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. A Short History of My Voting Attempts Back in the summer of 2009, I turned 18 and became eligible to vote. I was still living at my mom’s home back then. My voting card – not ballot! – for the 2010 Dutch municipal elections arrived at my mom’s somewhere in February 2010. I remember voting in that election. In June/July 2010, I took the final exams of DutchContinue reading
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!
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. The Idea to Visit Tanjung Piai As you might know, visiting the extreme points of the continents is my thing. I mostly enjoy visiting the mainland extreme points because they’re easier to measure than what island still counts as Europe or Asia, etc. So before we traveled to Asia in 2019, I’d looked up a few places like this, and Tanjung Piai in Peninsular MalaysiaContinue reading
Pandemic in Penang: A Play-by-Play from Two Digital Nomads in Malaysia
Before you judge our decision to stay in Malaysia and not ‘repatriate’ ourselves, scroll to the bottom to read our motivations for riding out the pandemic in Penang/George Town. If coronavirus statistics trigger your anxiety, this journal might not be for you. Also, I wrote this, so not everything here reflects Jonas’ views. My sources for Malaysia come from the trilingual news website Malaysia Kini, which has an excellent COVID-19 tracker which adds new functionality almost twice a week, and our elevator. My world stats come from the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, which unfortunately keeps butchering country names. TheContinue reading
6 Stories from Hosts + Guests in Lockdown: Hospitality in the Time of Corona
Our world has shrunk a great deal since the globe went on lockdown for the coronavirus. Blindsided by the sudden changes, travelers had to make some tough decisions mid-adventure. Amidst the chaos, I knew there would be some people out there who remained kind and trusting of virtual strangers. People who would keep their doors open when they were told to keep it shut. I’d been thinking about the people showing or experiencing hospitality under such extraordinary circumstances. So I asked around looking for stories from both hosts and guests to share their experiences. Many people responded with their stories,Continue reading
Happy New Year 2020! This is a Kilometer Sign…
Happy 2020 from Jonas and me! We hope you had a wholesome new year’s eve. I hope you’ll have a good start of the new decade with lots of adventures (small and big), fair winds, good hitchhiking road karma, or a strong but not scary current to paddle in. Jonas and I are currently in Chiang Mai (Thailand), but we took this photo at the Austrian Danube. At the town of Spitz an der Donau there’s a ferry to cross the Danube to the right-hand side where the signs 2019, 2020, and 2021 are very close to each other. It’sContinue reading