Country notes

Things to do by country.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government has a handy "don't go there" list of countries. The FCO even has a handy set of links to other government's sites.

The US Department of State has similar listings, though not nearly as obvious.

Equipment reviews

Thought I'd write up a few opinions about some of my equipment. This will be an ongoing endeavor, there is so much stuff it would take some time.

Clothing

Hat: Tilley Endurables Airflow LTM-6. This is a great hat. I was looking for something that would: protect from sun, keep mild rain off, dry fast, have some ventilation, fit and stay on, be durable, and not be ugly. This meant a wide-brimmed hat made out of a synthetic material with ventilation holes in the top. Amazingly, the only hat I could find that fit this was the Tilley. The hat has a darker underside on the brim to reduce glare. It does everything it promises and I needed and is definitely worth $70. It is very durable and retains its shape. Tilley uses durable nylon and sailmaking techniques to make their hats. The only mistake I made was getting a hat one size too small. The hat shrinks in dry air and expands a bit in humid air. North Carolina, where I sized the hat, is somewhat humid, but Mongolia and high mountains are dry. I end up hauling on the hat to try and stretch it out. People think it looks cool. It sure makes me stand out like a sore thumb. In Mongolia I got the nickname Indiana (as in Indiana Jones). In China I get complements--they think I'm rich. They think that of all Americans. In Thamel (Nepal), they compliment my hat and ask me in for some gem scams. I finally got to hand out one of their "brag tags" to a fellow traveler.

REI Sahara Pants: Great nylon pants. I have two pairs. Worn everyday now, not a sign of wear or holes, quite tuff. Zippers (e.g., on pockets) mostly holding up thought after 6 months of daily use the fly zipper on one pair gave up holding things together and for about a dollar I had a local tailor in Chiang Mai in Thailand sew a new zipper on--she did a really nice job with her Singer sewing machine. The pants dry fast, though the cotton lining of the pockets takes a little longer. They shed stains and dirt when washed and don't hold odor. Look like real flat-front slacks, so you don't look ugly wearing them.

REI Sahara Short-sleeve Shirt: Great nylon shirt. I especially like the zippered+velcro front chest security pocket. Some pilling from rubbing against backpack straps. Dry super fast, fastest of anything I own. My friend said they're ugly. Oh well.

Columbia Titanium short-sleeve shirt: This actually looks nice due to the weave, pattern, and fabric. A nylon blend with something else. Columbia makes great clothing. This was a good price at $40 compared to $65 for other brands at REI. I wear this when I want to look a bit more presentable. Dries fast.

Columbia Titanium shorts: Also great shorts. Nylon. Lots of pockets. Lightweight. Surprisingly hard to find good shorts like these, picked them up in California. Look decent, too.

Smartwool socks: These are the best socks. I had two pair of the short lightweight ones and one crew-height. They are durable, fit the foot great (no stretching out of shape), don't hold odors, dry faster than all-synthetic coolmax socks. I had three more pairs of varying weights and a liner sent to me from the US for my Nepal trek. I actually preferred these in hot weather to the supposedly better coolmax running socks. Smartwool rocks.

Ex-officio underwear: Eighteen dollars for a pair of briefs??? Well, I have 5 of these and they are very comfortable. Worth it. Try to get on sale. Better than the REI knock-offs which were $12.

Western Mountaineering flight series down jacket: Only 10oz, puffy, warm. Not the most durable, but they warn about that on their website. So far holding up.

North Face Diad jacket: About the lightest weight wind/rain jacket I could find. Seems to work good but I don't use it often. Can fit over fleece plus down jacket.

Vasque Breeze GTX boots, 1160g: Nice boots that hurt my feet. Sending home. Lacing system uses nylon web which is lame, but otherwise they look durable enough. Good Vibram soles.

The North Face Jasper Canyon boots, 1370g: I got these the last day I was in the US and left them behind with my cousin. Lo and behold, I needed them after the Vasque started hurting my toes. Have more volume, better ankle support, better lacing system, lighter weight sole than Vasque. These are the most comfortable boots I've owned. I love these things. Unfortunately, just 6 months after I started using them, much of that time spent in a backpack, they started leaking. There I was, standing in some damp grass in Fiordland in NZ wondering why my feet were getting wet. I've sent them in to the local TNF representative, though the boots are discontinued so replacing them could be a problem. My Solomon $6 remainder GTX shoes are still waterproof, but this experience with the TNF has convinced me of the stupidity of using GoreTex and fabric in a boot; the traditional all-leather smooth grain boot is superior. I cannot find a boot that fits me, though, and most of the places in NZ stock too many GoreTex and fabric flimsy things or nubuck leather which makes no sense on a boot.

Backpack gear

Osprey Aether 70 L: This is a great backpack. Best I've owned. Really good hip-belt, which I had molded to my hip bones at REI. Holds everything, carries the weight. Suspension not nearly as good as old Arcflex Terraplane, but made up for by better hip-belt. Has sleeping bag compartment, water pouch, top lid (detachable, not that I do that). Replaced top draw cord with plastic-coated steel cable that I cinch tight and lock for security. The sternum-strap is about 3-5 cm too short so I had a tailor attach an additional longer strap. Osprey made the sleeping-pad straps detachable in the 2008 model, which may or may not be a good thing (they are now something that can be easily lost from the pack).

Western mountaineering sleeping bag: I have two bags by them, a 10+ year old lightweight 2 season down bag (maybe the summerlite?) and a new Apache SMF 15F/-10C bag. The lightweight one wasn't warm enough for Mongolia in September or Wutai Shan in October, and certainly not for Nepal in November, so I had the puffy Apache sent over. The Apache is great. I wasn't cold once in Annapurna, it is just a wonderfully warm puffy sleeping bag. Did I say I love this thing? Knowing you'd never be cold when going to sleep is wonderful. I usually used it with a thin silk sleeping liner, if nothing else to keep it clean, and when it was cold wore thermals so I wouldn't freeze when waking up to pee. I used it until the end in India, when I sent it home in anticipation of warm weather in SEA.

Misc Camping Gear

MSR Pocket Rocket stove: A tiny little canister fuel stove. Took about 5-6 minutes to boil 1/2 L of cold water (~5C?) burning an isoproprane/butane/propane mix. Main advantage is it is only about 100 g. Curt Peterson ran detailed tests of the burn time and fuel consumption and found it could raise 480 ml (2 cups) of water from 15.6 C (60 F) to 98.9 C (210 F) in 1.5 to 5.5 minutes, depending on fuel remaining in cartridge, with fuel at least initially at room temperature. How much energy is the stove transferring to the water? Wikipedia Calorie, "The small calorie, gram calorie, or calorie (symbol: cal) is the amount of heat (energy) required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1 °C", and one calorie is equal to 4.184 J. In Peterson's tests, the temperature of 480 mL of water was raised by 98.9 C - 15.6 C = 83.3 C, or 480 mL * 83.3 C * 4.184 = 167 kJ. In my estimate, I raised the temperature of 500 mL H20 by 95 C, or 198 kJ. Peterson found the stove used about 0.24 oz per test, or 7.1 g of fuel.

Gerber Tempo LED flashlight: Picked this up on a whim at REI. Love this baby. Runs on one AAA battery, plenty bright for usual things. I always have this in my pocket. I was using it all the time in Mogolia, lending it to the driver, tour assistant, fellow travelers. Always on me, so when night fell it was right there. I added a clip salvaged from another cheapo LED light, it clips onto my belt loop which is great for calls of nature (so you don't a: step in poo or b: pee on your shoes).

Princeton Tec H20 headlamp: I got this a few years ago. It has a 1W white LED with three brightness settings: blinding, bright, and useful, as well as a blink setting. It is water resistant to (I think) 3 meters. Runs on 3xAAA batteries. It is really good. I use it at the low setting, which they rate at 60 hours on a set of alkaline batteries, and it certainly does last a long time. I only use the bright setting when I'm trying to find something in the dark, like the toilet.

MSR MIOX: Electronic water purifier. Small. No more iodine taste, no more thyroid issues from iodine, and it kills cryptosporidium. Take that, iodine. Take that, bulky filters. I carry extra batteries and plenty of salt. I also carry a sealed bottle of Potable Aqua iodine tablets as a backup. I used the MIOX in Nepal. It got lot of curious interest, I demonstrated its use often. I hope it worked. Sometimes the batteries didn't make good contact and I had to pop it open, so that's something MIOX could improve. It usually needed more than the specified treatment (1.5 to 2x times), but that depends on what else is in the water being treated. I wish it had 1.5 L and 3 L settings in addition to the 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 L.

Medical gear

REI Trail 1st aid kit: I can't remember what came in this kit. It had gloves and scissors. Most importantly, it came with the AMK 1st aid manual. This little book is very good (to my untrained eye). I followed what it said to the letter for a bout of travelers diarrhea and did well; the advice is more sound than some other sources (like LP guide books, Internet, fellow travelers). The case for the kit, a nice nylon bag, is also very useful and I have stuffed it full of other 1st aid goodies.

Costco: I had to fill 1 year's worth of prescriptions. Cosco has some of the lowest drug prices (just Google the topic, it's amazing what a rip-off most pharmacies are). You don't need to be a member to use the pharmacy. I got mine filled in the San Francisco Cosco. They were helpful and filled the Rx correctly, but there was a delay due to the switchover from my BCBS plan to Cobra benefits which meant I had to go back several times before discovering that I had to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed later (not Cosco's fault, just the usual insurance hastle).

Project Rudy Horus sunglasses: Very good sunglasses, good coverage, comfortable, reasonably fashionable (depending on model). Excellent adjustable nosepiece. I searched high and low for wrap-around glasses that could take my relatively high prescription coupled with astigmatism. I went to several shops and even though they carried Project Rudy glasses they didn't offer to order the lenses from the factory. This meant that they wanted to put an ugly insert that would bash into my eyelashes. Fortunately, my last stop was at Newton Wellesley optical shop, where they had the Rydon and Horus models. The Rydon is cooler looking, but I was concerned that the thick lenses I needed would come into contact with my lashes, so I ordered the Horus. It took 3 weeks to get them from the factory, by which time I was in Japan, so they mailed them to my mom who mailed them to me in Japan. I picked up a string to hold them onto my face. I guard these: too much trouble to replace and essential for Annapurna trekking.

Barry Bent, orthotic specialist, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston: This guy is a genius when it comes to foot orthotics. He made me a pair years ago, probably saving me from needing surgery to excise my broken sesamoid bones. Not only that, but wearing these things my feet don't hurt like they once did. I had him make me a new pair, in preparation for this trip, when my old ones wore out. They're thicker than regular insoles so I need roomy shoes, but otherwise they're wonderful and very durable. I'm totally paranoid whenever I take off my shoes at temples, etc.: I can replace shoes, but I'd have to go back to Boston to replace these orthotics. I have a spare pair that were made in North Carolina, also pretty good, but not nearly as good as Barry's. Maybe I'll make him a nice print from my trip as a thank you when I get back, he certainly deserves it!

Camera gear

Nikon D200: Good camera. Biggest drawbacks: heavy, can only shoot 350-550 pictures per charge, viewfinder not 100%, some problems with getting correct white-balance, sensor 1.5x factor. Turn off image review to extend battery life. Use white or grey card for white balance. A photojournalist I met pointed out that Nikon adds noise to their shutter release! What a bonheaded thing! In comparison, the new Canon D400 is so quiet. I wish I could turn off the extra noise, how stupid.

Nikon 18-200VR lens: Good lens. Bad lens. Convenient. No lens changing. Heavy. Shoot at f8 for max sharpness. Slow, but VR is good. No wide-aperture for soft backgrounds. Did I mention it was heavy? It also up and died on me, first AF and next VR. The interior is coated with dust and dirt. I sent it back to Nikon in the US to be fixed after having two new lenses shipped to me (see below).

Nikon 18-55 and 55-200 VR lenses: These are the cheap consumer lenses for the DX format. They're light and together cost about US$440. These replace my broken 18-200 VR lens. I bought them from B+H and had them shipped from the US to NZ since buying in NZ would have cost much more than the cost of shipping. They have a plastic mount. The focus ring on the 55-200 is tiny and way up front. The 18-55 is not internal focusing. They take a small 52mm screw-on filter, so at least that is good. To use in MF need to flip a switch. There is no "active" VR mode as on the 18-200, and I don't know if these lenses use the improved VR II. There's no macro capability. The 18-55 did not include a lens hood. Haven't had a chance to use them much yet.

Nikon VR/ISO: Nikon should have a tripod-mount detect switch that disables VR. Should have auto-VR that enables VR if shutter speed too slow. Should have auto-ISO based on shutter speed. Shutter speed settable as function of focal length. Not hard to program.

Nikon 35mm f2: Ok lens. Should also have 50mm f1.8, which I left at home due to weight but which I later had shipped to me.

Nikon 50mm f1.8: Ok for portraits. Small and light.

Nikon SB800 flash: Nikon makes a nice flash system. You can even have it controlled off-camera. Really a nice gizmo. But even with lithium batteries it is heavy and I hardly ever use it. Even when using it I prefer available light. I shipped it home from Thailand to save weight and have one less expensive thing to worry about.

Canon 800 IS: A small P+S digital. I got this to supplement my Nikon. Best high-ISO noise performance of all the P+S cameras I checked at B+H. I almost never use it except sometimes (rarely) to make videos. There's an underwater housing available for $170, maybe I could do some underwater photography? I shipped it home for my mom to use, haven't missed it.

Slik 604cf: Light carbon fiber tripod ~750g without center column. Great thing. Sturdy and stiff for its weight. Feisol makes one that weighs the same but claims can handle twice the load. After a year of occasional use and exposure to wet conditions the nylon parts that lock the legs are not as effective. Every once in a while I take it apart to clean out the insides.

Adorama Flashpoint F-1 ballhead: Yes, this is the best compact lightweight ballhead out there. Comes with a mounting clamp. Has panning head, friction control in main knob. The clamp leaves something to be desired, but the mounting screw was non-standard so could not attach my better Kirk plate (which also had a bubble level built in). Panning a bit rough but ok. Replaced my not-as-good and more expensive Benbo head. The spring-loaded safety pin is annoying. The specs give its weight as 11.6 oz, about 330 g, but this includes a QR plate and clamp, which if bought separately would weigh about 150 g (estimated) so the ballhead alone weighs about 180 g which is reasonably competitive with other offerings. Here's the review I put on Adorama's web site: "I got this head for a world trip. I wanted a light and compact ballhead with a panning base that could hold my D200 + 18-200 lens, about 1.5 kg. I searched the Internet and visited BH Photo Video and Adorama. There are many small tripod ballheads, but none met my criteria. Some are heavy and/or expensive or overkill. Others are flimsy or lack the features I wanted. I even ordered another ballhead, but it used grease and plastic in its mechanism. On my last visit, I quite stumbled upon this little wonder of a ballhead at the Adorama store. It even includes a QR plate, something that could have saved me the money I spent on a separate Kirk plate. It locks down well, uses no grease, and is sturdy enough. The panning base is not the smoothest and the ballhead is not as silky as some others, but these are minor drawbacks given my use for it. The biggest problem is the QR clamp. You have to be careful to fit the QR plate properly (I use a Kirk plate), otherwise it won't lock securely, and the safety pin is a bit annoying. I tried swapping the QR clamp for my Kirk clamp, which is much better, but the ballhead uses a different kind of mounting screw and the two were not compatible. Overall, I have been pleased with this little ballhead: the price is right, it's sturdy enough to hold my camera, and its weight and size are just what I was looking for."

Kirk mount plate for D200: Works good. Usually attached to the camera.

RRS MPR CL nodal slide: Good for panoramas, weighs ~100g. I sent this home from Thailand since I hardly ever was using it.

Novoflex panning base: Good for panoramas, weighs ~150g, which was the lightest panning base I could find. Main reason I have this is to use the bubble level to level the tripod, otherwise I could save 150g if they built a bubble level into the tripod. I lost the lock screw but emailed Novoflex and they'll send me a replacement for free (very nice of them!) I sent this home from Thailand since I hardly ever was using it.

Tamrac zoom bag: This is ancient. I got it used 10 years ago in Santa Fe. It looks like crap. It's starting to rip. People look at it and go "oh, why do you have such an ugly old bag?" Because it's light, fits my camera, and is cheap (I already own it). I like the Tamrac Velocity series, but left mine (#7) at home since it weighed 560 g. I'd like a bag with a quick on/off system for a backpack hipbelt with shoulder strap and that fits my lens and minimal accessories, but I haven't found one yet. Maybe one of the Lowepro bags. I tossed it in the trash at a hostel in Melbourne, RIP.

Lowepro Nova Mini AW: Found this in a camera shop in Melbourne. It had the best fit for my D200, 18-200 and 50 1.8 lenses along with a few accessories. Also has a rain cover which is handy. I don't like the shape, which juts out too much, compared to my old Tamrac. With the tripod plate attached the D200 barely fits in the case. It can hold my D200 with the new 55-200 VR lens with the 18-55 VR lens in the bag and the 50 1.8 lens in the front pocket, but it is a tight squeeze and it doesn't work if the 18-55 is attached to the camera.

Electronics

USB card reader: Picked this up in Japan for about $10. Very useful, really necessary to read my CF and SD cards. Faster than the readers they have in India.

Plextor 608CU portable DVD burner: This was good when a: I could get it to work with a random computer; b: it was working. A lot of computers couldn't figure out this drive, either their USB sucked or whatnot. Then it stopped working with a "Cypress AT2LP RC58", which is the USB controller for the drive. Plextor said they'd replace it under warranty, so it's going back to the US for service. It burns at 8x, which is a bit tedious (25 minutes for a DVD). True to their word, Plextor replaced it with a new burner, but it's sitting at home with my mom as plenty of Internet shops have DVD burners.

Multi-charger: I hacked the 5V 1A adapter that came with the Plextor, soldered on a common plug and made small plugs for my cell phone (mini-USB), Plextor drive, and Hyperdrive portable disk drive. Works great and I only have to carry one adapter. I also managed to burn my fingers with the soldering iron, but they're feeling much better now. The home-made plug broke, though, and anyway I only needed a mini-USB plug, so I twisted that on and wrapped it in cellophane in a hotel room in India.

Sanho Hyperdrive SPACE disk drive with Seagate 120GB disk: Copies directly from CF cards and runs on rechargeable battery. Has a basic LCD display that can show status and list files but not display images. Works so-so. The copy function works well and it can browse the disk and a card. Files can be deleted from the disk but not from a card, but can be copied in reverse from the disk to a card. The device is too flimsy for its intended portability. The disk worked loose several times. The disk should be attached with screws, but it is just plugged in to the min-IDE plug. After the second time the drive worked loose I cut a foam earplug in half and shoved it between the battery and the disk. It still managed to work loose again, though less often than without the modification. The screws for the case are too small and cannot be securely tightened. They attach to little bolts. The bolts are not well attached and I lost one along with its tiny screw, so the case is held together now with just 3 screws. I put tape over the screws to help keep them from working loose. There are 5 membrane switches on the front. The one in the lower-right (with a square symbol) malfunctions now about 75% of the time, operating as if the button above it (with a triangle symbol) were pressed. I am very under-impressed by the durability of the case given that it was obvious from its design that this device was going to be used in the field. Finally, when attached to a PC in USB mode it will start up fine and the computer will usually recognize it. However, if a series of intensive write access is done, the disk will usually stop responding to the computer with a small "w" icon appearing in the upper right of the disk's LCD display. Sometimes a computer will not recognize the disk, in which case plugging it into one of the rear USB jacks usually resolves the problem, though the loss of connectivity on write failure remains. I find having a portable disk that can copy CF cards directly a reassuring method to keep backups of files. The Sanho HyperDrive, while working well at copying the files, is not well constructed and has some problems.

Software

Drupal and Gallery2: Just great website software. I use them for my site. It's a bit slow because of the webhost, not the software, which is really easy to manage and does just about everything I want. Has a lively community.

Portableapps: these are total winners. Firefox, Gimp, 7-zip, Clamwin, Notepad, Sumatra, Command Prompt, Putty, WinSCP, etc. Put on flash drive and I can have my environment anywhere. The only program that gives me problems is Toucan, for which I found an alternative.

Skype: Ditto. Installs to a folder and goes. Talk on Skypeout for a bit more than $US0.02 per minute.

DeepBurner: Burn DVDs. Free, portable, very nice. Unnecessary most places since if they have a DVD burner they have some kind of software, usually Nero, which though it has a terrible user interface at least gets the job done.

Allway Sync 'n Go: Free, portable file synchronization software. Window's copy (drag-and-drop in Explorer) just doesn't work for large folders, especially where some files may have a problem. You need something that will recover from errors and keep on going until all the files are copied. This is a simple program and it gets the job done.

FastImageResizer: Simple image resizing for web.

SetNameToTime Finally, a program that reads EXIF data and lets me rename my files to the date and time. Nice and fast. Can even add a time offset, in case I wanted to adjust to local time. I only wish a counter would be automatically appended if there is already a file with the same name in the folder, otherwise it looks like the program might trash an existing file. I append the last four digits of the original file name, which will eliminate any conflicts and lets me find the original file if necessary.

JAlbum: Most internet cafes don't have Java installed so this is useless. Bloated and overkill for my needs.

Gimp: If I could get it to open NEF raw files it would be a bit more useful (UFRaw not working for me).

Peazip: Good alternative to 7-zip.

coLinux: I wonder if there's a portable version?

Financial

Thai Bhat rates at Bangok Bank, approximately standard conversion rates (give or take).

Some convenient financial information.