-
A Beginner’s Attempt at Time-lapse Photography
I actually made this video well over a year ago, but realized recently that documenting the process is probably worthwhile, if only to start a new category of non-travel blog posts. What follows is slightly instructional, but with a heavy dose of details of my specific scenario. To make a time-lapse video from individual photos, you’ll need a tripod, shutter release timer, and software for compiling the video file. You’ll probably also use your favorite photo editing software to touch up the photos before combining them, so you’ll want something that supports batch processing in some capacity. Shutter release timers…
-
Bangkok
After a lazy morning in Vientiane and a pretty standard travel day, I found myself back in Bangkok, the chaotic, frustrating, perplexing city that I have such a soft spot for. The last three days of my vacation fell on a weekend – New Year’s weekend at that – and I can’t think of a better place in the whole world to celebrate the end of an amazing trip and ring in the new year. Once I was on the ground, I got a taxi to my Airbnb in Sukhumvit, dropped my things on the floor, and was immediately enchanted…
-
Vientiane
Christmas, the day I was transiting to Vientiane, ended up being quite two-faced. The holiday turned out alright in the end, but the travel portion of the day sucked. The day wasted no time in getting off to a bad start. It was the classic death-by-a-thousand-cuts, something that I’m no stranger to, especially given how long I traveled before. My guesthouse’s breakfast area was completely full when I went downstairs in the morning, so I had to shift around my entire morning schedule. After walking into town to get some coffee elsewhere, the strap on my sandal – which was…
-
Vang Vieng
The morning I left Luang Prabang, I climbed into one of the many tuk-tuks in town that was making its morning rounds, collecting travelers from their hotels, guesthouses, and hostels. With each additional guest climbing aboard, we all had to squeeze together a little tighter, until all the couples were sitting vertically (one on the lap of the other), the back was full, the cab was full, and we were all praying that the next stop was the bus station and not another hotel. The excessive number of people correlated to an excessive amount of baggage on the roof rack,…
-
Luang Prabang
After saying goodbye to Chiang Mai again, I took the one-hour flight to Luang Prabang and coasted through probably the easiest entry to a new country that I’ve ever had. The visa was trivial to get since I had brought dolla bills with me from America, the ATM outside the small airport dispensed reasonably sized notes (ahem, Thailand…), and the very short taxi ride to my guesthouse was an easy flat rate. I liked it there immediately. The beautiful, hazy, green mountains are impossible to miss, the weather was cool enough that I could wear pants and a long-sleeve tee at…
-
Pattaya and Chiang Mai
The specific travel dates for my winter holiday were mostly dictated by my vacation time balance and the expense of traveling during the holiday season. To keep costs reasonable, it was necessary to find a round-trip flight to Asia – as opposed to two separate one-way flights – so I opted for Bangkok. Don’t let the above photo fool you; December 8th was not a fun travel day. To begin with, I had a very full day at home: working, packing, cleaning, preparing my apartment for my Airbnb guest, and trying to fight off a cold. After going to a friend’s…
-
Goodbye to 2016, Hello to 35
Welcome to my new site! I’ve been working on a new personal site for quite some time now and I’m happy to announce that it’s finally live! As you can see, it’s part resume, part portfolio, and part blog. The resume and portfolio are a pretty good representation of me, but I’m still trying to figure out what I’ll be writing about. I’m sure I’ll blog about my travels, but since I’m working full-time and no longer on a sabbatical, I’ll have much less travel content than before. Maybe I’ll write about tech or San Francisco or photography. We’ll see.…
-
The End
I’ve been back in San Francisco for about a month and a half now, spending way too much money on everyday things, dealing with some mild post-travel depression, and working through a laundry list of errands and chores to get myself back on my feet. (I’m still trying to figure out health insurance in this country.) But I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve also been enjoying cool weather, sidewalks, reasonable traffic, normal bathrooms and showers, consistent Internet connections, and a lot more ease when catching up with friends and family. It’s bittersweet to be back, but I’m happy.…
-
The Beginning of the End
First, a confession: my blog posts have recently become less focused on writing and more focused on photos, for the simple reason that it’s easier for me to edit and post photos than it is to write, which takes a lot of mental energy. In short, I’m tired. As you might have guessed from the title of this post, my travels in Asia are coming to an end and I will be heading back to America soon. After nearly two years on the road, the burdens and hassles of constantly moving have finally gotten to me and I don’t have…
-
Hanoi and Ha Long Bay
Hanoi After a quite decent night of sleep, further extended by a multi-hour delay due to track maintenance, we grabbed our luggage, disembarked, made our way through the crowds, and were promptly scammed by a taxi driver while trying to get to the bus station. Clearly we didn’t realize we were being scammed at the time, but it happened. I hadn’t done my homework with respect to researching Hanoi public transportation (mistake #1), so when a driver approached us offering a metered taxi, I agreed without walking to the street first (mistake #2). In other countries in Asia, a metered…
