history of a man

Since I wrote a couple of weeks ago about my next trip I’ve been thinking a lot about the itinerary. Even if my intention is mainly to improvise on the way, I think it is also a good to have a general idea of the places I want to visit.

Main view of the travel map

Right now it seems that the trip will be similar to what you can see on the maps. According to the page I used for creating the map (Travellerspoint) it will be a total of 40.710 kilometres, and that’s using straight lines and not counting possible intermediate stops or the trips inside each main destination. A very long trip indeed…

Detail of the trip plan in the continental Asia

The list of main destinations that are marked on the map are:

* [30 Oct 2008] Madrid, Spain
* [30 Oct 2008 - 03 Nov 2008] Singapore, Singapore
* [03 Nov 2008] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
* [03 Nov 2008 - 11 Nov 2008] Tokyo, Japan
* [11 Nov 2008] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
* [11 Nov 2008 - 15 Nov 2008] Bangkok, Thailand
* [15 Nov 2008 - 16 Nov 2008] Sukhothai, Thailand
* [16 Nov 2008 - 20 Nov 2008] Chiang Mai, Thailand
* [20 Nov 2008 - 23 Nov 2008] Luang Prabang, Laos
* [23 Nov 2008 - 26 Nov 2008] Vientiane, Laos
* [26 Nov 2008 - 30 Nov 2008] Siĕmréab, Cambodia
* [30 Nov 2008 - 02 Dec 2008] Phnom Penh, Cambodia
* [02 Dec 2008 - 04 Dec 2008] Mekong Delta, Vietnam
* [04 Dec 2008 - 07 Dec 2008] Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
* [07 Dec 2008 - 12 Dec 2008] Hoi An, Vietnam
* [12 Dec 2008 - 20 Dec 2008] Hanoi, Vietnam
* [20 Dec 2008 - 21 Dec 2008] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
* [21 Dec 2008 - 22 Dec 2008] Singapore, Singapore
* [22 Dec 2008] Madrid, Spain

In many of the places (Chiang Mai, Luang Prabang, Hoi An, Hanoi, etc) I’ve included more days for visiting nearby places that look interesting, and at the end of the trip in Hanoi I left some days too to take in account delays or detours from the planned route. If there is anyone who’s been to this are and thinks I’m missing an interesting place or that I should spend more/less days somewhere please tell me in the comments.

Just three days left… I’m so nervous!

One of my last hobbies is making HDR photos. The High dynamic range is a set of techniques consisting in combining different shots of the same static scene with different exposition values into one single image. This way it is possible to achieve an ideal illumination of the different parts of the scene, creating images of great beauty.

The Big Ben (London)	The Rathaus (Vienna)

There are several ways of combining the original pics, with very different final results. Usually three shots are made, one under-exposed (darker), one normal and one over-exposed (clearer). To mix the three images, we’ll usually take the darker parts of the over-exposed shot and the clearer parts of the under-exposed one, and put those parts over the “normal” image.

Original 1: Over-exposed	Original 2: Normal
Original 3: Under-exposed	Final result HDR

There are many different techniques and programs for creating HDR image. Although it would be possible to use just a photo editor software like Photoshop or Gimp, I use mainly the Qtpfsgui, which is open source and available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS-X. It is quite easy to use and the results are really great. In any case, if anyone wants to try it the “hard way”, there are many tutorials online explaining the procedure, like for example this one.

Different effects applied to the same scene at Burano (Venice - Italia)

One important thing to note is that the source photos must match exactly, which can be difficult even using a tripod (and impossible without), unless you want to find strange things in the final result. In this photos is possible to see some usual problems when creating HDR images:

The clouds move too	Several “phantoms” (people moving between shots)

More examples of my (poor) tries of creating HDR images in my flickr set

It is hard to believe that already four years have passed since I made my erasmus in Vienna, without doubt one of the best cities I’ve ever been to. Those were six of the best months of my life in almost every aspect, and ever since then I’ve been thinking of visiting it again, but for one reason or another I always had to cancel those plans until this last summer. It was just a week, but I did visit all the important spots of the city and remember all the unforgettable moments I lived there. It was an indescribable feeling walking again in those streets and visiting so many places full of memories for me.

The opera	Myself in front of the Hofburg
Stephansdom	In front of the Rathaus

Almost every morning I did visit a museum. The Belvedere (my favorite without doubt), the Albertina, the Leopold Museum and the Museum of Art History of Viena. The cultural offer of the city is incomparable.

The Belvedere palace	Entrance to the History of Art museum
Museums Quartier	Sight from the Leopold Museum

During the afternoons, and after eating something (a käsekrainer or some Japanese take-away food), I walked around the city from side to side without a fixed destination, specially around the city hall and the Karlskirsche, my favorite buildings in Vienna. One place that also I couldn’t miss was the famous Hundertwasserhaus.

Inside the Rathaus	The Karlskirsche
Hundertwasser front side	Hundertwasser lateral
More Hunderwasser	The “modern art toilet” in front of Hundertwasser

At sunset I usually stopped in the city hall square and ate something at one of the international food stands that, as every summer, were placed there. I also visited the Prater park, but unfortunately I could not eat a pork knuckle as I wanted.

The Rathaus at sunset	The Hofburg at night
The Parliament at night	The Rathaus at night
The Prater wheel	Inside the Prater

I also met some friends from my student times, and made new friends at the hostel where I stayed (the Wombat, recommended if you want to visit Vienna), with whom I went out several nights, one of them to the Flex club, although it was not a Wednesday so I missed the London Calling night.

Outside Flex	Before going out
Party at the hostel bar	The hostel entrance

The last day I visited the students home wheer i stayed while living there, and I made a “nostalgic” route to the places where I went more often those days. I have to confess that I dropped some tears walking on those streets. That night I had great fun having dinner at the Tunnel club while listening some live jazz music.

Pfeilheim, my student home at Vienna	With Lisi and her boyfriend
Tunnel entrance	Jazz session at Tunnel

In short, it was an unforgettable trip to a city that I will always love.

You can find many more pictures in my flickr set.

Well, after reopening the blog I think it is a good idea to also start again with the tradition of posting each Friday a song or poem that I like. In this case is a “love” song by Rammstein. I hope you like it ;)

After deciding to quit my job and much thinking about what to do afterwards without reaching any clear decision, I thought that the best option was taking advantage of being free without job or other commitments and make a long trip. I’ve had for a long time the dream of running away for some months and travel around Asia, and this seemed to be the opportunity I was looking for.

Once I reached this conclusion, the most difficult thing was deciding when and where to go. Given the dates I thought it was best to focus in the south-east Asia (too cold in north China) , and specifically in Thailand and the old french Indochina.

But being in Asia I also wanted to visit the friends I have scattered around there. Ruled out visiting China, there was Singapore and Tokyo as the two most important spots where I have friends, and it seems that I will finally visit both. I have already the plain tickets for going to Singapore, and this week I intend to buy the tickets for Tokyo.

So, at this moment, the trip schedule will be something like:

• October 30th: Departure from Madrid.
• October 31st to November 3rd: Singapore.
• November 3rd: Bus to Kuala Lumpur, night flight to Tokyo.
• November 4th to 11th: Tokyo, maybe some short trip in Japan.
• November 12th: Flight from Tokio destination Thailand.
• November12th to 25th: Thailand.
• November 25th to December 2nd: Cambodia.
• December 2th to 20th : Vietnam and Laos.
• December 20th: Flight Hanoi - Kuala Lumpur.
• December 21st: Bus Kuala Lumpur - Singapur.
• December 22nd: Flight Singapore - Madrid.
• December 23rd: Back home for Christmas ;).

My initial idea was leaving around the end of September or beginning October, but I had to tighten my schedule maybe a bit too much for my taste, and discard visiting places like Yunnan (in the south of China) that I really wanted to visit. But I hope anyway to have enough time at least for seeing the most interesting places without much stress.

The main part of the trip, from the moment I arrive Thailand, is still quite undefined, I am considering several alternative routes, so I’ll tell more about my plans once I have it clearer. I will thank any suggestions about places to visit or avoid, as well as any other advice about the trip in general.

Bangkok (Thailand)	Angkor Wat (Cambodia)
Ha Long Bay (Vietnam)	Pha That Luang in Vientiane (Laos)