Today started with an early 6:30am wake up call —for no reason. I’ve been lacking some sleep over the weekend, so it wasn’t a great sign to wake up feeling tired.
I powered through the morning, and, around lunchtime, my Airbnb host asked me if I wanted to go out. I told him I was thinking about getting some Phó and so teamed-up on his scooter for a 12mn ride through the city.
He told me he caught the flu over the weekend, so I thought Phó should also be a good thing for him. After an delicious, energising, filling, and hearty lunch we were on our way back when he asked me if I ever had a face massage, here in Vietnam.
I explained to him that I hadn’t, and that the only massages I ever get are given by my girlfriend — I’ve never felt comfortable enough having a professional massage therapist (unrelated but yeah, I dislike the word masseuse). He said he was going to get one and offered that I tag along, citing how relaxing it was.
We parked in front of this hair salon, in the third district. Entering the salon, we were taken all the way to the back where they had a barely lit room with six beds, and two current customers. As you lay down, you realise that there is a flat surface slightly inclined, just enough so that your head is tilted backward.
The therapist put a towel under my head and another one on my chest, before starting to shampoo and wash my hair. With my hair wet and cleaned, she started massaging my cranium with their fingernails before moving on to my face.
She went through several cycles, several routines, going from the top of my skull down to my forehead, to my cheeks, to my neck, and even down to my shoulder blades. All in all, it was a very relaxing experience, especially considering my physical exhaustion from the past few days and the lack of sleep from last night.
Earlier this week, I’ve finally finished this book from one of my favorite authors Jack Cheng!
This was an incredibly touching story, with a very original way of introducing its plot. A short fiction read at about 300+ pages – I highly recommend it for fans of fiction, moving stories, drama, and space/NASA nerds!
An astonishingly moving middle-grade debut about a space-obsessed boy's quest for family and home.
All eleven-year old Alex wants is to launch his iPod into space. With a series of audio recordings, he will show other lifeforms out in the cosmos what life on Earth, his Earth, is really like.
But for a boy with a long-dead dad, a troubled mum, and a mostly-not-around brother, Alex struggles with the big questions.
Where do I come from? Who’s out there? And, above all, How can I be brave?
Determined to find the answers, Alex sets out on a remarkable road trip that will turn his whole world upside down . . .
For fans of Wonder and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Jack Cheng’s debut is full of joy, optimism, determination, and unbelievable heart. To read the first page is to fall in love with Alex and his view of our big, beautiful, complicated world. To read the last is to know he and his story will stay with you a long, long time.
Having been on the road since April, I thought it’d be a good time to finally take some time to share my favorite travel gear. I’ve been wanting to write this one down for a while because I’ve come to realize how much I rely on some of this stuff in my day to day.
Here’s a selection of the travel gear I can’t leave without — you can find more of my essential kit on my Kit.com page.
[caption id=“attachment_2566” align=“alignnone” width=“4032”] A picture I took at home, before leaving for 9 months on the road[/caption]
Preparing a trip of 9 months across the world, I needed to ensure that the very basic backpack would be solid, and allow me to cross borders, airport security, but still fit on the cabin of the many aircrafts to come. After a quick search for a good-looking, sturdy travel backpack, I decided to purchase the 35L Outbreaker, from Tortuga. It’s been the best decision I’ve ever taken in terms of gear to choose. I absolutely love this backpack, from the design, to the splash-proof material, and how sturdy it feels on my back.
This is a more recent addition, but after realising I was unpacking/re-packing every month, I been looking for a more efficient way to travel. This is partially solved by these packing cubes which allow me to put everything together in my bag, saving up a bit more space, and the hassle of wondering how I managed to pack so much in two bags in the past few months.
I picked up this travel mug during a recent trip to Amsterdam earlier this year. I stumbled upon it in the Design Museum’s store, and couldn’t resist the nice design and simple click mechanism.
I knew that I’d be visiting some countries with dust and/or a fair amount of pollution (Dubai, Shanghai, Vietnam, …) so I knew that a face mask would be a good investment. This one is meant to last longer than the usual paper masks you can find in convenience stores all over Asia, and you can even change the filters once you’ve used them for a while.
What happens once you’ve reached your accommodation? You go out and EXPLORE. My day-bag is a simple tote I’ve got as a gift from my subscription to Monocle Magazine. Simple, but essential, as I tend to put my wallet, my external battery, my laptop or iPad if I’m walking around, and any other accessory I might need on the day.
My go-to pair of noise-cancelling, wireless headphones. I simply can’t live, and especially can’t travel without these: noise cancellation is really on point, even when a toddler is sitting behind you and crying on a plane.
The battery life is huge for me (20h+) so I can keep them on my head from the moment I leave my Airbnb, go to the airport, fly for 10+ hours, land, and travel to my next accommodation —and I’ll still have some juice left!
I need a dirt cheap basic pair of earphones, for when I want to listen to podcasts or music, or have a facetime call, whenever I’m outside and walking around… at least until I decide to get myself a pair of Airpods…
Similarly to the noise-cancelling headphones, this is something I absolutely need in order to get some rest on a plane. On average, in an 8-10h flight, I hardly get more than 2 hours of sleep, generally 30-40 minutes at a time. So investing in a better sleeping mask than the basic ones given on a plane is also a small but crucial improvement. I bought my current one in Vietnam for about 3€ ($4).
Something so simple, and yet so incredibly vital to anyone traveling on the road with a few gadgets: this travel organizer is possibly the wisest 10€ I have EVER spent.
There’s a small zipped compartment which is perfect for small adapters, SIM cards, and memory cards too!
Obviously, something to fill the travel organizer with. If, like me, you travel with a few electronic gadgets, I’d recommend having a few spare ones.
For example, if you have an iPad AND an iPhone, have at least 2 charging cables. Or, if you travel with an android phone and another gadget like a Kindle e-reader, make sure you pack 2 USB to Micro-USB cables, etc.
Mine comes from the good folks at Xiaomi, who are trying to sell Westerners on good quality accessories prior to launching their Android phones in the West. I love this sleek-looking external battery, but if I had to pick another one, I would probably invest in a solid one from Anker.
For backing up my laptop regularly, and storing tons of movies, tv shows, comics and more, while traveling around the world! I love how sexy this thing looks!
[caption id=“attachment_2576” align=“alignnone” width=“3024”] Ready to hit the road, with 2 bags for 9 months![/caption]
I think it’s fair to say that some of these are pretty straightforward. However, when I was planning on my own, it was easy to forget about certain things. For example, when I arrived in Australia, I realized that I needed to buy an extra adapter. Or, more recently, a sleeping mask. These are just small things that are essential the more I travel, to make sure I can optimize my experience abroad with the least amount of friction.
Now, do I need every single item on this list? Probably not. However, having it available at hand with me when I travel makes my experience of going around the world a much easier one.
Think I forgot something? Want to add something that I should check out before I hit the road again? Let me know what are YOUR travel essentials!
I'm not a fan of War movies. I think I've overdosed on too many movies and tv shows (anyone remembers Band of Brothers?) at an early age.
But with such high acclaim from critics and audiences alike, it was hard to resist Christopher Nolan’s latest offering.
I’ll say this about Dunkirk: it definitely has the Nolan touch. The gorgeous cinematography, the music, the intensity and thrill of being unsure which way the storylines are going and how the different paths are intertwined with one another.
It’s not a movie or a story that necessary appeals to me, from the start. But it executed and directed so beautifully that I let myself be captured by those characters and their journeys as they try to get out of Dunkirk (“Dunkerque” in my native language.)
I would add that I was lucky enough to watch this movie for an empty mid-week afternoon screening, in IMAX 4DX. However, unlike my screening experience, while the extra sensory experience was intact, I felt even more immersed because the film itself was in beautiful 2D, with no motion play onscreen. The image was crisp as could be, and worked incredibly well with this motion picture.
Following up on my Shanghai mix, I’ve published a new mix last week, a little bit more dynamic and definitely on a sexier vibe. All this inspiration came from traveling around Shanghai, Seoul, Jeju Island, Busan, and lately Sydney & Melbourne too!
Sydney was very interesting, it was my first time back surrounded by westernised white people, after Dubai, Shanghai, and Seoul. But I quickly found my marks: it’s a big enough city that there are distinct interesting neighbourhoods and activities all year round, but it’s still small enough that you can easily walk everywhere. In my case, that meant long walks at different times of days and night.
I was lucky enough to catch up with two different friends from Brighton: Charlotte, back from University, and then James and his girlfriend Lauren. I used to work with James for about two years, back when I was at Realmac Software. It was really great to catch up with these great humans!
And in addition, spending 10 days in Sydney gave me some good time to get back to being productive and work for my clients a bit more than when I was in Korea. Glad to be back on tracks!
I’m going to keep it at that for now, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed these new vlogs. I’ve got loads more to share, but I’ll save this for next time!
This mix was way overdue. I had a lot of time on my hands back in Shanghai and I had started working on a new mix. However, time caught up with me, and by the time I got to South Korea, and later Australia, finally mixing this together had slipped off my mind.
So without further adue, here’s a quick mix of songs that accompanied me during my trip to the Chinese Metropolis.
After our holidays in Korea, Shana left to go back to the US. On my end, I had an extra week in the country, so I decided to visit Busan for the weekend. You can watch the latest vlog below:
Busan is a charming city located as far down south as you can get. It’s famous for its fish market, its harbour, and its film festival. Oh, and let’s not forget Gamcheon, a small colourful village that will bring back to mind the Cinque Terre in Italy.
Overall, it’s been a great trip, albeit a short one. But just a few days later, I would fly to Australia, for a month!
Before I get started, I just wanted to remind you that I’m doing a digital catch-up and Q&A on Periscope on Monday (tomorrow).
I’ll be online at http://periscope.tv/itibz – all you have to do is come on there to watch, or signup/login to be a part of the Chat, say hi, or ask any question about my work or this trip around the world!
As I’m writing this update, I am in the train back from Busan, in the south-eastern coast of South Korea, all the way down.
Traveling to/from Seoul is easy thanks to a really convenient and fast train system. Taking this trip all the way to the other side of the country takes only two and a half hours.
Busan is the second biggest city in the country, and know for being a big fishing town as well as hosting a popular international film festival.
[caption id=“attachment_2958” align=“alignnone” width=“1965”] Jeanne Moreau, in 2001[/caption]
I’ve tried the local fish cakes, traditional delicacies that the city is known for, and I’ve also gone to a street food market located around the BIFF Square (Busan International Film Festival).
I also visited the gorgeous Gamcheon Culture Village, a small village overlooking the sea, on a hill, with very colorful little houses. You’d almost junk you were visiting the Cinque Terre in Italy.
Finally, Shana happened to have a friend visiting the Busan area too, and we ended up spending one evening together, having dinner and discovering the boardwalk and beachside by night.
All in all, it was a short-but-sweet trip to Busan!
Earlier this week, I went to watch the brand new Wonder Woman movie. Except rather than go to the nearest theatre I could find, I saw that Seoul hosts one of the best and biggest screens in the world —apparently it was also manufactured inFrance, but I digress.
In addition, something else triggered my curiosity : a showing of the film in “4DX” — something I had vaguely heard about before.
So what is 4DX? The future of blockbuster movie entertainment.
The 4DX experience starts with bigger, larger seats, and a 3D movie. Where it goes beyond however, is that the seat tilts, depending on the action of the movie. When the camera hovers above a big landscape, your seats kind of rocks along, looking down. Or if someone jumps off a cliff, your seat gets inclined, just as if you were jumping with them.
There is also wind blowing in your face at certain specific moments (in my case, the camera was facing the barrel of a gun, and when the protagonist fired, air was blown straight in my face, I could almost feel that bullet being fired), or gentle breeze on my legs, when the camera goes around a more natural landscape.
And when a big explosion occurs on-screen, additional strobe lights on the side of the screen start flashing in your face.
The point I’m trying to make, of course, is that 4DX ishugely immersive, and is not an experience that you can replicate at home.
Coming out of that screening, it feels to me that the future of blockbuster entertainment lies in real experiences, whether a movie theatre that lets you order food & drinks, or that offers a new level of immersion in the story and its action.
It jostles your seat, which is larger and more like something you might buy at Brookstone than your typical movie theater seat, and sends you bumping along as Vin Diesel and his Furious co-stars race through the streets of various global metropolises. When the camera tilts, the seats often tilt with it, and an early set of shots of the blue ocean waves is accompanied by a gentle rocking motion that made me a little sleepy.
Every so often, little puffs of air burst by your face to accentuate, say, gunfire or a big explosion. On your 4DX armrest, there’s an option to “turn water off,” but Fate of the Furious is not an especially wet movie, so I did not get sprayed once. But other effects are also possible: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director James Gunn has promised “snow and bubbles” for his film when screened in 4DX.
All of this is meant to draw viewers into the movie, by making them feel like part of the action. The Fate of the Furious is a junky enough film that I didn’t mind bouncing around like I was on a Tilt-a-Whirl, but for my first viewing of the movie, I found the whole experience a little distracting. If it had been a better movie — like many of its predecessors — I might have been actively annoyed at having the experience interrupted by my seat suddenly trying to make an escape (or maybe if it were better, I would have been even more drawn in). But I also can’t deny that the whole experience is fun. I just don’t know if I’d want to do it more than a couple of times.
My only gripe with the 4DX experience, is that it’s meant for Blockbusters, but having to grip your seat during big action set pieces was a bit distracting. During Wonder Woman’s last act, there were a few times when I wished they could have toned down the movements a little. If only so that I could focus on the movie, and not on the prospect of seeing my popcorn fall out of its box.
But I really do hope to treat myself to more 4DX movie screenings in the future!
Oh, and Wonder Woman, the movie itself? It’s great! Go see it!
If you’ve been using this as your password manager (and you really should), you know that it can be scary to travel and think about what would happen if your device got lost or stolen. Now, you can choose a specific vault, for example your Work Vault, and activate Travel Mode, and the passwords will be removed (temporarily) from your device(s) until you deactivate Travel Mode.
Here’s what Apple obviously — obviously — should do:
(…)
In other words, this should all work as it does on iOS. The Apple Music app on macOS would be the same as the “Music” app on iOS (which is also confusing given it has the same logo/branding as iTunes on macOS).
Apple really needs to find a way to unbundle iTunes into more manageable pieces of software. There is no reason why our Macs still come bundled with that huge, sluggish and clunky piece of software.
Ready to hit the road, with 2 bags for 9 months![/caption]
Jeanne Moreau, in 2001[/caption]