I am typing this on my brand new iPad while sitting on a Cathay Pacific flight to Vancouver. From there, I’ll be off to Hong Kong, then straight on to Bangkok. I’ll be meeting up with a good friend Christine in Bangkok, where the agenda is pretty much unwritten. The only thing set in stone is that I need to be back in Bangkok on April 12th so that I can begin my voyage home with a quick 26-hour layover in Tokyo.
So you’re probably wondering, what is the reason for the trip? My answer, of course, is the trip is the reason for the trip. I’m planning to continue the travel photography and social media adventures that I’ve grown to love so much.
I had hoped to be able to post my photos nightly throughout the trip, but the iPad camera adaptor wasn’t available in time for my departure, and since we’ll be backpacking most of the time, I have opted to leave my 7 lbs MacBook Pro at home. However, I did pay for the international data plan on my iPhone, so I’ll probably snap a few photos on there and post them to Flickr as I go as a preview of the final images to come when I arrive home, and I’ll retroactively add photos to these posts later for posterity.
For this trip, I’ve packed extremely light. Since I tend to have lots of bad luck with airport security, I’ve learned how to pack light and only bring what I can carry.
On this trip, for example, I have one bag, my camera bag/backpack, which contains the following:
- Canon 5D Mark II with 24-105mm f/4.0 kit lens
- 4 Canon LP-E6 batteries
- 4 Compact Flash cards (1 32GB and 3 16GB)
- Canon 50mm f/1.4
- Canon 28mm f/2.8
- Apple iPad 64GB WiFi
- 6 Pairs of socks
- 6 Pairs of underwear
- 5 Shirts
- 1 Pair of jeans
- 1 Bathing suit
- 2 Field Notes notebooks
- 2 Pens
- 1 Deck of playing cards
- Assorted wires and chargers
Aside from a few sparse things I’m bringing one way to Christine, the clothes on my back and my iPhone in my pocket, that’s it. As I mentioned before, I’ve paid for 50MB of international data, but I’ve also paid for 50 outgoing text messages (Incoming are apparently free), and I plan to buy a prepaid phone over there to be able to stay in touch with Christine.
I’ll be active on Twitter, FourSquare, Flickr, and Facebook throughout the week, and hopefully blogging every night (assuming I can find WiFi to post from,) so feel free to follow along.
Truthfully, I plan to take it one step further than that; As it stands right now, I have no agenda for Tokyo, only a few suggestions. Similar to my day in Paris before this, I know no one in Japan, and I don’t speak a word of Japanese. I plan to crowdsource my day.
I’ve got 26 hours in Tokyo: Where should I go, what should I do? Hit me up on Twitter and let me know how you think I should spend my day. I’ll do it, photograph it, and write about it right here!
Stay tuned dear readers!