#traveltales from #kualalumpur :
* Street cleaners stop and wait to warn tourists about a snake that's on the side of a path; they stayed there for easily 30 minutes, just waiting and warning
* A street vendor sharpening his knife on a street lamp post
* Cleaner carrying and lighting _massive_ firecrackers to scare away the monkeys
* Street vendors selling bananas to feed the monkeys with (it was fun)
#traveltales from #kualalumpur and #bangkok
* Motorbike police escorts for VIP cars do not give any fucks, they will whip in front of traffic driving one-handedly, trusting in all other cars to emergency brake
* Under-armour, a clothing brand many desperately masculinity-signalling men seem to wear, make sneakers with easily 5cm lift. I can't help but notice the similarities to SUVs and lifted pick-up trucks...
#traveltales from #kualalumpur and #bangkok
* Grab, the Uber of Asia, has so. many. papercuts. and it makes me wonder about their complete lack of UX QA, and by extension the global readiness to replace traditionally US-centric tech
* Petronas towers are absolutely *packed* with Korean influencers trying to get a photo in. It seems to be en vogue to spread your arms in all directions at once to show how much space you can take up/other photos you can ruin
Meta #traveltales
#tusky has a weird bug in which replies to public posts are made local by default. No setting to change it either. So I just deleted two posts and re-posted them with correct settings
#traveltales from #kualalumpur and #bangkok
* KL: Bad public transport and almost zero electric vehicles. Might be because a liter of gas is 0.42 € over there
* KL: Pretend-racing cars with exhausts so loud that you wake up on the 29th floor seem to be tolerated
* BKK: Having ridden #BYD cars a few times now, even their lowest models have better materials and production finish than #tesla s, to say nothing of the 3. And more buttons.
#traveltales from #thailand
* The cab driver almost got offended when asked if all the construction workers are Thai. They are from Cambodia and Myanmar, and he made certain that was understood
* I can feel the gears shift on the diesel #train to Maha Chai and eventually Mae Kong
* The windows open fully! But you need to be careful as the trees are growing right to where the train shaves them off
* Seems to be the right train, as there are two guided groups (three tourists total)
* Gerry (#FOSDEM staff friend) and myself are rocking this without guide; seeing guides is both reassuring and annoying
* #Train ticket for one hour ride is 10 Baht or 0.27€
* There is no train bridge. We will get out, see about catching a ferry, and board a different train
* End stop is going to be Mae Klong. So we will see the railway market fold up and spread again every time a train passes. For the first run, we see it from the train
* Spare space along the railway is just filled up with banana plants and the occasional mango tree
* Train doors just open while rolling into the stop, and close some time after starting again. No warning or anything; everyone just stays away
* Those black plastic gravel/concrete tubs? They use the same plastic for low and wide fruit market stacking undercarriers and for actual rowboats. Makes sense, just never thought of it as food safe or sturdy enough to be a boat.
#traveltales #bangkok Klong Toei market
* Motorbikes driving through the smallest footsways all the time
* Deep in the bowels of the wet market's meat choppers, a tiny bar. Sit down for coconut water with cane sugar juice (and maybe some pandang?). After some time,. realize a man, an adolescent, and a child are rolling blunts for sale. Once the work is done, the adolescent scoops up the leftovers for a hit or two with his bong
#traveltales #bangkok Klong Toei market
* Once we walk again, less than five meters away, a rat surfaces and scuttles away from one of the ~100 liter barrels filled with meat refuse, fat, and water
* Maybe six meters after that, a man is sitting there, taking chicken feet from a tub, clipping off the claws with gardening shears, and tossing the finished feet into another bucket. If you don't know, deep fried chicken feet are a delicacy in China (I don't love them. Too fatty)
#traveltales #bangkok Klong Toei market
We buy some coconuts to drink from and walk to a geocaching location. It's a nice bridge, with wide berths for sleeping in the breeze. Three local drunks/drug users are chilling in the breeze. One talks to me for 10+ minutes (no exaggeration, I timed this from photos taken before and after), explaining something in slurred Thai, seemingly unable to comprehend I don't understand Thai..
#traveltales #bangkok Klong Toei market
He might be encouraging us to throw the empty coconut into the river and telling us how long it takes to get to the sea, we will never know. He takes and gives back the coconut several times, making throwing motions. At the end, he takes my coconut and throws it triumphantly into the trash. The second drunk looks very unhappy. Gerry offers him his empty coconut and both fall over themselves with thanks, breaking it open to eat the coconut flesh...
We sit in the breeze watching them happily eat the coconut. We still have four Thai oranges (like tangerines, but way way more awesome). I toss one to Gerry and one to each drunk. They almost fall off their benches trying to catch, but are ecstatic with their oranges. After maybe ten more minutes, we get up and leave with many bows and goodbyes between the four of us.
There's so many stories about the wet market...
One is how animal blood is sold in plastic bottles. Every organ, every part of the animals is for sale, even chicken beaks (which apparently are crunchy when deep fried). And honestly, that's better than wasting anything.
Or the two guys, one chopping up pig legs, and the other crookedly standing on the chopping table in rubber boots shoving everything into a gigantic meat grinder, bones and skins and all. One slip, and his hand or arm is gone...
One for my US American followers...
40 Baht for 12 eggs. That's 1.09€ or $1.19, for 12 eggs.
Spontaneously took a trip to cockatoo island to shake out the brain after work, and saw dozens of sailboats criss-cross each other. Four boats drove basically a hashpund pattern with a maximum of 3-5 meters distance, at speed.
Currently 1932 local, and I am watching hundreds or maybe thousands of humongous #bat fly East towards the ocean. It's like a Hitchcock movie, just with bats
Walking up the stairs to watch the city from atop the rock, I am now standing under a few trees in which dozens of bats are resting and fighting for space. They are so preoccupied with each other, I might be able to reach out and touch them as they glide past less than a meter away from me
I always assumed bats are completely silent other than ultrasound. They are not. They scream at each other viciously.
It is literally raining small debris all around me to the point of covering me all over, these bats are fighting hard.
I'm in #Tokyo #Japan riding the local trains. Masks are not really all that common any more. It's kinda a trope by now that the seats near The Big German remain free. I'm used to it. And if anyone sits down near or next to me it's almost exclusively men.
I'm wearing my #mask as I do on planes and public transport, and for the first time ~ever in Asia the seats right next to me were taken up very quickly, both by women, one wearing a mask, one not.
1/2
I've often noticed how some groups seem to automatically associate A Big Person wearing a mask with safety. Not too wild when you think about it, but certainly initially unexpected.
Oh, and some special snowflakes in some places obviously visibly object to my #mask, but usually don't want to approach someone my size so they just sit/stand there giving me the evil eye. Bless their shriveled little hearts.
Most people do, but birds of all creatures would seem to need them the least?
* There's a small truck in our (previous) #Tokyo neighborhood which plays music to signal it's here to sell baked goods for the next 20 minutes
* The absolutely unbelievable amount of plastics Japan goes through. Only surpassed by the US
* The wannabe gangster mid-twenties coughing openly and aggressively into the hallway with hundreds of people
* Google Maps being completely out of date about where the bento boxes are in Tokyo main station and buying Onigiri on the #Shinkansen platform
* #Osaka being noticably less well-maintained. Older trains and busses. More derelict houses
* Noticeably older population. Young people are only visible around the center. Many old people eye parents with younger children with obvious envy
* A old man coughing wetly right next to me in the local train (with a surgical mask on) was so ashamed/offended by my putting on my mask that he ran off the train at the next station and didn't even stop when we yelled because he lost an earbud
#nintendo #nintendoworld #osaka
* You need to be there two hours before official opening. 0700 local sharp. 0630 would not be wrong, either.
* At 0730 sharp, security opens
* At 0745 sharp, they test the rides so you can see
* At 0751, all the entrance staff come to their stations
* At 0756, the music picks up
* At 0758, the announcements start
* And at 0800 sharp, general disappointment
* At 0813, someone comes and yells, the music changes. Staff come back -- and smile and wave for two minutes
0815 sharp, lets-a go
So, was #nintendo world in #Oasaka worth it?
Unclear. The universal studies around it.. exist. Many people in Terfy Potter world, but everyone crams into NintendoWorld. The rest of the park seemed deserted at times.
The Minions ride is frustrating. Everyone hypes it, but it keeps you waiting in obnoxious (not smart like #MarioKart) ways. I'd avoid it even though we had express passes.
1/n
Flying dinosaur is nice. It tilts you forward by 90 degrees for the whole ride and some non-trivial G but mainly inwards not outwards. I get why to not make people too scared, but I'd have preferred outwards.
The ride you see at the beginning toys with negative G repeatedly, but otherwise it's kinda nin-thrilling.
If you're tall, flight of the hippograph won't fit you and you get two express passes as a mea culpa. Worth it if the wait is short or you could not buy a fitting Direct-In without giving money to a TERF.
IMO, Nintendo is used to cross-sell Terfy Potter by Universal.
So, that brings us to #Nintendo World:
Go on Wednesdays if you can. Least busy. They also show it on the website
Arrive at 0700 or earlier. Walk briskly, do not run, into NintendoWorld. Get in line for Mario Kart. Ignore Yoshi and Donkey Kong. Or do Donkey Kong first. Yoshi is good as a second ride. Not because it's good, but because it's got the shortest line.
The area is tiny. Unless you buy the wrist band, you will not have a lot to do other than taking photos and standing in line for the rides.
You can buy Mario etc merch, but a Don Quichote will have similar or the same items at 1/2 to 1/3 the price.
All in all, for a group of four people we paid over 1,000€ for the day. Entry, Direct-In, some wrist bands, food, souvenirs.
Not counting accomodation, transport, Shinkanshen.
Worth it? Unclear. Once in a lifetime, sure. But still, not sure...
To be clear, the most expensive part was the Direct-In, basically a "reduce the waiting line by 30-200 minutes". Yes, by 200 minutes.
It's expensive AF, but two days would be even more expensive when you factor in accommodations, access tickets, and prorated flight and PTO cost.
Taking the first train at 05:59 in the morning towards Toyosu Market, the wagons are already full. Arriving at 06:15, many tourists walk back already. It's been open since 05:00 after all.
The tuna auction itself is kinda funny. The bidders are super concerned about looking deliberately disinterested and chill; feels like high school or bad poker.
The few sushi restaurants which are open already are full. Mostly japanese men, drinking heavily this early in the morning
By 07:00 it's mainly tourists. I got the seasonal sake. First time in my life I liked sake. Fruity, cleansed the palate even better than the pickled ginger, and generally very pleasant. Walking in the intense sun (at 0745!!!) I feel regret about drinking alcohol
So, on how the bus payments work..
In Osaka you have to get on in the back and pay while leaving in the front. Tokyo is the other way around. Kyoto is a mixed bag. This seems almost as random as when you're supposed to walk on the left, the right, or a wild mix which changes every few hundred meters.
In #Osaka, there are two fares posted in the bus: 210 (or 230?) yen for adults, 110 for children. Other rates are not posted, but as everyone sees both how much someone pays and how much balance is remaining it's easy to deduce.
Seniors pay 50 yen.
Disabled seniors pay 0 yen. There's a bright green line around the display to signal this.
Some people flash a card or something to the bus driver or simply put both hands together and bow and do not pay at all.
I am a somewhat frequent traveler for work reasons. If I have leg space, I always sit on the window, away from the sunny side. This is one of the tricks to a calmer flight and night.
Flying back from #Tokyo #Haneda to #Munich, only the right side was free. Good if we fly under Russia, OK if we fly over the Artic. Decent enough sun activity to have a chance at #Northernlights. It's a night flight. Or so I thought...
The #boeing787 has dimmable windows, not physical shades. It's summer solstice.
It's noon in Alaska where I am currently North of. ANA217 if you want to track me.
The sun is burning with the intensity of one thousand^W suns... It's summer solstice so the sun will not even set on the geographical North Pole today. The window is doing its best, but it has to absorb the energy. No off-grey plastic to reflect light. It's so hot it's unpleasant to touch and is radiating so much heat I am sweating in my normal "slightly too cool for most people" travel sleep set-up.
Science...!
The Japanese guy next to me entered the plane masked. Medical mask as ~usual with men in Asia (women tend to wear FFP2 / [K]N95 maybe 66% of the time). I always appreciate people masking.
He started coughing shortly before food. Now he's sleeping with the mask off for several hours already.
I'm masked with FFP3 / N99 so whatever, but...
And also I am still (rather successfully) staying on top of an infection I got during a badly-ventilated KubeCon. Two coworkers coughed, I should have masked...
But for anyone who doesn't know them: Laryngomedin and Ocentident are near magic for viral infections of the respiratory system. You can feel your throat getting better because your immune system noticeably gets the upper hand for a few hours. Absolute game changer.
Not available in the US though, so people there need to get creative.
If you can't taste the salt,
and aceto tastes bald,
that's the cove...
that's the cove...
Second time in my life I have a positive #COVID #COVID19 test.
And I _THOUGHT I SHOULD HAVE MASKED AND I DIDN'T_
Oh well. At least I have a prescription for #paxlovid this time, but I don't think I can get it filled before Monday...
Continuing my #traveltales #travelnotes, and staying on the topic of #masks
I'm in #Hyderabad for #KubeCon #India and forced myself out of the hotel on my arrival day at least once. Even walking to the ATM around the corner, I already put on my mask against all the dust and smog. Taking a tuktuk across town, I was immediately forced to put it back on and keep it on.
I love the buzzing and chaos on the streets, but I am also quite happy about my place with quiet and good air..
I always take tuktuks (called auto, here) where feasible. Cheaper, quicker, and generally more fun. In a real car now, because other than one time in Iceland and one time in Moab, I've never driven through as much and deep water in my life.
We're stuck at an intersection trying to turn. The waves from the car passing by are rocking the car back and forth
One fascinating aspect is how, being with six Indian coworkers for food, when one of them chooses a restaurant serving their home food, none of the others know the dishes. I know #India is large etc pp. Still, this drives it home even more.
#India was way too short, as always. I love the bustle, the colors, the smells, the spices, all the chaos which somehow just chugs along.
On the negative side, I don't think I will be able to not wear a mask outdoors in any major Indian city for the foreseeable future.
Even a few hours after landing in #Taiwan for #COSCUP, it was clear that it's the most.. deliberate.. of all the Asian countries I've ever been to. Very orderly and structured, with clear long term planning shining through everywhere. Maintenance and upkeep are being taken seriously. While it's obviously different in many ways, it reminds me of Germany in a way.
One small and almost invisible aspect of Asian countries is how even low quality goods will have high quality cases, lanyards, etc. in Western country, you regularly need to buy expensive stuff to get nice auxiliary goods; in east Asian countries you will get nice auxiliary goods even for giveaways.
I received a battery powered fan someone got for free and didn't need; and the lanyard it came with is nicer than most lanyards I recently got with any but the most quality goods.
At scale, the unit prices from the factory door can't be impacted beyond cents, and yet we're just used to getting throwaway lanyards, cases, etc with stuff in Western countries.
Maybe it's the general state of upkeep seen everywhere else, but this has left me somewhat unimpressed. Right next to Taipei Arena, there's a manhole without a cover. Just some cones and a blinky light. There's not construction work on Sunday, so this has been that way for at least ~30 hours by the time I saw it. If concrete settles, I'd expect a steel plate to cover everything...
That was certainly unexpected..
I've seen this a few times already, only on German cars.
Reduce, reuse, recycle etc
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Not super impressed by this one to be honest. But that is very likely in part because everything else is well maintained
"relax please" says the tiny Thai lady who seems to be made solely of muscle and knuckles while she kneels on my upper legs, right before ramming both hands between my shoulderblades into the back of my neck
The food in #Taiwan is impressive. The night markets are really something for locals, and the density of food stalls is the highest I have ever seen in such places
Homeless (or very poor, I don't know) old people are markedly better dressed and smelling than in most other places I've been. Convenience store owners let them sit at the tables in peace and quiet to rest from the heat. The homeless often had impressively large sandwiches which I presume shopowners hand them when business slows down
I did see one man eat out of a trashcan, but other than that the social fabric seems to cushion the poor surprisingly well.
(I'm a simple man. I see you eating out of the trash, I give you enough cash to eat a few days if I can reach you and have some on me)
Overall, I didn't expect to be this impressed, but Taiwan did impress me. Seemingly solid social fabric, good maintenance, things are planned well. Quite efficient and effective.
There's an impressive level of non-predatory convenience built at least into Taipei. Stuff is where you need it, shops sprinkle the streets, pricing is reasonable.
And if you're a foody.. recommend.
Not saying where I am yet. Maybe a good #osint #geolocation #geoguessr challenge...
I am sleeping in the middle of nowhere. Bioluminescent algae randomly appeared.
NB: I can't easily verify on mobile if exif data is stripped. Fair have if it's not, just let me know.
Let's try an actually solvable #osint #geolocation #geoguessr challenge.
This image was taken a few minutes ago.
I am just going to post increasingly revealing photos for #osint #geolocation #geoguessr fun
Two surprising aspects about #Ireland:
* The roads are tiny, and half the country seems to be in a contest to cultivate the densest and most dangerous growth into the side of the roads. I'm a good driver, and this is one of the most stressful road systems I've ever been on
* Signs everywhere to not litter, and ~zero wastebins; roughly as many as in Japan. We always take all trash with us anyway, but trash bins would do more than signs for other people not to litter..
Re the roads, I don't have data, but I presume that this is due to the historically relative poverty of Ireland. It takes money over substantial amounts of time to widen, straighten, and generally improve infrastructure.
Randomly stopping on the side of the road, and realizing everything's thick with #blackberry bushes. 30 minutes later, no one is hungry any more.
Hiking around Gleniff Barytes Mill Site
So. Many. Blackberries.
With the possible exception of fresh #maracuja in #Brazil and #thai oranges, #blackberry is my favorite fruit by far.
For the first time in my life have I been sated with blackberries. Without breakfast, I've eaten so many that I started picking only the nicest ones. So many that I stopped eating them even though there were many, many more and almost every single one near perfect. And then started and stopped eating again several times.
(berries are fruit, no need to discuss in this thread)
Three clear signs they don't get snow or freezing (yet) in #Ireland:
1. Several new houses have their sewage piping running outside(!) of the house. On the outer wall. Never seen this before
2. Wooden steps and walkways have simple chicken wire stapled to them against slippage
3. Some concrete steps are just poured onto the bare floor. Sometimes literally just bounded by random rocks and roots
We took the ferry into #NorthernIreland and the contrasts are interesting..
* No passport checks or anything
* Road surface quality is higher, they are slightly wider, and much straighter
* Road repairs are in long stripes, not random blobs
* Trees are offset back from the road and cut back more; no shrins encroaching visibility
* Three litter bins right at the ferry port
There's a huge army base and prison complex right at the closest point to Ireland; something I found rather English
Generally speaking, all fields, roads, and properties are straighter and larger. Almost as if they hadn't grown organically over a very long time, and instead someone came, killed and subjugated a few people and redistributed everything on a map.
The small differences between #ireland and #nothernireland are interesting..
* Bottle caps come off in NI; hugely emotional topic for populist reasons
* NI is generally more spacious in all regards. Gardens, streets, cities, etc
* Upkeep, trash removal, and cleaning are better in NI
* Road safety, layout, and design is much, much better in NI
* Two taps for hot & cold water all over NI; though in disabled toilets they have modern mixing batteries
Both places are super nice, of course
One addendum: our rental had touchscreen-mainly. Words can not express the frustration this causes. It's incredibly dangerous for anyone on the road.
And fun fact: the speed limit detection on that Ford reliably detected 80 as 60 and sometimes 120 as 20. Guess they are biased in the US training data. Which bodes well for all the other things where systems rely on training data
Landing in #bangalore / # begaluru a few days ago for #IndiaFOSS, I saw a toilet attendant who had "NO TIPS PLEASE" stitched onto his uniform in huge letters.
I'd love to understand the reasoning process behind this. I'd have given him a tip out of principle if I had any cash on me at that time.
Generally, #IndiaFOSS impressed me. It was the right mix of chaos and organization; the crowd was very engaged.
I gave a talk about #FOSDEM and I had uncounted conversations about FOSDEM, OSS, and how to apply its principles afterwards.
I do start feeling like an old these days. I mentioned to someone that I was first in #India in 2006 and someone commented were like "yeah, he wasn't alive then". Brutal.
But good crowd.
An in-person meeting fell through, so now I actually have some downtime. I'm writing a few documents, chilling in my hotel room overlooking Sri Chamarajendra Park
There's 1-2 dozen black kites circling over the park, looking for prey and fighting each other. Sometimes, one swoops down when they found something.
There are few things as serene as birds circling over woods.
I'm in #Seoul for #FOSS For All; I had the honor of giving the opening keynote about #FOSDEM
I took this photo in the restroom of the university. It's a soap bar. You wet your hands, rub the soap, and wash your hands.
As you're standing in line to wash your hands, the act of getting soap looks exactly as you'd expect it to look like.
