
Can anybody help me out?
written by  Jason Kester on April 29, 1998 from Portland, United States
from the travel blog: Europe, North Africa 1998

Llegamos a Lima
Lima, Peru
Continent #6 is officially checked off the list. All that remains is Antarctica, and since it's not going anywhere, it can wait until I've made the big bucks and can afford to do it in style. For now, it's time to get down to business. Specifically, it's time to figure out exactly what there is to do in Peru, since we really didn't spend much time researching anything...
Nacimiento de llama
I know they've got some form of Inca Trail here, and that it goes to Machu Picchu (and that I shelled out a pile of money to secure us a slot on it). That's 22 days from now, and 21 hours away by bus. I suspect there's a lot of cool stuff between here and there.
I'll let you know when I find some of it. Thus far, I've found some tasty Zendas, an adaptador for my laptop charger, and a pretty cool little 3rd world capital. Our room has the bonus feature of sharing a wall with the local bar street. It certainly sounds like it's more fun over there. I think I shall investigate...
written by  Jason Kester on October 2, 2009 from Lima, Peru
from the travel blog: South!

Re: Have fun
Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
Just a quick note to let you know that I made if to Guatemala ok. I managed to catch a bad cold before I left, and it has followed me here. I've just been resting the last couple days, and seem to be getting better.
This is a great place to relax though. I'm in the town of Antigua, up in the mountains. It's all cobblestone streets and Mayan vendors selling scarves and blankets. The architecture is really neat. The buildings are very plain on the outside, just stone walls with wooden doors. Inside though, it opens up into big gardened courtyards.
Hopefully, I'll be ready to travel by tomorrow. I think El Salvador is the next destination.
written by  Jason Kester on January 25, 2002 from Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
from the travel blog: Central America

baggage.lufthansa.com
Cape Town, South Africa
So I made it to South Africa in one piece. Too bad my bag didn't. No worries, the airline says they'll let me know as soon as it turns up somewhere.
So yeah, I've already written it off, but I'll humor them for a couple days before I replace all my stuff. And by all my stuff, I mean ALL my stuff. I've got the clothes I'm wearing, the book that I finished reading on the flight, and an ATM card that expires sometime in the next few weeks. And a Mars bar.
It's all good!
written by  Jason Kester on March 5, 2003 from Cape Town, South Africa
from the travel blog: Africa, 2003

Cha!
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
My hotel room has a little arrow on the dresser so that I'll know the direction to Mecca. Outside my door was the morning paper in Arabic. Today I shall swim in the Persian Gulf.
Life is good.
written by  Jason Kester on May 22, 2003 from Dubai, United Arab Emirates
from the travel blog: Middle East, 2003

Bailing from trailworks
Portland, United States
Friday will be my last day here. I'm skipping the country for a few months in search of rocks and waves.
Along the way I'll be able to check this address a few times:
radboy2@yahoo.com
See you in February!
Jason
written by  Jason Kester on October 25, 2000 from Portland, United States
from the travel blog: Australia

The Second Lap
Bangkok, Thailand
I'm at it again.
This time it's Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and parts north, but it really doesn't matter where. The important part is taken care of. I can already feel myself slipping into travel mode, where you can't control anything and it's no big deal. My bags didn't make it, and everything was closed when the cab dropped me off on Khoa San road at 3:30 this morning, but no worries. Life's about to get good, and small things like that don't seem to carry as much weight over here.
Besides, the best red curry in the world is only twenty paces away. I'm'a gonna get me some.
written by  Jason Kester on January 3, 2004 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia

All good thus far
Bangkok, Thailand
So I'm back in Bangkok, at the tail end of a one-way ticket. Things are essentially going according to plan, with minor exceptions such as the part where EVA Airlines wouldn't let me on the plane until I shelled out $950 for a return ticket. Tomorrow will be day two of the grand "refund the expensive yet worthless return ticket" adventure.
But hey, I got to watch the sun rising over Mt Fuji this morning, and my favorite curry stall is still where I left it. We'll call it good...
written by  Jason Kester on November 30, 2005 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia Again 2006

The Killing Fields
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Today I held a human skull in my hands.
The killing Fields are really something to behold. The site itself is nothing special. Just a small monument in a Field full of holes, but what it lacks in scope it makes up in impact. The monument itself is essentially a giant glass display case. 10 shelves, 20 feet by 20 feet, each stacked three high with piles of skulls that they have been digging up in the immediate vicinity. 8000 in all.
Walking among the mass graves, it took a while to register the scraps of cloth sticking out of the ground. This is Southeast Asia so you get used to trash everywhere. But eventually it sunk in that these were people’s clothes working their way out of the ground after the fall rains. Scratch the surface and you’ll find bones inside them. Visitors collect them in little shrines along with teeth and bits of clothing. The sign says there are 2000 more bodies that they plan to leave buried there. As I said, it’s a pretty powerful experience.
written by  Jason Kester on December 10, 2005 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia Again 2006

Australia and Thailand
So you are all officially in the loop to receive random emails from me as I tour about in Australia and SE Asia over the next few months. I doubt
I'll be able to get onto the internet all that often, but if I ever do, you'll all get to be amazed and delighted by every mundane detail of my trip. You'll also be first to hear when I am macheted to death in the burmese jungle by angry villagers.
If you want off this list, speak up quick because I'm heading out within the week. See ya!
Jason
written by  Jason Kester on October 25, 2000 from Portland, United States
from the travel blog: Australia

No worries
Cape Town, South Africa
The luggage made it. Everything is back to being too easy.
Made it out bouldering today up at Table mountain. It was cool. I'm starting
to run out of Cape Town things to do though. I think I may rent a car and head
up to the rocklands for a while.
written by  Jason Kester on March 7, 2003 from Cape Town, South Africa
from the travel blog: Africa, 2003

Livin' Large in the Third World
La Libertad, El Salvador
So after a few days holed up in Guatemala, I made it down to El Salvador, and am currently hanging out in La Libertad. This place is pretty cool, and it's definitely not been discovered by the tourist industry yet. I've seen six European faces in the two days we've been here. This is a pretty rough town. You don't really get to walk the streets after dark unless you're a local. (especially last night, since the USA just beat the Salvadoran soccer team, and the locals were not taking it well!)
We headed up the coast a ways today to check out the surf. I guess the waves had been great the few days before we showed up, but not so much today or yesterday. We managed to find our way onto a nice deserted stretch of black sand beach to try to make some headway on a suntan. Definitely a lot nicer than the trash strewn beach back in town.
Anyway, if the surf doesn't pick up tomorrow, we'll probably head back inland for a while. Maybe into Honduras to check out the ruins at Copan.
written by  Jason Kester on January 28, 2002 from La Libertad, El Salvador
from the travel blog: Central America

The King Cruiser
Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
So life in Paradise continues to be nothing but good. I made it out diving the other day, and it was the best I've ever seen. Ridiculous amounts of fish, anenomae and assorted critters. You'd lose sight of your dive buddy because there'd be 15,000 young barracuda in the way.
Our first dive of the day was on this passenger ferry that sank a few years back. The main deck is like 24m down and it's upright and in good condition. It's fun and a bit spooky cruising around inside the thing, as all the divers stir up the water & visibility is reduced to just a few meters. Being a boat, it has plenty of narrow doors and confined spaces to swim through. Definitely a cool experience!
And for those of you keeping score, I've put in a total of six days on the route now. Only a couple burns a day recently, since I have all the moves wired now, and I'm just trying to put together a clean ascent. I can get it with one rest along the way now. Now I'm just moving that rest spot gradually downward until I can cast off straight from the sand.
The route will have to wait a bit though, as I'm off to the islands tomorrow, followed by a dash for the malaysian border so that I can get a fresh
30 day visa.
written by  Jason Kester on December 14, 2000 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, 2000-2001

Re: Hawaii
Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
So they have cats all over the place here. They are somewhat wild, though aparently you can claim one as your own by putting a collar around its neck. As far as I can tell, most of them are filling in the duty normally performed by pidgeons. They'll hang out next to you at the restaurant and wait for you to drop some rice.
They have all sorts of chickens and ducks running around too. In fact everything on the menu is present and accounted for except beef. That sort of sets the mind wondering as to the true purpose of all those cats...
Anyway, we set off traveling tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have more interesting stories to report.
written by  Jason Kester on December 15, 2000 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, 2000-2001

Bouldering in the paint
Tafraout, Morocco
...
this is a placeholder for an entry in Morocco about Tafraout.
written by  Jason Kester on January 6, 2008 from Tafraout, Morocco
from the travel blog: Morocco for no apparent reason

Ceviche
Paracas, Peru
So our last day in Lima was pretty cool. The old Spanish colonial center is groovy, though they had it on double-secret security alert while we were there. There were dudes with guns milling around everywhere you looked, and accumulating in bunches in alleyways. One guy was walking around with an extra clip of ammunition for his AK-47, presumably because he expected to use the first one up that day and didn't want to feel silly for not having more.
Llama de la ciudad
Heading home, we found ourselves locked out of the Hostel for most of the evening, since the guy who answers the buzzer was asleep. Good thing too, since the place we went to find a beer & kill time turned out to be a really cool hostel, differentiating itself from ours by having windows, not being a dank hovel with mice, and having a bunch of fun people to talk to up on the roof. It's http://www.hostelkokopelli.com/ if you're ever in Lima. We'll head back there next time we're in town.
Anyway, on to the Ceviche. We headed down to Paracas, about 4 hours south by bus. They drop you at a crossroads on the main highway, about 20k short of the town, in front of a booth labeled "Tourist Information" filled with people telling you that all the hotels in Paracas are full because it's a Sunday, but there's one place they can hook you up with that has a room for $40/night. And there aren't any buses but we can get you a special rate on a taxi.
Thanks, dude. We'll try our luck anyway, and hey! Isn't that a local bus going past with a "Paracas" sign on it? Let's see it they're closed on sundays too...
Paracas is a small place, but still they manage to segregate out the "Restaurant Turistico" district from the local places. We grabbed a giant plate of Ceviche from a place with plastic chairs and a bunch of locals. Mmmm.... raw fish in the 3rd world... that's good eatin'!
written by  Jason Kester on October 4, 2009 from Paracas, Peru
from the travel blog: South!

I totally claim Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in the name of Wassailry!
Copan, Honduras
Copan Beastie
Listen up, Ace. We're in Copan Ruinas now, kicking it at the Posada Honduras. That's the first place on the left as you get into town. Let us know what day & what time you're likely to arrive, and we'll have a frosty Port Royal waiting for you in the courtyard.
It is all good here. Bust ass!
written by  Jason Kester on January 30, 2002 from Copan, Honduras
from the travel blog: Central America

Re: Overseas
Bangkok, Thailand
--- Michael Garner wrote:
> I'm glad to hear that you arrived in Asia unscathed and got a full belly of
> curried rodent as well. Two cancled flight is par for the course in these
> days of overseas travels. Did they manage to loose your luggage as well? ...
I opted out of the luggage equation this time around. I've crammed three months provisions into a little carryon pack. It's cool because I never have to think about what I'm going to wear. Let's see... I've got one pair of shorts and a shirt. I guess I'll wear that!
So yeah, the austrialia leg is all about the jellyfish, with not much in the way of tall rocks to be found. I have the shoes along just in case, but for
the most part I'll be surfing.
written by  Jason Kester on November 2, 2000 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Australia

Straight off the streets of CPT
Cape Town, South Africa
I headed up to the rocklands for a couple days to check out some world-class bouldering, and possibly get eaten by a leopard. The place is pretty cool, loads of rock for miles in any direction, with Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom living in between. I got on some fun problems, but I kept getting more and more tentative to slap blindly for holds after seeing all the spiders, snakes, and assorded angry critters living in them.
Next stop was Montagu, the western cape's premier sport climbing destination area, and home to absolutely no climbers at the moment. Nobody to climb with, hence no real reason for me to be at the western cape's premier sport climbing destination area. In fact, in the short time I've been down here, I have become convinced that I am the only travelling rock climber in all of South Africa. Looks like I'll stick to bouldering.
Anyway, I'll probably tourist up the joint in Cape Town for a couple days more before heading east. If I'm feeling lucky, next stop will be Outdoorshoorn and the awesome limestone with likely zero partners to be had. Otherwise, it's off to J-Bay to find some waves.
It remains All Good.
written by  Jason Kester on March 11, 2003 from Cape Town, South Africa
from the travel blog: Africa, 2003

Southeast Asian Travel Day
Woke up in time for a nice cup of coffee on the lake in Phnom Penh and a few minutes to chill before another long travel day.
So, a half hour on a motorbike across town and an hour on a state of the art Cambodian airliner puts me back in lovely Bangkok in time to pick up the bags and jump on a night train to Surat Thani. Just 20 hours of buses, pickup trucks and longtail boats away from the beach. No worries!
written by  Jason Kester on December 11, 2005 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia Again 2006

Angkor
Siemreab, Cambodia
Angkor is pretty cool. I'm digging the part where they let you climb over basically anything. The best temples are the broken down ones in the jungle where you can clambor over big piles of stone blocks and drop squeeze into the old Temples that are barely standing.
It was nice that you could hire a guy for $5 to drive you around on a motorbike from Sunrise to sunset and wait outside these temple sites for hours at a time, but still I think my best day was the one where I just rented a bike and pedaled out to the remote spots that nobody visits. Got to meet a couple kids on their way to the fishing hole, and found the back way through the jungle to get from temple to temple.
Too bad they're building giant luxury hotels so fast. In another year or so I bet you'll start seeing ropes and signs and guards all over the place. Better get there now if you still want to sift through the rubble yourself!
written by  Jason Kester on December 8, 2005 from Siemreab, Cambodia

Overseas
Just a quick note to let you know I made it as far as Bangkok unscathed. Only took 23 hours, two canceled flights and a bonus stop in Seattle.
Bangkok is full on strange. It's nothing but street markets and back alleys and littls stalls selling vats of curried squirell. If you've seen that leonardo dicaprio beach movie, and you probably should if only for the first half, you'll be happy to know that the Bangkok scenes are not embellished whatsoever. In fact, I'm convinced that they shot part of it in my room.
Anyway, assuming I'm not knifed to death by pirates tonight, I'll be flying to Sydney tomorrow evening. I think I enjoy third world cities best in small doses.
written by  Jason Kester on November 2, 2000 from Bangkok, Thailand

Stuck at the beach
Cintsa Mouth, South Africa
J-Bay lived up to all expectations. Really cool looking waves that I have no business getting in the way of, and plenty of less deadly but equally perfect spots as well.
I finally got on my first bus today. Everybody has rental cars here, so I've been pretty lucky at finding people who were going in the right direction. Now I'm in Cintsa, at the backpacker's equivilant of a black hole. Everywhere you look, there's a nice hammock in the shade overlooking the beach or the pool, and a friendly barmaid to hand you another 75 cent beer. Laziness beckons at every turn. I don't see how I can possibly escape.
written by  Jason Kester on March 21, 2003 from Cintsa Mouth, South Africa

Throw me the idol, I throw you the whip!
West End, Honduras
What up y'alls?
So I skipped out of El Salvador without riding a single wave. The surf just never materialized, and the town never got any more charming. Two full days in decommissioned Midwestern school busses put me over the border into Honduras on to Copan Ruinas.
Copan. What can I say? It's spectacular. I can see why people dedicate their whole lives to this sort of thing. I'm sure my pictures won't do the place justice.
I'm now on Roatan, trying to get in a few dives and a suntan. Everybody here speaks English. I feel like I'm cheating.
written by  Jason Kester on February 4, 2002 from West End, Honduras

Re: g-e-t-l-i-v-e
So Jay seems to be a step or two farther from the grave. In fact, he'll be climbing this afternoon, and all I can do is belay. I seem to have hosed up my shoulder, so anything I do with my left arm is somewhat agonizing. Maybe more chillin' will help.
And you'll be happy to know that I've been downing every sketchy looking dish that the street vendors can toss my way. I've even been drinking the local hootch with buckets of poisonous ice from the bar. I'm indestructable!
(Notes: 1. Jay did in fact not die of the intestinal disorder that had him sidlined for most of the trip. 2. The shoulder complaints mentioned here were likely a mild case of the bends. )

Re: life philosophies
Life remains unpredictable for me these days. I'm actually in Bangkok now, holding a ticket to Bali for tomorrow morning. It occured to me that I since I have another climber friend enroute to krabi in a couple weeks, I would need to strike now if I had any desire to go see non-thailand things. Malaysia was the first candidate, followed by chaing mai. Then I stumbled across a cheap fare to Densapur, and it got me thinking about surfing.
This works out well for our kid Jay, as his body hasn't reacted well to tropical environs and poor sanitation. As weeks of never quite being healthy enough to climb piled up, he's been talking more about rafting, snowboarding, and other things you can do in sub-95% humidity. He hopped a flight back to the states this morning.

The Flaky VC
Pasadena, United States
So now it's two days later and I'm scanning for consulting gigs on Craigslist in LA. I've been sort of living in Pasadena for a while, trying to get Expat Software ( http://www.expatsoftware.com/ ) to the point where I can skip the country again with a full load of work.
Crazy RFP
There's an overly enthusiastic ad from a guy wanting to build a MySpace clone, so I send off an overly enthusiastic response asking for more info. It turns out he wants to build a travel site, with maps and itineraries and community spaces and a huge database of everything in the world that a traveler might want to know. It was actually a pretty cool concept, but it had one fatal flaw. It would have taken an army of data-entry monkeys a year to compile enough information on cool places and sights to make it a worthwhile place for a traveler to hang out and do research.
The one thing that I brought away from the 2 weeks of proposal writing to this increasingly flaky prospect was a heads up on the existence of the Google Maps API. Holy Crap! That's Cool! I'm gonna build this guy a couple prototypes!
I ended up writing the seed that would eventually sprout into the Trip Builder. Naturally, the money never showed up and the flaky VC evaporated, but now I was inspired enough to keep going. I figured if the guy ever came back, I'd offer to cut him in on the action (though I'm still convinced there never will be any profit from this thing), and until then I'd just take this on as a hobby, building the site that I wish I'd found back when I was building http://www.jasonkester.com/ .
written by  Jason Kester on July 19, 2005 from Pasadena, United States
from the travel blog: Building Blogabond

Big Day with penguins and deserts & stuff
Huacachina, Peru
Our hotel in Paracas came with a nice rooster to wake us up in time for a boat trip out to the Islas Ballestas, which is probably as close as we'll come to the Galapagos on this trip. It was actually pretty cool for ten bucks, and we got within poking distance of seals, penguins, pelicans, and several zillion cormorants.
Is that close enough for you?
The beach was cool and all, but when we got back to the hotel we caught wind of a collectivo heading straight to Huacachina that was leaving immediately. A quick flurry of packing, a couple hours of discomfort, and suddenly we're at a desert oasis surrounded by sand dunes. Cool!
Much chilling ensued, along with some thoroughly perilous dune buggying out to do some sandboarding. Huacachina is one of those backpacker vortices that are just so comfortable that you find yourself in a permanent state of "we'll probably move on tomorrow", but really they shouldn't even bother offering bus service out of the place. You're not leaving.
Llama de Arabia
written by  Jason Kester on October 5, 2009 from Huacachina, Peru
from the travel blog: South!

Latin Life
West End, Honduras
Been diving.
Been diving lots in fact. Been down to 37 meters, squeezed into caves, Poked fish and been bitten by them. Picked up enough of a tan to make all the co-workers jealous. Time to head back to the mainland.
Belize is the next stop, en route to the Guatemalan highlands and possibly into Mexico for a few days and a few ruins.
In short, it's all good and it's not yet half over.
written by  Jason Kester on February 10, 2002 from West End, Honduras

Oi!
Surfers Paradise, Australia
Made it out of Thailand, and I'm now kicking it safely in the tourist trap of Surfer's Paradise. I spent a couple nights in Sydney, driving on the
wrong side of the road and working the jetlag out of the system.
Along the way up the coast I bought the most beat up shortboard I could find. I've only had it in the water once, and got thoroughly worked as a
reward. It's cool not having to wear ten pounds of neoprene to avoid hypothermia, but I sure don't float to the surface as quickly without it.
And for the record, the toilets do indeed flush in the other direction, and the moon is oriented entirely the wrong way. All in all, good times are
being had.
written by  Jason Kester on November 7, 2000 from Surfers Paradise, Australia

Beer Run
Cairo, Egypt
Part of the appeal of travel for me is that you tend to find yourself in really strange situations from time to time. Big cities in the third world seem to be especially good for this. Cairo has not disappointed.
I've only been here a few hours now, but already I've found myself in a custody battle between two pensionnes in the same building, each claiming to be the Dahab Hotel. One of them is actually correct, but that is no matter, as the other is convinced that it is in fact a new addition to the real place. Good for bargaining though. I've got AC and a balcony for five bucks a night.
So I'm eating my Shawarma in the lobby, talking to the manager (who now claims that he used to manage the real Dahab and thus the misunderstanding) and his "brother", and it turns out that there is a big wedding party tomorrow night and they need a huge favor, as the only place in town where you can get imported liquor is the duty free shop at the Sheraton. Of course they're lying, but I've been lied to all day and I'm used to it. And besides, what could possibly go wrong?
As a newly arrived visitor, my passport is a valuable thing. It contains a dated stamp that entitles me to bring 3 liters of alcohol and 3 cartons of cigarettes into the country. I'm finally getting to repay karma for mooching off upperclassmen for all those beer runs back at school. I'm expecting to be handed some cash and a list, then be inserted quietly into the lobby and return a hero, but no. It's easier than that. All I gotta do is hang out while our brother goes shopping, then produce my passport at the proper moment. Kind of a let down.
Anyway, my services netted me a couple warm cans of beer to enjoy on the rooftop deck of the hotel. So much sweeter because of how they were earned. I woulda done it just for the story.
written by  Jason Kester on May 23, 2003 from Cairo, Egypt
from the travel blog: Middle East, 2003

Sorted
Pretoria, South Africa
Things go well. I spent yesterday on foot, tracking a pack of babboons across Zulu country. In fact, I've been on foot quite a bit in the last week, hiking around in the Drakensberg. The place is truly spectacular, with 1000 meter cliffs to stumble off if you miss a step, deep sandstone gorges to explore, and views that are just a bit too scenic for my tastes.
Before that was Durban, and a few days of surfing in the warm water and sunshine.
Now I'm in Pretoria, sequestered in a compound surrounded by razor-wire and an electric fence. They take their security seriously down here. This is a good neighborhood, which means that I get to walk around in the daylight. In Jo'burg, you are strongly discouraged from leaving the hostel for any reason.
written by  Jason Kester on April 2, 2003 from Pretoria, South Africa

Guy on the beach
I spent the better half of last week in a pitched battle for control of my belly. I escalated to antibiotics, and came out the victor. Got back on the rock yesterday and today I was finally starting to hit stride. Got a 7a and worked out a new sequence for a tough 7b that I squeaked by on last time I was here. That's .11d and .12b for the non-french.
But none of that will matter soon, as I am about to become a huge movie star in Thailand! I was sitting in a cafe on the beach, reading a book and toying with the remains of my pad thai this afternoon, when a couple thai girls came up and asked if I'd like to be in a ice cream commercial. But of course. Why else would I be waiting here?
They took a bunch of photos and videotaped me walking up to the camera and smiling and talking about how much I enjoyed partying on the beach and eating ice cream. It was hilarious. Anyway, if I make the cut, they'll ship me and fifteen other superficial looking farang off to some beach in Trang provence for a week. There's even some baht in the deal.
So yeah, that's my story for the day. I'll keep you posted on my soon to be illustrious career as an actor!
written by  Jason Kester on January 16, 2004 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia

A month later...
Been here a whole month now, climbing rocks, working on the tan, and amassing stories. Maybe if I get some time I'll even tell some of them. Until then, know that life remains good.
written by  Jason Kester on January 17, 2006 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand

Watched the sun rise over the Kalahari today...
Livingstone, Zambia
I finally made it out of South Africa, one week after my visa expired. I spent those extra couple days out at Kruger park, checking out the wildlife. The place is cool. Animals everywhere. It got so that you wouldn't bother stopping the car because there were only 50 impala on one side and a dozen zebra, some wildebeeste and a few giraffes on the other side.
Yesterday was a travel day, so 8 hours in packed minibus-taxis, and a 14 hour night bus saw me across Botswana and up into Zambia this morning. Went and checked out Victoria Falls today, and was suitably impressed. The thing is so wide that you can never really see it all, and it drops along this series of gorges so you can walk out the side of one and have this giant waterfall spanning from as wide as you can see, but only 50 yards in front of you, with the spray dropping on you like a torrential rainstorm. Cool.
I've only got a couple weeks before I need to be in Nairobi, so I'll probably pull out of here tomorrow and start making my way towards Malawi.
written by  Jason Kester on April 10, 2003 from Livingstone, Zambia

Re: Sharks
Surfers Paradise, Australia
--- Diane Kester wrote:
> Yesterday on the news they said that two surfers had been attacked by sharks
> in Australia. Then they said it happened in Perth. A quick check verified
> that that's the other side of the continent from Surfer's Paradise.
> ...
Yeah, it's good to hear that the sharks are keeping to their side of the country. We had a strange experience today though. We checked out this semi-crowded break just south of town & decided to go rent a longer board for the small surf. In the twenty minutes it took to find a surf shop and come back, the whole beach had emptied. Nobody was in the water (there were maybe 30 surfers and a crowd of swimmers) and there was a big no swimming sign. I have no idea what happened, but can only assume that somebody saw a shark. Spooky!
Anyway, the good news is that we went a few miles further down & found some great waves. Best of all, no wetsuit! Just trunks and a thin spandex shirt callled a rashguard. Things are definately looking up.
written by  Jason Kester on November 8, 2000 from Surfers Paradise, Australia

still alive
Flores, Guatemala
So I've accumulated another half dozen passport stamps since the last report. I'm back in Guatemala now, speaking broken Spanish and climbing Mayan temples. Spent a day at Tikal, looking up at big ruins, and looking down from on top of them. Wow. I'm gonna be an archeologist when I grow up.
My tan is starting to fade, so I think the next stop is the beach. A Couple friends are flying into Belize tomorrow, so it's off to Placencia to meet them.
Yavin
Belize is pretty much a rookie destination. Everything is just a little too easy for the third world. People speak English, Taxi rates are posted, busses run on time and take you where they said they would go. It's hard to adjust to. I'll need to get back out before I get used to it.
written by  Jason Kester on February 16, 2002 from Flores, Guatemala

back across the equator
Kuta, Indonesia
Do you have any idea how cheap a flight to Bali is when you book it in Bangkok? Well I do now, and I'm loving it here. All I knew was that there's surfing to be had in Indonesia, and that was pretty much enough. Indeed there is, as I found out first hand today. There is also really good food, friendly people, sun and remarkably cheap accomodation.
In fact, everything is pretty cheap here. They actually have paper money that is worth less than a penny. You give the guy on the beach the equivilant of a two dollar bill to pay for a bottle of water, and he has to scramble among his friends to break it for you.
So I'm pretty much Bangkok'd out by now. It's a great place to visit for a day or two on the way to somewhere. But I've done that three times now on this trip alone, and there's really not all that much to do. They've got temples, they've got crowds, they've got people selling you fried, barbequed, and otherwise dead things to eat, but that's about it. About the only amusement I have left is playing "is that prostitute a man?" at night. She usually is.
written by  Jason Kester on December 22, 2000 from Kuta, Indonesia

Re: back across the equator
Kuta, Indonesia
(clarifying the Bangkok lady-boy remarks from the previous report...)
I generally try not to actually engage them in conversation. You can usually tell from a distance, though some do a really good job of looking the part!
Bali has some truly amazing waves that I have no intention of paddling out to anytime in the near future. I spent part of today day at Ulu Watu when it wasn't even on, and it looked plenty mean. There's rock here, by the way. I'm going to do some scoping over the next week to see if we should be planning a future expedition w/ Hilti in tow. There's definately enough bouldering on the beach to keep a fella occupied for a while.
written by  Jason Kester on December 25, 2000 from Kuta, Indonesia

¡Pantalones Pantalones!
Onate, Spain
Poking the Henge!
These last few weeks have gone by fast. Flew to England, bought a new car, packed Helen's entire world into said car, booked a ferry ticket and drove to Portsmouth, visiting everybody we knew in England along the way.
Here's the plan in a nutshell: I needed some time off work, and Helen needed to get out of America. Frankly, I needed to get out of America too, since I seem to work so much better from a little terrace overlooking a square. I like my walls made of stone.
We've been looking at places to live in Europe, but haven't settled on anything for certain. So now we're just going to roadtrip around for a while until we find a place worth stopping. I guess the requirements are a cool town with a good vibe, plenty of climbing nearby, and of course, a fast internet connection so that I can work. Once we find all that, we're gonna stop for a while.
Breakfast at Apellaniz
Now we're in the little town of Onate, having done the whirlwind tour of Basque crags around Vitoria-Gastiez. This is a really cool town, and the climbing up the hill in Araotz looks pretty good. If the rest of the climbing around here is as good as what we've seen, we might not make it out of Spain!
written by  Jason Kester on May 20, 2007 from Onate, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain

Please stop circling the monkey!
Nazca, Peru
We finally escaped the Vortex yesterday and found a bitchin' 1974 Dodge Coronet collectivo taxi headed to Nazca with a load of cargo and a local couple. After 2 hours of bleak desert nothing, we came across a stretch of bleak desert nothing with a bunch of parked tour buses and a bunch of people clamboring up a set of spiral stairs to nowhere.
This was the place!
Nazca is the single least impressive archaelogical site in the world to visit on the ground. There's simply nothing there. It's not in the least bit surprising that then never found it (and even went so far as to build a highway through it) before 1939. It only works from the air.
Steep enough for ya?
So to the air we went. $50 will get you a seat on a Cessna 172 for half an hour flying over the lines, which I have to say are pretty freakin' sweet. The pilots they have are awesome, and they spend most of their time in a 45 degree banked turn circling a few hundred feet above one pictograph or another.
After about 10 minutes of this treatment, you're pretty much Nazca'd out. OK, I get it. It looks like a bird. You've circled it seven times now and I'm about to vomit. No, please, I beg you, there's no need to circle it in the other direction... ow... look at the horizon... breathe... It'll be over soon.
So yeah, it's good value. Now we're back at the hostal, dipping in the queen-sized pool and waiting for the quease to subside before the big Night Bus to Arequipa.
written by  Jason Kester on October 8, 2009 from Nazca, Peru

the local bus
Dangriga, Belize
Lots has happened since last I wrote, but I'm not going to talk about that just yet. First, you all need to learn more about the joy that is third world travel. I'll recount the story of my bus ride from Flores, Guatemala to the Belize border.
So we hop on this bus at the station. You can tell that it started its career in some San Antonio school district circa 1964. Certainly was taken out of service long before I hit grade school. it's not too crowded, meaning that there is one seat left with only two people on it. I take this one and hang out for roughly an hour while locals pile on and the bus idles in the sun.
It's 87 degrees outside, and a man is standing in the front of the bus selling some sort of miracle cure at full volume.
Once enough people are aboard that nobody can move anymore, the bus starts moving. It stops a few more times to cram more folks aboard, then one last time so that a guy in a pickup truck can throw a bunch of mail packages in the windows and fill up any additional space.
We continue to pick up passengers along the way, sometimes stopping twice in 50 feet. After about half an hour, I give up my seat to a woman, her baby, her son, and their chicken. I'll be standing for the rest of the trip, 2 more hours to the border. The bus is packed tight enough now that I can no longer fall over. I even manage to fall asleep standing up for a while. Then the pavement ends.
2 1/2 hours, 60 miles, $1.25. In short, a pretty typical bus ride down here. It usually takes about three of them to get from one place to the next.
written by  Jason Kester on February 22, 2002 from Dangriga, Belize

still alive
Noosa Heads, Australia
I'm up in Noosa Heads now. It's plenty hot, and the water is warm with perfect waves. No more rashguard. I'm just surfing in a pair of shorts now. That was half the goal for the trip, so now I've just got to make it up to Arlie Beach and get certified to dive. That may be the next stop, or we may spend a few days on Fraser island along the way.
written by  Jason Kester on November 12, 2000 from Noosa Heads, Australia

Monkey Bay, Baby!
Monkey Bay, Malawi
That's right, I'm in Freakin' Monkey Bay, and there's not a thing any of you lot can do about it. I hereby claim the place as part of the greater Kester empire!
There's too much happiness to relate from my perch here at the bar, so I'll give you the disaster story instead.
So after 12 hours crammed in the back of VW minibusses with 25 locals and their stuff, I pulled into this town for the first time. But I wasn't staying, so I jumped in the back of the last pickup headed out to Cape Mclear. Only maybe 15 of us, but no cage so it was plenty tight. And it was 4wd territory the whole way out.
Anyway, about 10k in, we're halfway up a long hill and the radiator finally gives out. No worries, right. We start rolling back to see what can be done, and that's when the brakes go. We pick up speed. People start hollering. People start jumping out. One guy goes over the hood is riding on it. I'm up on the rail, jettisoning my bag, when the driver cuts the wheel to the side. We slam into the hillside doing about 20, and I do my best flying leap over the side.
I land in a forward roll, and am up and scurrying downhill, expecting to see the truck cartwheeling towards me, but it has dug itself into the side of the hill and dispensed about half of its passengers off the back. Amazingly, nobody was seriously hurt.
But yeah, Cape Mclear made up for it all. Best place I've found yet in Africa. $1.50 for a room, $0.30 for a beer. Great beach and flat, clear, warm fresh water.
No worries.
written by  Jason Kester on April 18, 2003 from Monkey Bay, Malawi

Lake Malawi
Lilongwe, Malawi
Over the years, I have learned that if you throw enough money at any problem, it will go away. Last week was no exception.
With only 3 weeks to make it from Jo'burg to Nairobi, I knew that I would have to move fast at some point, and probably blow right past some of the things I had wanted to see. I made it into Malawi with just over a week to spare, and a quick look at the map verified that I'd be spending most of that week in busses unless I took some drastic measures. In the end, it was an easy decision: Malawi is cool. I wanted to see it. I booked a flight.
Good idea. First stop was Cape Mclear, and a few days in Paradise, with hardly any other travellers. The few of us there were would throw a couple bucks at the local boys, who would organize a bunch of fish and a duck to roast on the beach after the sun went down. After a couple hours, half the village would be around the fire, passing around cartons of the Chibuku (the local, pulpy, shake & serve brew.)
Next up was a long haul up the coast, with a night stranded in a $0.75 hotel room, finally arriving in Nkata Bay. Yet another beautiful place, but with more of a tourist feel. There were bungalows right on the lake, good meals, good times, and I actually managed to spend more than ten dollars a day. Quite a feat for Malawi.
Anyway, I'm stuck in Lilongwe today, trying to verify that I do indeed still have this flight tomorrow. Next stop is Kenya and Tanzania.
written by  Jason Kester on April 22, 2003 from Lilongwe, Malawi

Fraser Island
Torquay, Australia
Fraser Squad
So I'm in the town of Hervey Bay at the moment, having just returned from a few days on Fraser island. We were pretty much going to give the place a miss, but everybody we ran into kept insisting that we absolutely had to go. They were right.
Basically, you fork over some money and they pile you together into a group of nine strangers and hand you the keys to a big ol' Toyota Landcruiser. Then they toss in about sixty pounds of steak, 30 gallons of beer, and a couple beat up tents. The rest is up to you, and the ferry leaves in an hour.
Fraser is really cool. It's just a giant pile of sand, with a rainforest covering most of it. It has some amazing lakes with white sand bottoms and
incredibly clear, pure water. So pure in fact that you can drink it.
Apart from the beach (which is actually designated as an Australian highway), there are no roads, just a series of rough tracks through the jungle.
Now when I say rough, I dont mean just rough, but rough enough that they manage to consistantly bog vehicles designed specifically to never bog down in sand. Loads of fun! Even better with eight nervous passengers screaming in the back.
In short, the best time I've had in Australia thus far. Good times, good company, beautiful place. It's all good.
written by  Jason Kester on November 17, 2000 from Torquay, Australia

off the map
Livingston, Guatemala
It just got good.
We (just myself and Zack these days) worked our way to the little village of Lanquin, Guatemala. Way off the beaten track, but definitely worth the 3 hours on bad dirt roads from Coban. This place is amazing, complete with waterfalls and cascading pools, caves that go back for 3km, and even some untapped climbing potential.
We blew 3 days there, in a grass hut in a cow pasture, intending to head back to Coban and then bus it down to El Estor and onward to Livingston on the coast. But then, we heard about the secret back way.
Apparently, people had, in the past, come into town from the other direction over a series of unmaintained roads that weren't on any of the maps we had along. Others had left town for El Estor that way, with apparent success. No details were available though, as none of them ever came back. We're there!
First stop was Cahabon, a town remote enough that the sight of westerners is still novel enough to draw stares, pointing, and laughter. We stayed there for a day, and set the alarm for 2:45.
At 3:30am, we hit the road for what was possibly the most interesting travel day of my life. The locals head out for work at 4 in a series of 2 ton farm trucks. We hopped on the one that looked like it was heading the farthest out of town, and rode it as far as it would go.
The next several hours were spent alternately sitting by the side of the road in remote Guatemalan jungle, and standing inside or on the bumper of small pickups with up to 30 people in the bed. Eventually we hit the highway (also a dirt road, but straighter), and found a ride to El Estor.
28 Hours, 5 rides (one in a truck full of guys with shotguns), 50 miles, $2.50 not including room and board in Cahabon.
I'm in Livingston now, enjoying the Caribbean sun for one last day before heading back to Guatemala city and home.
written by  Jason Kester on March 2, 2002 from Livingston, Guatemala

Moving the HQ
Pamplona, Spain
View of Plaza Del Castillo from our terrace!
So it's official. I'm livin' in Spain! Signed a year lease on an apartment in Pamplona, and am now sipping my Cafe Solo' on the terrace overlooking Plaza del Castillo. It is all good here.
The calle out our back window
There is tons of great climbing within an hour's drive of this city. We've been sampling a bit of it, but mostly we've been trying to sort out little details for the apartment. Helen has gone into Nesting Mode, and is busy finding kitchen towels and throw pillows and all sorts of stuff it would have never occured to me to buy. I've been trying to get phone lines and DSL set up in broken Spanish.
San Fermines is about a month away, and I'm starting to think about gathering a pile of Blogabonders here for the festivities. See how many of us can get gored Running with the Bulls! If this sounds like a good idea to any of you, let me know and I'll find a way to make it happen.
written by  Jason Kester on June 3, 2007 from Pamplona, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain

Merry Christmas
Kuta, Indonesia
Good to hear from you. I was getting a bit homesick as the big holiday approached. It turns out I had a pretty good time down here though. Xmas eve was spent with fellow travelers and Islanders eating curry in this festively decorated little restaurant with Indonesian christmas carrols in the background. Selamet nasi goreng and a happy new year!
So it turns out that my buddy Jay doesn't function all that well in the tropics. The five weeks he was in Thailand, he was never quite healthy, wavering back and forth between a stomach bug and some sort of bronchial thing. It worked out great for me, because he was always healthy enough to belay me on climbs, yet he could usually be counted on to eat less than his share at mealtimes. The perfect traveling companion as far as I'm concerned, but somehow he didn't see it that way.
Anyway, I'll be embarking on an informal tour of Bali and the surrounding islands tomorrow. It should be fun, I managed to get down the coast a ways today and It was quite a bit nicer than around town. Happy holidays!
written by  Jason Kester on December 25, 2000 from Kuta, Indonesia

Re: Back in Thailand yet?
(a quick geography lesson for the parents...)
--- DRKester wrote:
> We haven't heard from you for a while. Have you made it back to Krabbe yet?
> ...
> Take care, and stay out of Indonesia (they don't like Americans right now).
>
> Love,
> Mom and Dad
Uhhh... Bali is sort of in Indonesia. They seem to like americans just fine so far, though I guess they bombed a church or two over on Lombok the other day. That's the next island to the right from Bali.
I spent a few days on Nusa Lembongan, a tiny island off the coast. It was just beautiful. I had this dream bungalow on the second story fronting the beach, looking over the lagoon and out to the reef where they have a great surf break. Pretty much the primo room on the whole island. Two bucks a night.
Yeah, the whole thing where they kill all the foreigners is doing great things for the exchange rate over here. And realisticly, it would take quite a while to kill them all. I think I'll last at least another week!
Well, happy new years! Keep me posted about the dot com situation. Maybe I'll just have to stay over here until the market improves!

Usability
Pasadena, United States
Things have been moving fast these last few days. We finally pushed our first build live on Saturday, and have been getting lots of good usability feedback.
Lesson One: Nobody Reads Instructions!
This was our first real mistake. Our screens were easy enough to use, but you really needed to read the little block of text up top to know what you were supposed to do. Even the fact that the "Countries In View" list next to the map could be scrolled off the screen caused a few users to wonder why they couldn't pick Thailand off the list when they were zoomed in on Central America.
Lucky for us, the changes we needed to make were pretty minor. The big explanatory paragraphs are all either gone, or moved down out of the way, in favor of big simple taglines. Gone are the references to Travel Journals, Trip Reports and Diaries. Now it's all Travel Blogs and Blog entries.
Lesson Two: If it looks clickable, it better work!
We have big ideas here. There are plenty of new features on the way, so we mock up all our screens to incorporate those features. The only problem is that users see a link saying "0 photos", and expect to be able to click on it to get to the page where they can view those zero photos. It never would have occurred to me to do that!
So this was another easy fix. We went through and lopped off anything that's not fully built. And in a few cases, we just cranked overnight and made those features work. So now, if you click on something, you can be assured you'll go somewhere.
written by  Jason Kester on October 17, 2005 from Pasadena, United States
from the travel blog: Building Blogabond

!San Fermines!
Pamplona, Spain
San Fermines just kicked off here in Pamplona, and the town is going nuts! It's just after noon, and already we're down 3 liters of Calimotxo from where we started. Just spent 10 minutes dumping buckets of water off of our balcony and onto the crowds in Plaza Del Castillo.
If you're not yet in Pamplona, get here. Now. I'll buy you a drink (or at least dump one over your head).
written by  Jason Kester on July 6, 2007 from Pamplona, Spain
from the travel blog: Living in Spain

Schoolin´
Arequipa, Peru
Spent a week in Arequipa taking Spanish lessons and wandering around the town. Arequipa is cool, with a colonial vibe, cobbled streets, and Stone buildings.
We stuck it out for almost 10 days in the end, and since we weren´t doing tours and stuff every day it actually ended up being the cheapest bit of the trip so far. Well worth it.
written by  Jason Kester on October 16, 2009 from Arequipa, Peru

Re: Photos from the road
Mackay, Australia
Fraser island is maybe 500k North of Brisbane, next to the town of Hervey Bay. It's tall & skinny, you can't miss it.
I'm in Airlie Beach right now. It's a bit southeast of Townsville, and it's the point where the barrier reef is closest to shore. I'll be in the pool for the next couple days, then living on and diving from a boat out at the reef. Pretty cool!
written by  Jason Kester on November 18, 2000 from Mackay, Australia

RE: Sad news from the 7th floor
Nairobi, Kenya
I'm in Nairobi now, trying to hook up with my Father, who is flying in tomorrow. I made the mistake of letting him pick the hotel, and he found one dead center in the sketchiest area of town. They were beating a guy in the street when we rolled up, and while we were waiting for that to clear, a couple prostitutes came over and tried to get into the cab. Needless to say, I slipped the driver another couple hundred shillings & we dusted off in search of better digs.
Now, I have to intercept the Pop at the airport, before he hails a cab towards certain death.
written by  Jason Kester on April 24, 2003 from Nairobi, Kenya

Frogger!
Cairo, Egypt
Some form of statue. Not sure what it's called
Crossing the street in this town, you need to be a bit more suicidal than normal. The streets are all 8 lanes wide, without any breaks in traffic and no crosswalks. Basically, you wait for enough room to step off the curb, then cast off and Hope for the best. The drivers don't actually accelerate when they see you coming, which at least gives you a fighting chance, but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Just this evening I was taken out by a taxi that was backing up a one-way street. Nice one, Mr. Taxi. I'll be watching for you next time.
These last few days, I've been soaking up the antiquities and trying to breach security at the US embassy so that I can get some more pages added to my passport. I've completely filled the thing. I win! Unfortunately, they're on double-secret terror alert here, so there's 200 troops outside the embassy and the streets are blocked off for a half dozen blocks in all directions. This is my second day of effort, I almost made it to the front door this time. I've got a good feeling about tomorrow.
written by  Jason Kester on May 25, 2003 from Cairo, Egypt
from the travel blog: Middle East, 2003

book.
The following is the contents of an email to our poor kid Ethan, who actually wanted to come out, but put too much faith in the motivation of his friends:
As I can sense the impending weenie excuse, I'll leave you with a theory I've developed about travelling: Your friends don't actually want to go.
They'll say the do, and may even believe it themselves after enough talk and a few beers, but as the date draws near and it's time to drop real money on tickets, the excuses will inevitably come out. The only solution I've found is to always plan to go alone. Prepare for the off chance that maybe somebody will actually decide to come along for a while, but never count on it.
If you really want to go travelling, the best thing you can do is book a ticket today. That may actually spur one of these tossers off the fence, but that's not your concern. It is all good here. Get your ass on a plane.
written by  Jason Kester on January 26, 2004 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Southeast Asia, the Trans Siberian and Scandenavia

Masai Mara
Arusha, Tanzania
Got charged by a Rhino a couple days ago. Yeah, I'm in full safari mode now. I spent the last week at a few parks in Kenya, and now I'm in Tanzania for the Serengetti and a few others.
The only problem, if you can call it that, is that you're pretty much forced to stay at all the luxury safari lodges at all the parks. There's camping outside the gate but it's not really any cheaper since it's the low season, the lodge rates are way down. So everywhere I go, there's somebody handing me another mango juice and watching to see if I set my fork down so they can polish it for me. It manages to nicely combine the two things I hate most in this world: Being waited on, and feeling like a tourist.
Anyway, it's only for another week so I think I can survive.
written by  Jason Kester on May 2, 2003 from Arusha, Tanzania

The Reef
Mackay, Australia
Hey all. I just got back from three days of diving on the great barrier reef. That, combined with a couple days in the pool & some classwork is
enough to get a fella certified down here.
It's a pretty cool operation. Much different than in the states, where there would be dozens of waivers and big warning signs and absolutely no alcohol on the boat. Here, the only piece of advice was "figure out how much alcohol you think you'll need, then double it." Australia rules!
As to the actual diving, it was great. I did an advanced course on the boat that added a 30m deep dive and a night dive, along with some additional skills. The night dive was really cool. There were dozens of meter long travellies following along at your shoulder. Whenever you'd spot a fish with your dive light, they'd flash past and grab it. It was so much fun that I just spent the rest of the dive spotlighting food for them.
The reef is pretty cool. Lots of big fish, sea turtles, rays and such. I even came up against a 5 foot reef shark.
Anyway, this internet connection has some serious issues, so I'd better get this off while I can. I'm off for Thailand in a week, so the next message you get will likely be from there.
written by  Jason Kester on November 23, 2000 from Mackay, Australia

San Fermin Day Two - Family Style...
Pamplona, Spain
Aqua! Aqua!
Day One of San Fermines was Huge. Thousands of wassailing wastrels in red and white packing the back alleys of the old town. Elbow to elbow carnage of spilled drinks and shouted enthusiasm. I need new clothes!
The Blogabond She-Squad in Full Pout!
After a late night, we were all up bright and early for the Running of the Bulls. Carnage ensued, and eventually we made it back to the place in search of siesta.
Pamplona actually cleans up pretty well, and 40,000 gallons of water later the streets were safe for parades and marching bands. This is the part that makes it into the tourist brochures. It's actually pretty cool!
The sun is setting now, and spirits are starting to kick up again. There appears to be a crowd of lads in the square cheering enthusiastically for the Blogabond She-Squad on the balcony. I think I'll have to go investigate...
written by  Jason Kester on July 7, 2007 from Pamplona, Spain

Re: back across the equator
So they got rocks here. I spent an afternoon bouldering at one of the local surf breaks and getting strange reactions from the locals. I guess nobody had ever climbed there before. I'll be renting a motorbike and doing some exploring over the next few days. There seems to be some good potential.

San Fermin catches it's breath
Taken out by the Vaca
Pamplona has finally settled into its groove, and San Fermin continues apace, but somehow not as franticly as it was the first couple days. Everybody knows they're in for the long haul, and they're pacing themselves a bit better now. Don't get me wrong, it's still basically insane, but at least people have stopped peeing on our front door.
Caught the encierro from inside the bull ring on Day 3. It's standing room only at 8am, as the fighting bulls are put away and they start releasing younger bulls into the ring to play with the crowd. These young bulls have their horns nominally padded to keep them from poking through anybody, but they are still capable of tossing anybody that strays too close (or doesn't run fast enough).
It's a pretty simple game, really:
1. See how close you can get to the Rampaging Bull
2. Attract the attention of the Rampaging Bull to impress your friends.
3. Land.
4. Try to get up and escape before the Rampaging Bull tosses you again.
5. See how far you can remain from the Rampaging Bull.
The nice thing about Sanfermines mid-week is that you can walk around in the daylight and not be immediately doused with gallons of Kalimotxo. You may get smacked in the head by some guy in a big mask, but for them most part it's a pretty family friendly time. After the fireworks are finished at night, the place transforms back into party mode and you'd best just roll with it. We had 3 separate marching bands colliding under our window at 3:00 this morning. It's probably best if you don't plan to sleep much this week...
written by  Jason Kester on July 12, 2007 from Pamplona, Spain

The Great Laptop Heist
Puno, Peru
It will go down as one of the greatest crimes of the century.
Somehow, in the downstairs compartment of a luxury night bus, in a locked room with only 9 seats, while my bag was between my legs and I don´t remember ever being asleep, somebody managed to rummage in and swipe my laptop. And my blingin´Moroccan sunglasses.
Lame.
Speaking of Lame, Puno is kinda lame. I mean it´s fine and all, but Paul showed up without his bag and we´re stuck here waiting for the airline to get its act together and forward the bag along, and frankly there´s a lot of places I´d rather be than right here.
At least there´s an internet cafe here, which will come in handy since now I need to eBay myself a new machine and figure out how to get it built into a dev box and sent down here.
written by  Jason Kester on October 18, 2009 from Puno, Peru

back down the coast
Sydney, Australia
Not too much to report since I last wrote. I managed to cram quite a bit of surfing into my last week here, and even got a couple dives in too.
I spent a few nights in Byron Bay on the way back down the coast. It's a pretty cool town with a great beach. They have this funky hostel there that attracts an eclectic subset of the backpacker community. This place has free digeridoo lessons, fire dancing and some really strange accomodations. I slept in a teepee.
Anyway, I'm back in Sydney now, trying to come up with a day's worth of tourism to keep me busy until I fly out tonight. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to check my mail in Thailand, so you all may get a bit of a break from my lame trip reports for a while.
written by  Jason Kester on December 2, 2000 from Sydney, Australia

Too much metal for one hand!
Moshi, Tanzania
I am officially safari'd out. Lemme off. I'm on the first bus to Dar es Salaam tomorrow, then on a boat to Zanzibar to get my tan back. In the meantime, I'm still sequestered away at the luxury lodge outside of town, with no Hope of interacting with the local populace. I hopped the fence and made it into town, but I'm sure I'll be missed. They've probably sent somebody to escort me back.
Anyway, Africa still rules. I'm just not convinced that Kenya and Tanzania qualify as Africa anymore. It feels more like disneyland.
written by  Jason Kester on May 7, 2003 from Moshi, Tanzania

Z'bar
Zanzibar, Tanzania
Now we're getting somewhere.
For two weeks, I was convinced that both Kenya and Tanzania were lost causes. Anywhere you want to go is overrun by the tourist industry, and any westerner is just a big sack of cash for the locals to harass.
Zanzibar town is a definite step forward. There's still the full-court press in the market and near the tourist shops, but you can get away from it and get lost in the back alleys of a pretty cool town. It's like 4000 years old and all funky winding alleyways between ancient stone buildings with intricately carved ebony doorways. Sun and nice beaches on the shore, shade and cool breezes blowing smells from the spice markets through the streets. Yeah, I can deal with this.
The rest of the island is supposed to be your standard-issue tropical Paradise, completely ravaged by tourism. I'm bracing for the worst.
written by  Jason Kester on May 10, 2003 from Zanzibar, Tanzania

Overseas
Just a quick note to let you know I made it as far as Bangkok unscathed. Only took 23 hours, two canceled flights and a bonus stop in Seattle.
Bangkok is full on strange. It's nothing but street markets and back alleys and littls stalls selling vats of curried squirell. If you've seen
that leonardo dicaprio beach movie, and you probably should if only for the first half, you'll be happy to know that the Bangkok scenes are not
embellished whatsoever. In fact, I'm convinced that they shot part of it in my room.
Anyway, assuming I'm not knifed to death by pirates tonight, I'll be flying to Sydney tomorrow evening. I think I enjoy the third world best in small
doses.

Pobre Mi
Rodellar, Spain
San Fermines just kept going, and after 6 days of wassailry we'd had enough. Time to pack up the car and head south to Rodellar for a few days of climbing.
Got back last night to clean streets and quiet sleep. Nice...
written by  Jason Kester on July 16, 2007 from Rodellar, Spain

Big Weasel!
Biguezal, Spain
Hey! I have absolutely nothing new to report, except for the fact that I've now been to one of the three silliest named places on the planet. Biguezal is only a half hour from our place, so it was an easy one. I've already done Heol y Cyw in Wales, and I'm not really sure what the third place is, but I bet somebody will suggest it to me.
The folks are in town, and we've been showing them around the countryside. They've fired up a blog of their own, so if you honestly care what my parents are up to, you can go read that.
Spain still rules.
written by  Jason Kester on September 21, 2007 from Biguezal, Spain

Are there really Mexican cities in Africa?
Pasadena, United States
We're using a latitude/longitude database put together by the US government. It has over 2 million populated places in it, and for the most part it's fairly accurate. But not always. During testing, I kept seeing cities showing up in places they really didn't belong. And strange things, like Fiji showing up as 'in view' no matter where in the world we were looking.
Digging around in the data, I managed to find a dozen or so mistakes, usually where a longitude of -97.115 would end up as 97.115 or 9.7115. Luckily, most were tiny villages that could simply be plucked off the map and never missed. We also had to deal with countries like Russia, which are far enough North that they actually span most of the globe.
Anyway, most of it is fixed now. Though just yesterday I got an email wondering why 'Centering' on New Zealand would show you a blowup of the Indian Ocean. Slowly, slowly, it's all starting to come together.
written by  Jason Kester on October 18, 2005 from Pasadena, United States

International Border Dispute
Copacabana, Bolivia
Fun fact: Thanks to some silly embargo dating from the Bush administration, Bolivia now charges Americans $135 to visit their country.
Fun fact #2: That´s not written in the Lonely Planet.
So here´s how you do it if you´re ever in the neighborhood. First, you argue with the border guard for a while. Then you go back to the Peruvian side and complain how the Bolivians are a bunch of idiots who want to extort 135 USD from me, and screw that, please stamp me back into your fine country.
Then you tiptoe your way back over to the Bolivian side, slip the guy a crisp new $20 bill and casually make your way to the nearest collectivo taxi headed into Copacabana.
Coming back, you casually peruse the fruit stands while your non-US compatriots make their way through immigrations, all the while being scrutinized ever more carefully by an angry looking guy in a uniform. Then you --HEY LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT BIRD!!!-- and you cheeze it across the border at full tilt and hope nobody starts shooting at you.
I didn´t like Bolivia all that much. It made me nervous.
written by  Jason Kester on October 21, 2009 from Copacabana, Bolivia

Z'beach
Zanzibar, Tanzania
I was mistaken. The beach up at Nungwi is awesome. You should see my tan...
written by  Jason Kester on May 10, 2003 from Zanzibar, Tanzania

Re: Watch out for THE BIRDS
This was sent in response to one of the emails that I received from every man, woman and child in the United States, warning me about the dreaded Bird Flu in Thailand:
They are running dangerously low on animals to eat over here. I hear kitten is nice. I'm actually all about the chickens these days. I figure after a month of dealing with the quality standards of a Thai kitchen, there is not much you could put in my stomach that it hasn't seen.
So I've been here a month, and I've seen a total of two places. My visa is about to expire, so I am now forced to do at least a nominal amount of travelling. It's off to Penang, Malaysia.

Out of Africa
Kampala, Uganda
Check me out, I'm walkin' around in an African capital city at night, and I haven't been robbed, beaten or killed even once. Nobody is following me around trying to sell me jewelry and wood carvings. No crime, no hassles. Civil war is your friend.
Not to worry, I'm sure that this place will turn into another Arusha inside of ten years. But for now, everybody's just too happy that the war is over to think about exploiting the few tourists that are coming in.
So yeah, Uganda gets the thumbs up. Too bad I've got to leave tomorrow. It's off to Dubai and Cairo next. Here's the final Africa tally:
8 countries
75 days
20 hot showers
140 hours in busses
12 hours swimming in bilharzia contaminated water
30 rhino sighted
4 class 5 rapids rafted
2 flights
15 varieties of local beer
Good value!
written by  Jason Kester on May 19, 2003 from Kampala, Uganda

San Fermin 2008!!!
San Fermin kicked off at noon today and the place is going nuts. We made it down to city hall, where it all starts, a couple hours early. Helen and Martin-on-the-couch sought out the high ground and found their way atop a bottle bin. I opted to remain amongst the people, and got thoroughly monched as a reward.
For a full two hours, champagne corks popped and wine flew through the air, along with various colorful liquids, flour, mustard, and anything else that people thought to bring along so as to make matters worse. People kept cramming in, packing the crowd tight enough that it was nigh impossible to swill Kalimotxo anymore. Crowds surged. The faint of heart were passed back overhead to safety. Finally, the mayor and her entourage stepped out on the balcony and launched the rocket that officially started the festivities. Somehow it ramped up a notch. I wouldn't have thought there were any notches left.
That was four hours ago. The place is a mess. My previously white clothes are mostly yellow, with a bit of purple thrown in. We're halfway through the week's supply of wine. I need a shower.
Gora San Fermin!

Still on the beach
So I blew through my 30 day visa without leaving the beach. I'll probably do the same with the new one too. Yessir, traveling far and wide these days.
Ok, I guess I did make it down to Malaysia for a week, but really only to take care of the visa situation and eat a whole bunch of noodles in Chinatown.
Stopped in Trang for a couple nights on the way back, and set off into the countryside on a rented motorbike. There are miles of beautiful white sand beach with basically no development at all, and no tourists except a few Thais. There's even nice rocks to be climbed, just like Railay but without the tourists. I may have to buy some land down there...
One of the beaches that I checked out is only accessable by walking through a cave. And not just one of those duck-under-these-few-rocks caves, but a full on better-have-a-second-light-source cave. With bats.
On the way back, I got rained off the road and into a random little restaurant/shack, where I got to practice my Thai for a few hours with the locals. I still have a long way to go before I can master this language.
Climbing goes well. Flashed a .12a yesterday, just missed flashing another one today, then spent the morning falling off a .13a just for fun.
written by  Jason Kester on February 7, 2004 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand

Forums go live
Cranking out features like this and like that! Forums went live today, and they've exploded with a whopping ONE post to date. Yeah! Taking the world by storm!
Photos are also getting easier to manage by the day. With luck, we'll have Tagging in place for photos and comments soon. For now though I'm having to deal with silly things like making the site "search engine friendly", and other minor technical details that keep me away from actually making the site better.
There's also a new design on the way. Sad news I know for those of you in love with grey boxes and oversized fonts. But we live in a visual world, my friends. And looking at the competition it is clear that we simply cannot hang unless we clean the look up a bit.
written by  Jason Kester on October 19, 2005 from Pasadena, United States

More wackiness in the City data
Phoenix, United States
Dubai is not in the database. As in, the capital city of the UAE, probably a city we need. I've noticed a few other standouts that just aren't there in other places too. This is not good.
We're really going to need a way for users to add their own locations to the map. And while we're at it, we should probably add the concept of aliases for places we know about. The town of Abu Zaby shows up right in the center of Dubai if you zoom in on the map. It would be nice if our application knew they were the same place.
But wait, it gets worse! Cairo and Alexandria are missing too. The tiny oasis of Al Qasr is there, but the two largest cities in the country are just plain gone. Not acceptable. We're going to have to find a better dataset.
Oh yeah, I can zoom into my hotel in Cairo and see the name of the neighborhood. But the city is not there. And it claims that Italy, Russia and the Seychelles are in view!
Ah ha! Turns out in my initial import, I neglected to include capital cities!
written by  Jason Kester on October 26, 2005 from Phoenix, United States

Hey!
Madrid, Spain
I wasn't sure that I'd be able to send e-mail whilst on the road, but aparently it's not too much of a problem in the bigger cities. I'm in Madrid now at this cybercafe thing in the trendy section of town. It costs 500 pasetas (around $5) for an hour on this ald beater computer.
So far, everything is going great. I met up with my friend Laura (climbing paul's landlord) and we headed down to Morocco for a few days. It is a totally cool place, and everything you hear about everybody trying to screw you out of your money is true. You get off the boat in Tangiers and are immediately mobbed by all these 'guides'.
We escaped the first round only to find that one had appointed himself our guide and was walking in front of us the whole time. Anyway, we escaped to Asilah, 50 miles south on the atlantic coast, and it was beyond cool. Everybody was friendly, and the sun was out and the beach was sandy, and the food was incredible. Go to a morroccan restuarant tonight and get yourself some meatball Tajine and a loaf of bread to go with it.
Anyway, I dropped Laura off at the airport this morning, and tonight I'll hop a night train through barcelona and connect on to Marseilles or Nice. It turns out that the best climbing areas are all within a couple hundred miles of marseiles. After a few days on the beach, I need to pull on some rock.
written by  Jason Kester on June 12, 1998 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: Europe, North Africa 1998

Re: Work, hike, and Espanol
I'm still on Tonsai beach. Just paid for another month, in fact. Yesterday was a great day, as I finally got two hard routes that I had been working on for a while. One of the newly arrived portland people (there are 6 of us now) has a digital video camera, so I'll have a DVD full of climbing footage to show you all when I get home.
written by  Jason Kester on February 14, 2004 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand

By travelers, for travelers
Tonsai Offices, 2003
"By travelers, for travelers."
You'll find this claim on just about every travel site out there, but if you dig around you'll also probably find a mailing address in Oakland or some other non-exotic location. There's an office there, staffed with anywhere between a half dozen and a few hundred people, most of whom have never been outside the United States. This is not unexpected, since any place that actually hired dirtbag travelers as its staff would have such high turnover that it would never get anything done.
With Blogabond.com, I'm hoping to make that "by travelers" claim a reality. As I write this, I'm sitting at a guesthouse off Khoa San road in Bangkok, nursing a Beer Chang and working out the details on how not to get my laptop stolen when I head out to Cambodia tomorrow. I'll be on the road for the better part of a year this time around, and with luck I'll find enough time to work this site into presentable shape by the time I'm done.
I just pushed a new build live that addresses a few minor bug fixes and finally adds the ability to comment on other people's trip reports. In the next few weeks, you can expect to see enhancements to make the Maps a bit more usable, and a new, more elegant design. So if you're a big fan off grey boxes and photos of cows, best speak up now because they will soon be a thing of the past!
written by  Jason Kester on December 3, 2005 from Bangkok, Thailand

Kid Madrid
Madrid, Spain
Apparently I am able to check e-mail from time to time over here, at least from this address.
Anyway, Spain pretty much rules, as does Morocco (and moroccan food). I'm pretty much fed up with big cities, and the french in general, so I'm off to climb some rocks.
I'm sure I'll be more poetic in my next email, but for now I'm just mostly beat and looking at 20 hours on the train to Marseilles, so I need to go buy a bunch of that $1 wine to ease the journey.
written by  Jason Kester on June 12, 1998 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: Europe, North Africa 1998

RE: mushroom Mushroom!
Dude. I'm running out of things to report over here. Somehow, the fact that I'm still here doing the same stuff as last month does not seem all that newsworthy. I am, however, consistently onsighting .12a, so I guess that's nice.
Me and Jay rented motorbikes the other day and went tearing around the county. It was awesome, and hardly disastrous at all. Jay only made it over the handlebars once, and not even into traffic. I'll certainly be back for more.
written by  Jason Kester on February 24, 2004 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand

Blogabond Global Headquarters
On Tyrolean Air, 7c
I spent the winter of 2005/2006 on Tonsai Beach in southern Thailand. I seem to spend about every other winter in Thailand, climbing rocks on the beach. It's just that good. This time around I had some client work to keep me busy part time, and with the laptop along it was easy enough to spend the odd afternoon geeking out on Blogabond.
The site had been live for about 3 months at this point, and was finally starting to attract a few actual users. I'd been intentionally keeping a low profile, and letting people find the place on their own. As Joel ( http://www.joelonsoftware.com/ ) says, "when you get premature publicity, lots of people check out your thing, and it's not done yet, so now most of the people that tried your thing think it's lame, and now you have two problems: your thing is lame and everybody knows it."
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/02/08.html
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/11/02.html
Off Tyrolean Air, 7c
So, with a few Real People using the thing, I was able to get some feedback about why Real People think that Blogabond sucks. I've since fixed a lot of those things, and will hopefully get around to fixing more of them soon. For now though, there's this climbing route on the beach called Tyrolean Air that's been taking up a bunch of my time. It will be my first 7c, and I keep taking 20 foot falls from the endurance section above the crux. Sometimes, work has to take a back seat…

Mo' of da trip
Marseille, France
So phase two of the trip took me to Buoux, this little town in the s. of France with big rocks and a cheap campground. It's takng a while to get calibrated to this overhanging pocketed limestone, but for the most part, climbing is going well. All the english speaking climbers bailed simultaneously a couple days ago, so I headed south to marseilles in search of a sunburn.
Found it, and now I'm off to ceuse to Hook up with a guy with a car and climb those 900 foot walls at verdon. So far, Kester's trip is going just fine...
written by  Jason Kester on June 19, 1998 from Marseille, France

Re: Haven't heard from you for awhile.
I've been to Malaysia again for visa run #2. On the way back, I spent another couple nights in Trang and explored some more of the surrounding area on a rented motorscooter. This time, I made it way down some dirt road and stopped to watch this cool Thai Eagle (like a slightly smaller bald eagle, but brown instead of black), when up scoots a local, shouting greetings. We talked a minute, and he invited me back to his home for lunch.
I followed him down an ever-crazier series of dirt roads, cart tracks, footpaths, and jungle trails until we finally came into a clearing with a couple shacks on stilts and an overview of some ponds and mangroves. By the time I had the Thai dictionary out and found myself a place on the floor of the hut, all the neighbor kids had come running up and were standing in a bunch by the door, staring and giggling. I tried out my Thai "Ben dtek Thai chop farang (thai kids like barbarians)." with much success. Got a tasty meal and some good Thai practice before motorscooting onward to go swimming at an empty beach.
And for the record, these were in fact the dreaded Southern Thailand Muslims, though none to separatist nor fanatical at the moment. Just to tempt fate a bit more, I put in a good attempt to handle one of their chickens.
Two days ago, four of us went up Ao Nang tower, this big spire of rock sticking out of the sea. You get there by hiring a boat to the tower and stepping off the bow onto a ledge at the base of the route. The route is 80 meters long, and you do it in three pitches, with lots of scary moves on overhanging rock with a very pronounced feeling of exposure. Getting down is the fun part. You flag down a passing boatman, then rappel the final 50 meters into the boat. Even better, since the boat drifts away a bit during the time it takes to lower, and you are the only thing it's tied to, you end up rapping down over the open ocean until you can just dip a toe into it. Then the boatman reels you and the boat together and pulls you aboard. Too much fun!
I may be moving on to Laos before too long.
written by  Jason Kester on March 11, 2004 from Ban Ao Nang, Thailand

News From Abroad
Berlin, Germany
So yeah, I'm in Berlin now, chillin at the Garner estate. I spent a week at Ceuse, which is possibly the best rock in europe. Moderately to way overhanging with big giant holds. You lose perspective for which way is up standing next to these walls because they are so uniformly overhanging. Everything looks straight up and down, yet the rope hits the ground 20 feet out from the base. The approach is an entire hour of walking up hill, and you gain like 1800 feet of elevation. You can watch planes flying around between you and the compground.
I'll spend a few days here and then go see about climbing some more stuff. July 7 is the day to remember as far as running with the bulls is concerned. I'll keep you posted as to whether I survive.
written by  Jason Kester on June 27, 1998 from Berlin, Germany

The Australian Mobile Office
Noosa Heads, Australia
Believe it or not, if you spend enough time sipping Mai Tais on a tropical beach, you will eventually get bored of it. After 4 months in Thailand, I was ready for a change. How about a last minute, 60 day return ticket to Australia? I hear they've got surf there.
So, with the promise of another couple weeks client work (for real money), I booked a crazy plush holiday flat in Noosa Heads for myself and the lovely miss Helen. Bought some surfboards, wrote some code, surfed a bunch, lived large. Bought a cheap van off an English chick, threw a bit more money at it so that it might actually run, and headed South in search of right point breaks and wireless hotspots named Linksys and Default.
The Oz Hooptie
A few new features kept creeping into the site. Somewhere along the way, Tags were born, browsing and search were improved, and the map stopped zooming out to see the entire planet just because you started your trip halfway around the world from where you were actually writing reports. Internet access is actually hard to come across in Australia, so updates would pile up for a while before being thrown live with crossed fingers.
Once we made it to Sydney, the surfboards got stashed in the back and the climbing gear came back out. Spent a week in the Blue Mountains and another at Nowra, clipping bolts with friends met in Thailand. Finally, we limped the van down to Melbourne and passed it off to a friend, who managed to get it halfway back across town before it died a painful death in the middle of rush hour traffic.
written by  Jason Kester on March 1, 2006 from Noosa Heads, Australia

Here's me, Here's the bear...
Luang Prabang, Laos
So I was mauled by a bear yesterday. Not a very big bear, and not much of a scratch even, but mauled is mauled. I'm sorta proud of myself.
Me & Jay rented motorbikes and headed off to this big waterfall out at the end of a dirt road. It's one of these multi-tiered limestone falls, with lots of pools to swim around in, ledges to jump from, and hidden grottoes behind curtains of water with ferns and moss and forest elves frolicking. A great addition to the end of any dusty dirt road.
Anyway, the caretakers are also nursing back to health a few animals that were retrieved from poachers. There's a large enclosure full of bears, with a shack at one end containing some food and a tiny lady with a stick. If you drop some money in the donation box, she'll hand you a couple bananas and let you in to play with the bears. If they're not too busy fighting amongst themselves and behaving like wild animals, they'll hop up on their hind legs and walk over to take some food from your hand. And maybe take a swipe at you if you don't supply it promptly.
There is also an enclosure with a large tiger inside that you can pet through the bars. I didn't try giving that lady any money.
written by  Jason Kester on March 24, 2004 from Luang Prabang, Laos

bull boy
Running with the Bulls in Pamplona
Just a quick note to let you all know I'm still alive & no longer in danger of being trampled by livestock.
As far as festive festivals go, this one was pretty damn festive. First of all, you have no option but to party until dawn, as there is nowhere to sleep even if you wanted to. A typical day starts at 5pm with dinner and a bullfight. Then 12 hours of swilling sangria & calimotxo (cheap red wine & coke) with a few thousand wassailers in the street, then a quick run with some bulls to cap off the evening at 8am, and off to the park to sleep.
I'm now in barcelona recuperating, and I've got to say that I've never appreciated a bed quite as much as I do now.
Anyway, rockclimbing season starts back up tomorrow or so, so It will probably be a few weeks before I can check my mail again.

BFE
Dhahab, Egypt
The White Desert
Last anybody heard from me, I was about to hop a bus out into the Libyan Desert in search of an Oasis or two. I'm happy to report that I survived the experience.
Farafra, Egypt. Aptly named, and about the second most remote place in the whole country. There's a little village, a couple springs, and a bit of irrigation to expand the stand of date palms surrounding it all. Apart from that, it's just sand as far as the eye can see, Lawrence of Arabia style. I blew a day there, hired a jeep to take me out into the desert to catch the sunset, then made my way to a hotspring in the middle of nowhere to relax and check out the stars. Yeah, this will do...
Stella!
Next up was Luxor and Aswan for a bit of Tomb Raiding. Wow. Nothing I can say would do the place justice. If you've been there, you'll know. If not, you need to go before you die. Now is a great time to be in Egypt. With the combination of the off-season, the US government recommending its citizens to panic, and the resulting weak Egyptian Pound, it's like a fire sale over here. You can rent a camel for $0.50 an hour!
I'm on the Sinai now, chillin' on the beach at Dahab, looking to do some diving, and maybe give some attention to my recently neglected suntan. My room costs $1.50 a night. I should be able to hold out about six years...
written by  Jason Kester on June 5, 2003 from Dhahab, Egypt

Cryin' into a bowl of noodles
Vinh, Vietnam
Made it to Vietnam in grand style. 20 hours with my knees in somebody's back, and to the outskirts of Vinh. Sleep deprived and ill-fed as I may be, I do know that there's only one highway in Vietnam. It goes through the center of every city. The bus driver has pitched our bags out the window exactly a mile short, in front of a group of greedy looking motorcycle taxi drivers.
I stumble forth with book in hand, pointing at a map and debating whether to walk, then do a quick inventory of things hanging from my person. Yessir, remember that little bag with everything valuable that I own...
There follows a loud stream of obscenity, a mad sprint towards the largest looking bike, and some completely unnecessary instructions to the driver as I hop on and we speed off into traffic. Lights are run, large trucks are passed in the gravel, certain death is narrowly avoided dozens of times, yet no large busses seem to be coming into view over the horizon. We give chase at top speed through town and for a full 10 kilometers into the countryside before giving up.
I've already committed myself to the impossible task of contacting the hotel in Vientiane and somehow arranging to have the pack (which contains my laptop, incedentally) picked up on the other end. No Hope of course, but I tell the driver to turn us around. In doing so, we are nearly struck down by my bus, which we have somehow managed to pass on the way through town.
Vinh is interesting, I doubt I'd recommend it to anybody. No tourists here, which amplifies the Vietnamese habit of staring at any westerners and following them around. I'm the only white guy in town at the moment, so I get all the attention. Hey everybody! Come look! He's eating noodles now!
written by  Jason Kester on April 4, 2004 from Vinh, Vietnam

PBRs and Mini-corn dogs
Dhahab, Egypt
The Penguin, Dahab
Johnia Waaker Black Label
Tonight, I'm drinking Johnia Waaker Black Label. No typos there, it's genuine egyptian whiskey. Aged almost six weeks. Tastes much like the local hootch in Thailand.
I'm doing my rescue diver course at the moment. Underwater Combat would be a better title for this thing. For two days now, I've been trying to subdue panicked divers at the surface and below, while my mask is being pulled from my face, my regulator is being ripped from my mouth, and I'm being kicked and beaten about the head and neck by the thrashing scuba tank of my 250 pound instructor. Even when we're doing basic things like taking our gear off and on at the bottom, this guy will come up and turn your air off to see what you do. Too much fun!
Chillin' at the Penguin in Dahab
One more day of this and I should be certified. After a bit of celebrating, I think I'll hop the ferry into Jordan. This place is great, but there's only so much relaxing a fella can do before it's time to move on.
written by  Jason Kester on June 11, 2003 from Dhahab, Egypt

RE: news from abroad
Barcelona, Spain
I'm finally calibrated to this schteeep limestone. I got a 1 hang onsight (I dont think that's a term, but you get the picture) on this 7a+ (.12a) that I'll have to go redpoint when I get back to ceuse. Orpierre rules as well, by the way. It's a 45 minute drive, but if you leave the campground at the same time, you're climbing at the same time as you would be at ceuse, but much more rested. It's mongosso steep, with huge holds for the most part, and z-clippable bolts. "A rezt day for zee mind", as the austrians say. I usually tag #'s 1, 3 & 5 on redpoints. I onsighted a 6c+ (.11c), and have this 7b+ (.12c) down to two hangs.
written by  Jason Kester on July 11, 1998 from Barcelona, Spain

Non-Stop
Aberdyfi, United Kingdom
According to the rulebook, every travel blog needs at least one Travel Horror Story, so here's a quick rundown of our return flight to England.
Well, first off, we didn't actually have tickets to England. Just a return flight from Melbourne to Bangkok via Singapore. So that's 11 hours plus 7 hours for those of you keeping score. Once in BKK, we cleared customs with all our gear and a surfboard, and proceeded to try to book the rest of our trip home. According to every travel agent we'd talked to in Australia, "There is no such thing as standby anymore." "You need to have a confirmed reservation from a travel agent to board a flight." That's not actually the case, but good on ya, travel agents, for trying to sell us a full-fare last minute ticket!
We ended up with a sketchy, over-padded, wait-listed itinerary onward to Birmingham, with nothing more than a handwritten credit card receipt in Thai Baht to keep us from being booted onto the street in Amsterdam. I guess the nice thing about post 9/11 travel is that if you somehow manage to get a standby ticket, you'll be the only one on the waiting list. The desk in Amsterdam had no idea what to do with us, so they just stuck on a plane and had us stand around until a couple seats freed up.
So, add in another two flights at 14 hours and 2 hours, followed by another customs line with a surfboard and a 4 hour drive to Wales. That leaves us awake for a little over two days altogether, which may not be a record or anything, but it's not bad considering that this blog is supposed to be about writing software.
written by  Jason Kester on May 1, 2006 from Aberdyfi, United Kingdom

Photos
Kendal, United Kingdom
I've been thinking a lot about photos recently because, frankly, it's not that easy to upload and manipulate photos on Blogabond right now. It's certainly doable, and not much of a chore if you just want to upload and tag a half dozen shots for a Blog entry. But, as users have been mentioning with increasing frequency lately, it's really time consuming to dump all 500 shots from your memory card onto the site.
That, in my mind, is a good thing.
While it's true that we offer unlimited photo storage for free, we do so with the Hope that our users will limit themselves to only posting the best photos that they have, and the ones that best compliment the journal entries that they write. The theory is that since it takes a bit of time to get a photo up and viewable, our users will be a bit more selective with the pictures they choose to share. At least, more so than they might be if we made it easy to dump the 4GB memory card from a digital camera straight onto the site.
At the end of the day, there are plenty of good sites on the web that offer free photo storage. And realistically, anybody using Blogabond.com simply as a place to store and view their photos would probably better served moving over to Flickr. I think of Blogabond as something like a cocktail party. Just a bunch of friends sitting around, telling their travel stories and showing off some cool photos. The last thing you really want at a party like that is somebody setting up the slide projector and running through all 4000 photos of his trip to Peru. It's all about selectivity, and I think that making it just a little bit difficult to set up that projector might turn out to be a good thing.
written by  Jason Kester on May 16, 2006 from Kendal, United Kingdom

Re: Jump from a sree finger pocket - right hand
Sigoyer, France
Yeah, it pretty much rules here. I think I'm better too. At least I've finally figured out how to work a route effectively. I got this 7b (.12b) on my 2nd redpoint attempt after an hour long session of working the thing on lead.
Oh yeah, I took BIG WHIPPER number two the other day, at the hands of the same belayer chick from BW1. This time I was 5 feet above a bolt & 15 feet right resting on a ledge (and enjoying a giant sport loop) when I pulled off a hold. Moral: Orpierre rules, just dont eat your lunch below the cliff if you dont want to get clobbered by falling rocks. Oh, and dont worry, the french will probably bolt the hold back on.
written by  Jason Kester on August 7, 1998 from Sigoyer, France

several small bowls of good
Hoi An, Vietnam
Made it to Hoi An.
The food here rocks, as advertised. Good call to those who recommended this place. I was a bit doubtful about this country after Vinh and the stare-fest of a reception I got. now that there's other mzungu around to share in the hassle, it's much easier. May stay a while.
written by  Jason Kester on April 5, 2004 from Hoi An, Vietnam

Connectivity at last!
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France
The Internet has not yet made it to England.
This is what I've discovered over the last month, trying in vain to find a place to plug in my laptop around Kendal, a pretty big town up in the Lakes. Unlike any remote corner of Vietnam, where you'll find three internet cafes in a little village with no tourism, mighty first world England has virtually no place to plug in. You can find a smoky pub with wi-fi, but try to connect to it and you'll hit the hopelessly broken signup mechanism that shells you out to an ISP to purchase time online, then blocks the page where you'd give your credit card details. Not that I'm all that excited to spend £60 for a month of access in the first place, but the process of doing so should not be this painful.
Chamonix Branch Office
But now, things are looking up. I'm in Chamonix now, kicking it at a giant ski chalet, gearing up for a couple months of client work. With luck, maybe I'll have a few hours here and there to play around on Blogabond. But for the most part, I'll be heads down alongside the rest of the Expat Software team, building The Next Big Thing for our client.
I'm liking the idea of offshore development with a strong team imported from back home. We've done collaborative things remotely in the past, with good results, but this is the first time we've tried to bring the entire team onsite. Even the client is coming out for the duration of the project, so we'll eliminate the communication gap that often slows down remote development. It's also cool that we're halfway around the world from the distractions that usually get in the way of productivity. With the whole team snowed into the chalet, there's nothing to do but crank out code. It should be good.
written by  Jason Kester on June 3, 2006 from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France

You all can say you knew me when…
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France
I'm going to be a Millionaire. Check it out, the numbers speak for themselves. Up above, you'll see the results of our first week's advertising revenue (highlighted in yellow), along with an extrapolation showing our growth through the end of the month (assuming the current trend continues.)
So, if you happen to know any venture capitalists looking to get in on the Next Big Thing, you should send them this way. We're heading for glory!
written by  Jason Kester on June 9, 2006 from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France

New Look
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France
So, as you may or may not have noticed, we've got a new look for the site. It's a bit more rounded and less cluttered, but still as cow-filled as ever. Mostly, I've gotten rid of a bunch of things that are just taking up space, and moved them off to separate pages where they are still just as useful. They're just not in your face all the time anymore.
Blogabond Classic!
This redesign has been a long time coming, as the old look was not pretty by any standard. I actually paid real money to three separate designers to come up with logo ideas and concepts for a new site look-and-feel. What I got back were a dozen flashy designs with lots of blue chrome and pictures of happy couples walking on white sand beaches. Had I been trying to sell electronics or package vacations in The Bahamas, we'd be on to something here. But for a site targeted at dirtbag backpackers writing reports from an internet cafe in Kampala, they didn't really fly.
In the end, my buddy Ben drew a rounded box on his Mac and put the word Blogabond above it. Looks good enough to me. Let's ship it! Besides, the Web 2.0 crowd will love it. Rounded corners, Tags, Clouds, even a Google Maps Mashup in there. Top it off by putting the word "beta" in the logo, and next thing you know I'll be speaking at some conference about the future of the internet.
Anyway, Hope you like the new look!
written by  Jason Kester on July 8, 2006 from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France

Astroturfing Robot Spiders!
Woke up to 30 variations on this in my inbox today:
"As though I wanted will meet personally the author of clauses articles on your site, and personally to it him will get acquainted. But unfortunately I live in other country and I have no an opportunity to go on the world. Success to you the dear expensive friend. "
It looks like the SpamBots have finally found the comment links on Blog entries.
This one was especially fun, as it started out by simply commenting on a dozen different blogs, praising the author's "clauses" and offering ESL advice on how to better the world.
Then it started including helpful links to Porn.
I've put up a simple spam filter that should stop this sort of thing from clogging up the comments in the future. There's an off-chance that some of you may have trouble posting comments if you don't have Javascript enabled on your browser. Keep me posted if you notice anything strange.
Anyway, I've gone ahead and left a few of the more harmless comments to a few people's blogs. So if you're lucky, you might get an inspirational message like this in your comments:
"How many I was in a network the Internet, but your site my loved liked,favourite! Thanks."
Consider it a gift from the (hopefully) short-lived Astroturfing SpamBot!
written by  Jason Kester on November 15, 2006 from Portland, United States

France avec Kesters
Paris, France
So not entirely all that much is new to report. I spent the last month camped out in this farmer's Field in Sigoyer, climbing at Ceuse and Orpierre. Now I'm in Paris preparing to reintegrate into society.
Random french trivia:
They have Pier 1 Imports here, but it's just called Pier Imports. They actually leave enough room in the sign for the 1, but it's nowhere to be found. I think they use them as American traps, because you stare at this sign across the street trying to figure out if the 1 is just burned out or what, and after about a block of walking and staring, they have this open manhole for you to trip over and fall into. At least that was my experience.
written by  Jason Kester on August 7, 1998 from Paris, France

In search of the perfect seven dollar meal (continued)
Hoi An, Vietnam
I'm still in Hoi An, halfway through my 30 day visa. It's just that pleasant here. Tonight, I had to avoid another incredible Vietnamese meal, if only to keep my sanity. The food is so good. The food is so cheap! I usually go for two appetizers, a main dish, and possibly a couple glasses of the local beer if they have it on tap. And I still have not broken five dollars!
Went Indian tonight. It was good too, but I fear it will only send me back into the fried wontons and white rose with renewed vigor tomorrow. I may never escape this accursed town!
So yeah, I've found the place in SE Asia that even my mother would enjoy. Clean, nice, four zillion tailors (I'm having a silk shirt made for $8, but only because I didn't bargain very hard.) Hot water, A/C if you want it, good coffee. Everything you could need, and cool spring weather to boot. Book a flight to Danang, and catch a shuttle on down. I'll probably still be here.
written by  Jason Kester on April 10, 2004 from Hoi An, Vietnam

BMail and stuff for the People!
Los Angeles, United States
First off, I want to quickly thank all you lot for helping Blogabond take off so quickly. Our user base doubled over the holidays, and then Doubled AGAIN in February! Somebody must have been spreading the word. You guys rock!
I've been quietly putting new features live for the last few months, and leaving them out there for you all to discover. So you may have noticed that your blog entries are autosaving themselves behind the scenes, that you can hide your draft entries until you're ready for the world to see them, and that you can add new places to the world map.
But this week, I finally got around to putting up a few major features that have been in the hopper for a long time. Blogabond was always intended to be a place for Independent Travelers to hang out and share stories, but until recently it's been sorta tough to get a conversation going with anybody on the site. Sure, you could leave comments on one of their posts, but unless they happened to check it they might never see it. And if they replied to you, how would you know?
So now, everybody gets a little Mail link next to their name. You can send private messages to anybody on the site. If you've got an account, you can check out your Inbox under the My Stuff tab, and if you've given us your Email address we'll even forward along any direct communication that you receive. So if you read my entry about Monkey Bay, Malawi and want to know if it's worth going, you can shoot me off a private message and ask me about it.
We've also got Buddies now. You've seen this idea before, so I don't need to go into detail, but yeah, you can now start collecting friends on the site and keeping tabs on what they're up to. Less digging around trying to find stuff. Thus, more better.
There's another feature teetering at the brink of being pushed live that will let you compliment users on their cool blog entries and photos. Once we get a bunch of votes for stuff, I'll probably scrap the idea of "Featured Whatever" and just let you guys decide what belongs on the Home page by voting on it. So if you want to displace The Hulk from his seat of glory, you can organize all your friends to come onto the site and vote on all your stuff. (Or I guess you could also just let the system work itself out so that things floated to the top on their own merit. But that might not be as much fun.)
Anyway, thanks again for helping to make Blogabond a reality. Keep up the suggestions!
Jason
written by  Jason Kester on March 21, 2007 from Los Angeles, United States

Votes, Photos, and Discussion
This weekend, I've been blowing off a bunch of paying work so that I can put some new features into Blogabond. This is stuff that's been bugging me for a while and I think it will make the site just that little bit more usable.
First, it always bugged me that when you clicked on "Photos", you didn't get to see any Photos. Just a bunch of links. That was lame. So yeah, we need to put some pictures up there, but which ones? I dunno. Guess we can't do that until we do...
Voting. Yeah, check out the bottom of this post. See the little "This Rocks!" link? Click on that, and you'll give this post a little karma bonus. If enough people click it, maybe it will boost my profile up onto the homepage. Democracy in action!
So yeah, every post and every photo on the site now has one of those little vote buttons. You can vote photos onto the "Cool Photos" list, and vote people onto the "Featured Traveler" list.
And finally, I've messed with the discussion forums a bit so that people can actually figure out what they do. Try it out. Click the "Talk" link up top and ask your fellow Blogabonders a question. I bet you'll get a few replies.
Anyway, let me know if you like any of this new stuff. And hey, I'm off to Europe in a few days. If you're touring around France, Switzerland or Italy, let me know!
written by  Jason Kester on April 22, 2007 from Portland, United States

France
Paris, France
Sorry for the big lapse in writing, but I've been in a little farming village for the last month and they arent all that big on the internet there (or phones for that matter). Anyway, I'm in Paris now and I fly out the 11th. I'll make my way to london in a couple days.
I'm actually looking forward to being back in america. I miss 8 lane roads and big supermarkets and signs that point to things that actually exist and stores that are open at 9 at night and 1 in the afternoon and at all on sunday and monday. So I'll try to make it up to Seattle soon after I get back.
written by  Jason Kester on August 7, 1998 from Paris, France

Eatin' good in the neighborhood.
Hanoi, Vietnam
I just had another fantastic meal in Vietnam. The food here is SOOOO good! This one was slices of marinated, stirfried pork alongside little deep-fried packets of sticky rice wrapped in rice paper. Incredible. Throw in a plate of spring rolls and a half liter of tasty local beer, charge me four dollars, and I'm a happy man.
Vietnam is still groovy. Found a little roll-your-own springroll place on the street the other day, where they give you some wrappers, a bunch of mint leaves, and a giant platter of raw pork. I thought you were supposed to die if you ate uncooked pork, but the place was packed with locals and none of them seemed to care. Still alive, for the time being.
I'm on the train to China tomorrow night, for some climbing and chillin' in Yangshuo. If it were up to me, I'd take the next 2 months to go through China slowly, then maybe another month for Mongolia and Russia. Unfortunately, the Russians are not too flexible with their visas. I committed to the dates thinking that 5 months in SE Asia would be plenty. It seems that no amount of time is ever quite enough.
written by  Jason Kester on April 22, 2004 from Hanoi, Vietnam

Kester of Arabia
Amman, Jordan
Chillin' with the Camel
I spent the last couple days trekking about in the desert at Wadi Rum and sleeping on the roof of the government resthouse. Even found and filled my water bottles at the spring that Lawrence used to use back in the day. Nice. The place was empty, too. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the US Government for continuing to issue terror warnings for every country that I visit. It really helps cut down on the crowds!
Petra Monestary
Petra was just plain amazing. What a great idea! Giant buildings carved right out of the rock. Why didn't anybody else think of this? The place is still inhabited by the descendants of the people that have lived there since the day, but now they've got souvenier stands. It's great, you get your own little Bedoin kid following you around trying to sell you rocks. Already got some, kid. The place is made of rock. Want one out of my shoe?
I may spend a day down at the Dead Sea, then it's off into Syria and certain death. Wish me luck!
written by  Jason Kester on June 23, 2003 from Amman, Jordan

Re: Big Top
Yangshuo, China
Made it to Yangshuo, but somehow I've not been all that motivated to climb. It seems like there are no climbers around.
It's a strange place here. They really love tourism. Everything worth visiting has been developed in the Disneyland model. Bigger is better. Take a place with amazing views and natural splendor, then add roller-coasters and aerial tramways to make it even better. Most tourists are Chinese, in giant package groups.
It's the Chinese labor holiday this week, so everybody is traveling to all the tourist sites. And when everybody in China does something, it's quite a thing to see. Yangshuo was pretty crowded when I first got here, but on the first it just went insane. You simply could not walk down the streets because the people were too thick. Hotel prices are tripled, you can't find an empty seat on a train, and even more tourists are flocking everything. It would be amusing if I wasn't in a hurry to get to Beijing. As it is, I'm essentially trapped in the South for the next 7 days.
written by  Jason Kester on April 30, 2004 from Yangshuo, China

Re: Ceuse??
"G. Losier" wrote:
> I need any type of info for Ceuse. Easy to find partner? camping? How
> far from Gap? thanks
I spent a little over a month there off and on last summer. I would highly recommend the place. Partners are always easy to find, and most of the people even speak english.
The crux can be hitching from Gap. I had times where I was picked up within 30 seconds of sticking my thumb out, and at least one 8-hour ordeal to get the 25km up to Sigoyer. From downtown, walk out a ways on the D994. Scribble out a sign that says "Freisineusse(sp?)" as well as "Sigoyer". That should inspire the through traffic to at least take you partway. Anyway, at Fres..., head left on the D47 and follow the signs to Sigoyer. Hopefully by now you're in a car with a climber. Otherwise, walk the mile uphill from Sigoyer to Les Guerins campground.
Les Guerins is a turbo plush campground by US standards. It has free hot showers, refrigerators, washing machine, and a woody in the barn for rainy days. Not bad for 3 bucks a night. Gerard, the farmer that owns the place doesn't speak any english, so it's always fun trying to pay for camping. He also sells bread and chalk, as well as really cheap ravioli.
According to the french, Ceuse is the place to be is southern France when the weather is too hot at Buoux and elsewhere. I was there from June to August and there were always plenty of people to climb with and bum rides into town from.
written by  Jason Kester on March 25, 1999 from Portland, United States

Livin' Large in the Axis of Evil
Damascus, Syria
So far, Syria has not been quite as deadly as the State Department would have you believe. Mostly, it's just awesome! Damascus is amazing. Best city in the mideast, as far as I'm concerned. You can really tell that it's the end of the Silk Road, the place where East meets West. It's still chock-full of typical arabs, with Arafat headdresses and ninja-gear women. But there's also quite a few women here who dare to dress western (a HUGE offence everywhere else in the mideast). And the busses here look like they came straight from Bangalore, complete with chrome-plated everything and thousands of multicolored lights. In short, I'm sold on the place. I was planning to leave this morning, but I just couldn't drag myself away.
I think I'm going to give Lebanon a miss. Too bad, since it probably would have been cool, but it's just so expensive to get there and back, since you have to buy a new Syrian visa to return. And really, Beirut is all about the nightclubs, and I'm not much for hitting them by myself. My hotel in Damascus is really nice, and where just about all the backpackers stay. Unfortunately, at the moment it is devoid of "lets go party in Beirut" hooligans to make the trip worthwhile.
written by  Jason Kester on June 26, 2003 from Damascus, Syria

Peking Duck
Beijing, China
I'm in Beijing now, trying in vain to find a restaurant that will serve me some of that famous roast duck. Last night, I was drinking the good cheap local beer and and enjoying the conversation with a bunch of folks from the hostel. At about 4:15 am, somebody suggested that we should walk to Tienaman square to watch the amazing daily Sunrise flag raising ceremony. We barely made it there by 5:00, just in time.
Not at all impressive. But it was nice to see the Sunrise over Beijing, and we found a good restaurant for a breakfast of steamed dumplings and wonton soup. I woke up at 4:30, and am just now getting started with my day.
written by  Jason Kester on May 6, 2004 from Beijing, China

Another rant on Chinese tourism
Beijing, China
China loves its tourism. There is no natural wonder so beautiful that it could not be improved with the help of man. Say you have a really impressive cave with crazy rock formations. That's great and all, but what if you then built a 50 foot tall concrete butterfly over the entrance, added stairs up to it, widened all the passageways, lighted it, installed fountains, and piped in music. It also needs a karaoke bar. THEN, the tour busses will start showing up for real!
There are no tranquil pools that you can sit by and think about life. They have tranquil pools of course, but they are surrounded by hotels, Ferris wheels, aerial tramways, and filled in with gravel so that they can be converted into a Hot Spring.
Beijing is cool though. It's big but not dense. I could deal with living here. Apart from that though, you'd really need to know Chinese well enough to find a remote village if you wanted to see China in its unaltered version.
written by  Jason Kester on May 6, 2004 from Beijing, China

Fourth of July
Antalya, Turkey
Not too much festivity here for the 4th. Though I did celebrate Canada Day on the 1st. A group of Canadians showed up at the Pension in Goreme, complete with their own flag to hang above the pool.
I'm being shown around by a couple Turkish girls now, and try as I might, I just couldn't convey to them the concept of Independance day. Turkey has changed hands so many
times, and this last time it went in 4 stages, so the idea of a single day of liberation doesn't quite fly with them. They'd have a dozen days spread out over the year.
I'm on the beach at Olympos now, enjoying life in mediterrainean Paradise. There's not much to do here, but that's not really the point. After a couple more days of this, I'm going to take a 4-day sailing trip along the coast to Oludinez & Fethiye.
written by  Jason Kester on July 6, 2003 from Antalya, Turkey

Global Domination!
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Yalp! I'm in Mongolia now. Yeah that's right, freakin' Mongolia! I've moved in with 5 armies, and I'm about to roll on into Irkutsk. I should have all the green territories by the time I'm finished, and we all know that's 9 armies a turn. Let's see what your little exploits in North America pan out to.
But for now, I'm swaddled in a crazy padded jacket that I bought out of a shipping crate of stolen Russian army gear. Tomorrow I'm off to the hills to live in a Ger and drink some fermented mare's milk. Tonight, I hit the town, Ulaanbaatar style!
written by  Jason Kester on May 14, 2004 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Chillin' with Chingis
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
I spent the last 4 days wandering about in rural Mongolia, sleeping in a Ger just outside of Kharkhorim, which is the village that now stands where Karakorum used to be. Nothing is left of the old capital except a couple stone turtles that used to mark its boundaries.
Mongolia is really cool. It's like you took eastern Washington, made it 100 times as vast, covered it with a nice lawn and added Yaks. Not a fence to be seen outside of town, and not much in the way of towns. We drove for 8 hours and passed one village on the way east from Ulaan Baatar.
My cyrillic skills are coming along, which in nice, otherwise I'd never find my way back to YnaaH baatap, or anybody to sell me some byy3 or xyywyyp for lunch.
Tonight I hop the train North, so I'll be out of communication for at least a week. Got a pocket full of Roubles and a smile on my face. This should be good!
written by  Jason Kester on May 18, 2004 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Efe'd up
Fethiye, Turkey
Turkey y'alls! It's all good!
Just got off the boat from Olympos. 4 days of chilling in the sun, swimming in the Med., and sleeping on the deck of a beat up old yacht.
Ten passengers and a cheap price mean that they end up cutting corners in a lot of areas. The food was not particularly exciting, and they kept lopping off chunks of the itinerary. Twice a day, somebody would have the brochure out, reading about whatever secluded cove we were supposed to stop at but were at the moment sailing past. Lucky for me I had never read that brochure. No expectations = No disappointment.
But yeah, the ride was cool. Nothing to do but sip cold beers, work on the suntan, and maybe jump into the sea from time to time to cool off. Evidently, we cruised past some nice beaches and awe-inspiring ruins, but really I was too busy chilling to pay any attention.
written by  Jason Kester on July 12, 2003 from Fethiye, Turkey

The Trans-Siberian
Moscow, Russia
Made it to Moscow OK, and I'm enjoying the benefits of being back in Europe. That being, I'm typing from my laptop in a coffee shop in a mall under Red Square.
The train was fun, though not quite the grand adventure it's made out to be. Mostly it was the easiest part of my trip thus far. Just hanging out in one place for 4 days and talking to people in German (nobody speaks english in Russia, but they usually understand some German.) Every few hours, you get to step out onto the platform for 15 minutes and buy more Piroshkis or sausages. Got two books read!
written by  Jason Kester on May 28, 2004 from Moscow, Russia

Site up again
Istanbul, Turkey
I'm in Istanbul now, staying at this hostel with an amazing 360 degree view. There's the bosporous close in on one side and the blue & red mosques a block away on the other. All this for a mere (pause to bring Dr. Evil finger to lips...) Ten Million Lyra!
Istanbul is a great city. There's historic scenery everywhere, and shady parks as well. There is a Jazz festival going on, so a couple of us headed across town last night to catch this amazing quartet in an outdoor amphitheater.
In between the 6 and 12 hour bus rides to get here from Fethiye, I spent a day at Ephesus checking out yet more spectacular ruins. I was amazed at how many people were there. Thousands. I have no idea where they dug all these people up. Maybe everybody who was planning to go to Egypt came to Turkey instead.
written by  Jason Kester on July 16, 2003 from Istanbul, Turkey

St. Pete
Saint Petersburg, Russia
I'm in St Petersburg now. It's starting to grow on me, but my first impressions were not good.
The train got in at 7am, and the hostel I wanted opens at 8, so I killed an hour walking along Nevsky Prospekt and checking out an old monastery. Fine so far, but the hostel turned out to be full. Went back to the train station where there is an internet café and found and booked a different hostel.
Walking out of the station I took a wrong turn and didn't realize it until I was a mile down the wrong road. Cut across town, managing to pass roughly every tourist site in town, and finally made it to where I wanted to be. Only to find that this hostel has no sign out front. And I didn't have the address written down.
No phone number, no address, no sign. Three hours had passed by the time I made it back to the same internet café and purchased another 5 minutes online and a pencil.
Lucky for me, they actually honored my online reservation, so I'm sorted. I was close to booking a ticket to Helsinki for tonight. I figured I'd seen the whole town anyway, and clearly it didn't want me here. But life is good again. I think I'll go sleep away the afternoon.
written by  Jason Kester on May 31, 2004 from Saint Petersburg, Russia

Waiting for Spring
Stockholm, Sweden
Did Helsinki for a week, then bought a ScanRail pass and headed North in search of the midnight sun. Digging Scandinavia thus far, with one notable exception:
Nobody drinks coffee in Finland. At least they don't drink it in the morning when it makes sense. If you search far and wide you can find a coffee shop, but then it won't open until 10:30am. I can't see how these people survive. Had to leave.
I'm in Stockholm now, about to catch up on much lost sleep. Did a night train from Kemijarvi to Turku, then a day wandering around in search of said cuppacino, then straight onto the night ferry for Sweden, with no cabins available. Got in to a hostel this morning, and ended up in a room with 5 loud italian guys who proceded to pack and talk for 2 hours. Yessir, sleep sounds good.
The midnight sun was cool!
written by  Jason Kester on June 16, 2004 from Stockholm, Sweden

Back in civilization
Munich, Germany
So I made it out of Asia, and am safely back on European soil. Things make sense here. People don't follow me down the streets and ask to take pictures. Police don't stop me every block and ask for my papers. Toilets can even flush toilet paper. I'm loving it!
Everybody already knows everything about Europe, so I'll stop recording my progress at this point. I'm already running low on motivation to see any more cathedrals. I'll probably start looking for a flight home before the month is out.
Anybody up for the Silk Roads next year?
written by  Jason Kester on July 1, 2004 from Munich, Germany

Steep enough for ya?

Nazca Lines Map

Llama vs. Gato Piqueno

Llama de Arabia

El llama nadador

Is that close enough for you?

Llamas marinas

Pisco Sour con llama

Llama de la ciudad

Television Heist!

Nacimiento de llama

Spice!

Girl petting a lion

All about the bling

Bouldering in the paint

Dude vs. Donkey

The Thumbs Up Boulder

Grand Taxi!

Fishing Boat

Mint tea at sunset

Shoes!

Essaouira harbor fortifications

Coke Mule

Big Weasel!

Taken out by the Vaca

All tuckered out...

Aqua! Aqua!

The Blogabond She-Squad in Full Pout!

!Agua! !Agua!

The calle out our back window

View of Plaza Del Castillo from our terrace!

First night in the new apartment

Blogabond's Pamplona Office

Breakfast at Apellaniz

Poking the Henge!

The West Coast Mobile Office

The Johnson Shaver!

Iron Man Traverse

Sammy on Iron something... The dyno version

Code on the Road

Giant Stick Insect!

Moroccan Stop Sign

Running with the Bulls in Pamplona

Petra Monestary

Chillin' with the Camel

Stella!

Some form of statue. Not sure what it's called

The Oz Hooptie

On Tyrolean Air, 7c

Off Tyrolean Air, 7c

Chamonix Branch Office

Tonsai Offices, 2003

Kung Fu Newspaper Guy!

Yavin

No Orinar Aqui

Copan Beastie

Hannah vs The Boat

Thailand Boat Photo, reenacted

Hannah in Thailand

Kay and Lucky

Luxor

White Desert

The White Desert

Al Qasr tombs

Johnia Waaker Black Label

Chillin' at the Penguin in Dahab

The Penguin, Dahab