Miscellaneous

Yeah, you did it! You found the least-findable category page: miscellaneous!

Miscellaneous (adjective)

mɪsəˈleɪnɪəs

consisting of a mixture of various things that are not usually connected with each other

On this page, you’ll find all sorts of things. Anything I’ve written that doesn’t belong elsewhere belongs here.

Some posts don’t belong in a very specific category, such as ‘Danube’ or ‘Africa.’ Of course, some posts can belong to multiple categories, and ‘miscellaneous’ can be one of them. Some posts are deeply personal, some of them are goofy. And I guess I tried to make some of them useful and generic. The pattern is that there is no pattern. Categorizing stuff is hard for people like me: an agent of chaos.

Who knows, I might one day find that I have no use for the category of miscellaneous anymore. Perhaps I’ll change it. But I think you deserve a badge for finding this page at all. Kudos!

Yinj Tan — Hitchhiker Spotlight 🔦

On Fridays, we put a hitchhiker in the *spotlight. This week it’s Yinj Tan! Scroll down to read hitchhiking stories from her journeys. This spotlight first appeared on the 2nd of October 2020 in the NOMADS – Hitchhiking Club About Yinj First hitch: I guess it was 2014, back when I was still working in Singapore. I went to a walk with a friend and a couchsurfer, we got really tired to walk to the bus stop and the couchsurfer saw some other people hitchhiking, so he also tried and a lady driving a Mercedes sports car stopped and gaveContinue reading

How the Pandemic Put Me in a Language Learning Crisis

I wonder if any people who love language learning and traveling to speak to people feel the same? Learning Portuguese for Timor-Leste It’s February 2020. I’ve been learning Portuguese on Duolingo for months already. And I picked up the pace again after traveling through Myanmar and losing my streak. I’m back in Thailand and Portuguese is useless here. Why am I learning it? Because in a few months, we’ll go to Timor-Leste. In that country, the two official languages are Portuguese and Tetum. The latter is based in part on colonizer language Portuguese combined with indigenous languages and Malay/Indonesian. PerhapsContinue reading

Vaccine Tourism: Why I’ll Probably Get My COVID-19 Vaccines Abroad

As more and more people outside the risk groups are receiving vaccines, I’ve been thinking about how to get one myself. Vaccine tourism is becoming a better option than making a trip to the Netherlands and risking getting stuck there. This post is probably highly unrelatable unless you’re also a Dutch passport holder, nomadic, and in a relationship with someone with a different passport. Contents1 Where Am I?2 Medical Tourism is Great3 When Is it My Turn in the Netherlands?4 Old News: Vaccine Passports Are Coming5 Vaccine Diplomacy vs Nationalist Dumbfuckery6 Why I’ll Get Sinopharm or Sinovac (If I GetContinue reading

Voting as a Nomad: My Frustrating Attempt to Vote in the 2021 Dutch General Election

I have never once voted in a Dutch general election. Not because I didn’t want to or didn’t try. But because in the Netherlands, they make voting near impossible for homefree people. Contents1 A Short History of My Voting Attempts2 20163 What Changed in 2020?4 Contacting Mom5 My Attempt to Vote in the 2021 Election5.1 Toos Deserves La Chancla5.2 A Tour of the Dumb Bitch Juicery™ of The Hague6 6.1 The Solution: How my Mom used to Vote for my Dad7 What Should Change in the Netherlands?7.1 Security Questions8 Good/bad/meh read? Consider buying me a Fristi9 Sharing is possible, yetContinue reading

How To Hitch A Ride On An Ocean Passage

Sailing across an ocean is an adventure of a lifetime. Being able to harness the wind and current to get to a destination is something everybody should experience at least once. I’ve taken many new crew members on my sailboats before on long ocean passages, and for the most part, they all enjoyed them. Some even have gone out and made a career out of sailing. Although finding the right boat and Captain is where it can get a little tricky. In this article, I will tell you my secrets on finding these opportunities to have fun and stay safe.Continue reading

Hitchhiking Bucket List: #5 The Dakar Rally

Yes, this is another stretch. But I’d love to ride along in one of the rally cars of the annual Dakar Rally. It doesn’t have to be in the desert on a heavy sand dune. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be with one of the rally drivers. It could be with the maintenance on the way to Lima or Riyadh. I don’t care. The Dakar Rally used to be organized in Africa, known as the Paris–Dakar Rally. The route used to travel overland from France to Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, and Senegal’s capital Dakar, though sometimes theContinue reading

2021 Is Coming, Kayak+Work Danube Part 2 (The Sequel) is Canceled

Planning ahead is canceled. That has been the case since March-ish 2020 and doesn’t seem to stop in 2021. Jonas and I already knew back in July that continuing our Kayak+Work trip down the Danube in our trusty Zucchini would probably not happen. Now I’m ready to call it. And oof, last year’s happy 2020 post aged so badly. I’m keeping it just to remind myself how happy and positive I was at the start of it all. This year hasn’t been full of suffering for me – thank goodness – but it has been thoroughly mind-numbing Although I did accomplish the thingsContinue reading

Traveling in Malaysia during the Pandemic (Another Heckin’ Diary)

This little diary is a continuation of the ‘Pandemic in Penang’ diary I’ve kept during Malaysia’s harder lockdown. Long story short: we were traveling in Malaysia and other Asian countries when the coronavirus lockdowns caught us in George Town, Penang. We stayed there during the various phases of lockdown, from MCO to CMCO and RMCO (“Recovery Movement Control Order”). When interstate travel opened up, we planned our departure from Penang to travel within Malaysia’s borders. “SOP” stands for “Standard Operating Procedure”. Days since we entered Malaysia: Days since the start of the Movement Control Order (MCO): Travel days since we finallyContinue reading

Tanjung Piai, Malaysia: the Southernmost Point of Mainland Asia

We visited this extreme point in Asia on the 26th of August, 2020. This was during the pandemic, therefore visiting Tanjung Piai Johor National Park (Taman Negara Johor Tanjung Piai) came with all sorts of rules. Contents1 The Idea to Visit Tanjung Piai2 Taking a Grab from Pontian to Tanjung Piai3 Monument at the Southernmost Point of Mainland Asia4 Flora and Fauna of Tanjung Piai Johor National Park5 Returning to Pontian by Hitchhiking to Kukup6 Thanks for reading! The Idea to Visit Tanjung Piai As you might know, visiting the extreme points of the continents is my thing. I mostly enjoyContinue reading