March 2009 Archives

I found a blog with useful tidbits about mainland China and Hong Kong travel.

http://annatam.com/

She also has a handful of entries on how to get from Hong Kong to SZX to take advantage of the MUCH lower flight prices to other parts of the PRC. For some goofy reason, Hong Kong is considered "international" when flying into the PRC. Tickets are hella expensive. However, when you cross the border into Shenzhen and fly out of SZX, flights are considered "domestic" and are at LEAST half the price. Think of it as taking public transit from my house in San Francisco to OAK. About the same amount of time involved.

If you've got some time, best to save some RMB, huh?

This is why!

Generally, it works more often than it doesn't. Also, unlike Dish, I can use my TiVo!

Flying, generally, isn't a completely bad thing, if done properly. One of the things that has to be done "properly" is learning how to pack. Baggage should be light, as well as the non-clothing things that are now travel essentals.

I've been a MacHead for close to two decades now. I'm of the opinion that the MacOS is the best operating system for end user use and general headache avoidance. However, after spending the past couple of years lugging a MacBrickBook around the world, I've come to a realization about what I really use a comp for when I'm traveling.
Email, websurfing, blogging, booking travel, photo dumping (from the camera's memory card) and Skype.

Many of the netbooks out there can do all these things AND are a lot easier to lug around airports and the like. The problem is that the wizards at Infinite Loop refuse to build a netbook. Period. Which is a pain, considering the last true portable Apple made was the 12" aluminum that, if you ignore the warped cases, the G4 that generated enough heat to make shabu shabu and the squishy keyboard, was the perfect size for flashpacking. So, since Apple won't make one, guess it's time to make one myself. Kinda.

I held my nose and ordered a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. Since it's bad enough to order a Dell Dull, and worse off to have to pay for windoze, I ordered the bare bones stock model with Unbuntu on a 4 GB SSD, 512K RAM, a webcam and bluetooth since it's MUCH cheaper to order the upgrade bits through third party vendors. 32 GB SSD and 2 GB RAM for under US$100.

Now, why have I sullied my credit card to a company that makes crap pee cees that only IT geeks and people that don't know any better worship? Because, they got it right with the Mini 9. It's a good form factor, the screen is not too big or too small and you can actually do real work with it. Did I mention that you can install OSX on it? Yes you can!

Now here's the question. Are these netbooks made of precious metals? Made by hand by skilled artesians? Nope. Then why does it take a MONTH?? I'll update when and if it ever gets here...

Now that I'm used to spending at least 10 hours on a plane again, it's time to plan my return to Asia...

I just finished watching Top Gear's Vietnam special, where the challenge was to ride clunker bikes from Saigon to Halong Bay with no support, along with the usual TG silliness. You've got an hour fifteen? Watch these.

Top+Gear+Vietnam+Special+-+Part+1
Part 1

Top+Gear+Vietnam+Special+-+Part+2
Part 2

It reminded me of my trip to Hanoi a few years back, especially with all the bikes and traffic. Also how terrific looking the countryside and coast looks too. Riding the coast from South to North has been on my list of "stuff to do" for a long time now and although I'd love to do it on my V-Strom or even a BMW GS (R or F), I'll probably wind up doing it on one of the locally available bikes, which would be the right thing to do, both for fitting in and for ease of repair. Yeah, nothing like travel shows to whet the appetite of the wanderlust monster inside all of us...