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Tsunami Boats
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in JapanFive days after the March 11 tsunami, I visited the south-east coast of Hokkaido to see the results. I recently got around to processing the film from that trip, which reveals the damage sustained at one tiny fishing port. The boats were out of the water during the winter when the water blasted through the…
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Leg 2 Final Preparations
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in JapanIt’s been a while coming, but since completing the first stage of the journey to Japan I have managed to pull myself from financial ruin and set my focus again to life on the road. I’m now working on final preparations for leg 2 of this expedition. I have a lot to look forward to, an entire…
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Hand-Drawn Maps
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in JapanThe bicycle touring experience is determined by a jagged, uninterrupted path, as opposed to an itinerary. That’s really all there is to it — a scratch in the terrain, a maze through a city, a line on a map
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Japan
#11 10 January 2008—12 February 2008 ‘You have only to see what you see and feel what you feel.’ —Mineko Iwasaki I had a fundamental decision to make. One that had been rolling around in my head since day one, and I knew I would have to face up to it in the next year: east…
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China
#10 26 November 2007—7 January 2008 One of my final glimpses of Vietnam was of a motorcycle loaded sky-high with caged chickens, hitting the skids and coming to grief on hwy 1A. Considering my experience there, a road accident full of chickens seemed an unsurprising and appropriate image to depart with. Needless to say, the…
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Laos & Vietnam
#9 3 November 2007—25 November 2007 BACK INTO THAILAND Contrary to information I had received in Bangkok from the Laos embassy, I discovered that visas aren’t in fact available on entry at the Cambodia-Laos border on the Mekong River, which had supposedly been recently upgraded to International Status. This meant I had to make a…
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Thailand & Cambodia
#8 9 October 2007—2 November 2007 ‘A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thought.’ —Alan Watts BANGKOK In Southeast Asia all roads lead to Bangkok, and if you can see through the smog you’ll see that even in Thailand’s capital city the Thai live by their maxim ‘chai yen’…
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Singapore, Malaysia & Thailand
#7 6 September 2007 – 8 October 2007 ‘If you don’t go when you wanna go, when you do go you’ll find you’re gone.’ —Bert, The Worlds Fastest Indian On the sketchy road to Bangkok I arrived in Singapore a little worse for wear, though after the chaos of Indonesia it was just the place…
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Indonesia
#6 30 June 2007—5 September 2007 Not all straight sailing through Indonesia The day after I had arrived in Darwin was Northern Territory Independence Day, July 1. To celebrate, and because the N.T. is in fact a Territory as opposed to a state, it’s legal for any adult to buy and use fireworks for the…
Earth Odyssey Expedition 