Enjoy this little slide presentation of some of my 2003 Ladakh Photos. As I upload more to my Flickr account, they will automatically appear here…
UPDATE (May 12, 06): I have taken my flash slide presentation down for a while. It messes up my blog viewing in Interet Explorer 6. It isn’t the presentation’s fault, it’s the crappy Microsoft browser. Please folks, if you are still using IE, get on with times and use Firefox or Opera. They are way better, please!!! If you still want to see the slideshow, click above on my Ladakh gallery in Flickr and hit the “View as slideshow” in upper right. To go there directly, CLICK HERE. Thanks for understanding;)))
You can get your own Flickr Album Maker at Yuan.CC Web Experiments, along with some other useful scripts;) BTW, you can stop the animation anytime and select any pic at the bottom of the window. Another click on the main picture will bring you my comments about the photo.
May 9th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
India, Preparation |
3 comments
Lately, I have been obsessed with finding new ways how to improve my blog, without overdoing it;) One of the latest additions is a separate blog which calls up my ‘geotagged’ pictures from Flickr.com. For more on geotagging, see Wikipedia explanation here. In short, geotagging, a.k.a. geocoding, is adding GPS information (latitude & longitude; altitude too, if necessary) to photos which in turn can be used by applications to position the photos on a world map.
I’m currently updating my cycling route for Google Earth which will also include photos from my previous travels in India and Nepal. En route, it will be simply too time-consuming to update it myself, i.e. adding pictures to Google Earth and uploading the file to the Net. I have found a neater way of doing it using an application called Flickrmap. I will be posting pictures on Flickr during my travels anyway, for blog updates… So, if I can find easy way to ‘geotag’ my photos, Flickrmap will add them to my map automatically and you can see my progress on my separately created blog: My Photos in Flickrmap.
May 8th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
Blogging, Preparation |
no comments
This is my ‘partial’ biking route (BLUE) in Google Earth, from high above. I will add the ‘Tibet/Nepal border to New Delhi’ segment soon. Remember, in GE you can easily scale the map down, to get a closer look, or tilt it, to see it better in 3D;)
May 6th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
Blogging, Preparation |
4 comments
I’ve been using Google Earth (GE) for some time to plan out my biking routes in and around New York City. It is an awesome piece of software, and fun to play with too. Not to mention the basic version is free!!! The most fascinating part of the program is that it allows me to lay out routes in 3D. It even has a ‘fly-over’ animation. Plus, I can add my own comments, weblinks to my stopovers, or even include photos and short movies. And, if I want to get sophisticated, I can use a GPS (with GE Plus and above) to import waypoints and easily re-create any trip. Simply, in terms of it s usefulness and interactivity, it is way above the usual online maps of the past. Here is what the GE interface look like.
GO GET IT!!! But before, read the hardware requirements carefully, as you will need to have a decent computer. Anything made in the last 4-5 years should do. FWIW, I run it on a WinXP Pentium III 800Mhz box with 512MB RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce videocard. It works just fine. (BTW, DON’T LAUGH, I know my comp is an ancient machine;))) Also, DSL or Cable connection might be useful too… To get you started, below are a few websites/blogs with more information:
Download Google Earth - Mac or PC
Google Earth Blog
- Google Earth Visual Guides
- Important Basics for Google Earth
- Google Earth Basics (read the above link first)
Google Earth - Getting Started
Google Earth Community (Forum)
Google Earth Tools
So, I will put my cycling adventure route on a GE-compatible file and post it on my blog. It’ll be in my right sidebar, under “My Route“. When you click on
Google Earth
, the GE program will start and display my route, provided you have installed Google Earth. I will have another post with ‘Instructions’ linking to this thread. So, folks clicking on my route file, will know what to do. This is for my friends who aren’t as computer savvy… You know who you are;)))
It is still a work of progress and I will try to update it as best I can, before I leave. Right now, I have a route from Delhi all the way to Kathmandu. See the screenshot in my post above… I want it to reflect my route as closely as possible, so a friend of mine can quickly update it from time to time, either to mark my progress or add new comments, or even links to my blog postings. (Thanks for your help Rick. You ROCK!!!) Obviously, if there will be some bigger changes regarding my route, I will have to update it after my trip. (I hope you understand;)) If you guys have any questions (or suggestions), shoot me a quick email, or a comment;) Thanks.
List of things still to do: Update route distances; make all stopovers linkable to Google Images; customize the ‘fly-over’ animation; update all data references…
May 6th, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
Blogging, Preparation |
one comment
Strange thing to say, as I have never been to Pakistan. But all comments I’ve been hearing and reading from travelers are encouraging. It seems like the negative perception of Pakistan is hugely influenced by mainstream media and its never-ending “War On Terror” reports… Sure, there are ‘NO GO’ areas, but I will be steering clear of those. I will cross the India/Pakistan border at Wagah, cycle to Lahore, then Islamabad and join the Karakoram Highway all to way to Sost where I have to load my bike on a bus to cross over the Khunjerab Pass into China. I can’t wait to see and experience Pakistan for myself. Everyone says it’s quite different from India.
I have finally applied for my Pakistani visa. Based on the General Consulate of Pakistan website in New York City, visas for Slovak citizens were FREE, at least in 2004. So, I was pleasantly surprised when told today that they are still gratis. I have expected to pay, based on my experience with the Indian visa. (When I visited India in 2003, my visa was issued free of charge. But it all changed in 2005, when Slovakia became a part of the EU.) I received the standard six-month tourist visa, valid from today, for up to three months stay in Pakistan. That’s all I need;) Now, you understand my initial ‘liking’ of the country…
The only visas I will need now are Chinese and Nepalese. Nepal visa is easily obtainable at a border. For the Chinese one, I will apply in Islamabad. Too much hassle to get it here in NYC. They simply won’t give me a longer than 3 months visa here which would expire before I even enter China.
May 3rd, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
Pakistan, Preparation |
no comments
As my departure date is slowly getting closer, some of my posts may seem irrelevant to my upcoming adventure. But as I have stated in my first post, I will digress into discussing any topic, even remotely related to my travels. I believe there is more to travel than just sightseeing. Accordingly, traveler’s thoughts, photos, or writings should reflect that. For myself, travel is a learning experience, first and foremost, and quite humbling too. I’m a strong believer in St. Augustine’s words who said that “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” (Sometimes also freely paraphrased as “A person who does not travel is like a book unopened.”) So, the following is just a snapshot of what magazines/articles I’ve read recently, offering you a glimpse of how I might experience my travels and reporting about it.
I get most of my news reading from the Internet (I’ll get to books at some other time). But I also like to step into my local Borders bookstore, grab a bunch of magazines, get a refreshing cup of coffee and delve into more serious analysis, or just an easy reading. My usual selection includes The Economist, probably the best weekly mag in regards to world politics, economics and finance, libertarian at heart. I have started reading it in college (I was a finance major) and been doing so ever since. Others, discussing similar subjects are Foreign Policy and the Atlantic, publishing way better and thought-out articles than anything found in most dailies.
In my previous life (just a couple years ago:)), when I worked as an analyst for a major investment bank in oil & gas advisory practice, I have been always interested in anything related to petro-business and its influence in global politics. (Strange how current these topics have become in the past few years.) The current issue of Foreign Policy has a great piece “The First Law of Petropolitics” written by Thomas L. Friedman discussing how oil prices and freedom are inversely related. Atlantic Monthly from May ‘06 has two articles that drew my attention: “The Talented Mr. Chavez” and “Colonel Cross of the Gurkhas“. The Economist has always excellent special reports, this week’s one is reporting on the power of the Internet in China, conflicting with the Communist Party information agendas: “China and the Internet - The party, the people and the power of cyber-talk” (still available online in full length). My overarching interests include topics dealing with globalization and its effects (good or bad) on countries, cultures, and people around the world.
On a lighter note, I pretty much browse through any available cycling and mountain biking mag out there (I love Dirtrag). I catch up on some interesting reports in photo magazines. From time to time, I scan adventure sports and travel monthlies (Adventure Sports, Outside, NG Adventure), despite the fact that all of them are becoming just marketing vehicles overfilled with ads for expensive stuff, just here and there including a decent short story. But I never forget to check the National Geographic, the magazine that started it all. I wonder how many folks out there were bitten by ‘traveler’s bug’ because they started looking at the pages of the NG as kids. I know I did! I was always enthralled by stunning photography from faraway places when I was a dreamy boy growing up in the 1980s’ Czechoslovakia. I didn’t even understand English then. But the NG pages were my only link to the ouside world.
May 2nd, 2006
Posted by
Rich |
Blogging, Fun, Preparation |
no comments
