Releasing Rough Notes!

As it's starting to dawn on me that it will most likely take me over five years to finish organising my travel stories to post, I've decided to give people an advanced preview, for my family and friends who are interested to see what I've been up to. I am releasing my raw, unedited notes (with some contact details blanked out) from my journeys!

Some of these notes (especially the ones from earlier trips) are somewhat cryptic, but gives you a sense of what I've done. My later notes are much more detailed.

I'm going to start putting all my transcribed notes up here starting from the earliest notes I have to the latest, organised by trip, so keep an eye on this spot!

An additional reason that, and the reason that got me to think about putting up my rough transcribed notes, is that I want a way to prevent me from losing my notes, either by losing hardware or getting a hacked account. Hopefully, the Internet archive sites will craw the text from these posts, and I'll have a nearly un-loseable copy of my notes.

In any case, enjoy! I look forward to the day when all my travel notes are finally posted!

Here they are:
http://mandarinmamarktravelnotes.blogspot.com

Update: Completed notes for post-New Zealand trip.

Just finished my handwritten notes about my New Zealand to San Francisco trip. After typing these notes up, I'll be back to updating this blog again. It wasn't easy, but I now have a cool hand-written journal for this 116 day long trip, and filled up over 160 pages!

I look forward to sharing my stories with everyone soon! There are some interesting stories from this trip I can't wait to share, such as:

- Getting reported and questioned about smuggling something out of North Korea.

- Hitchhiking in areas with rebel attacks within the past couple of decades.

- Being involved in a road accident in Laos and having to take bloodied people with broken bones and twisted limbs going into shock to a clinic.

- Getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and being invited to sleep in the tribe of some kids I befriended on the side of the road using my terrible French and charade skills, and finding out I was the first outsider visitor the kids had met.

- Visiting areas recently devastated by a tsumani and feeling the impact it had on the community.

- Hanging out and drinking kava from bowls made from old fishing floats with locals while their kids slept on straw mats beside us.

- Riding a bicycle through downpours through jungle roads with ancient ruins all around.

- Swimming over a dark bottomless hole to gurgling sounds in a cave filled with the clearest water I have ever seen.

... so many memories, and I've barely scratched the surface!