Blog on un~

Music is walking?

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 15:43:18 +0100

Why are we musical? I mean why are we even to hold a tempo in music in a robotic way? I had some showerthoughts on this.

Let’s assume that our human cognition developed under the adaptive stress of covering vast distances of savannah-like landscapes. We became bipedal and faced the challenges of navigating complex terrain. Strength alone didn’t help us. We had to develop mental capabilities to overcome these challenges. Our subconcious takes over this activity of walking. Left. Right. Left. Right. When I look at the strong drive of toddlers to begin walking I can’t help but think that this informs our whole being in ways I often underestimate. Is that why we are highly rhythmical?

helloworld("print")

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 23:38:02 +0100

Nerdsniped by aarols meme HelloWorld(“print”) I had to try to do this in Lua and without debug.info.

I thought about the __call metamethod at first but then realized that I had to use __index:

setmetatable(_G, {
 __index = function(t, k)
 return function(target_func_name, ...)
 local func = _G[target_func_name]
 if type(func) == "function" then
 return func(k, ...)
 end
 end
 end
})


HelloWorld("print")

x4

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 19:48:24 +0100

Having fun with the tiny(about the size of a zine) xteink x4 eink e-reader. Would love to have RSS support for crosspoint.

The craft of interfaces

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 08:15:57 +0000

Currently I am reading 100 Go Mistakes and I like it. One of my personal pet peeves is the ‘interface on the producer side’. It’s a sure way to spot a programmer who is new to Go. And that makes me think again on how to mentor new Go programmers. I remember myself struggling with that when starting out. Today most of the idiomatic Go is widely documented and newbies still struggle with that.

Should the language itself enforce these ‘mistakes’? Some can be enforced by linters but not all. And even with the ‘interface on the producer side’ mistake there are exceptions where it could make sense to share an interface between consumers and maybe even put it on the producer side. That’s the ‘art’ of the craft. I got asked once by a developer coming from .NET: “Why are these idiomatic rules not written down somewhere?”. I guess because it’s kind of an oral tradition. Similar to the (horribly named) ‘code smells’. It’s a taste imprinted by practice and reading lots of ‘good’ Go code.

When working with AI I try to provide unit tests and interfaces before I let it generate the actual function. I saw too much one-shot code that was not testable and horribly un-idiomatic. The interface and the unit test act as the spec and help me get what I want out of the LLM. I still care about code quality so that might just be me.

154 Legacy

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 19:22:58 +0100

For various reason I have been thinking a lot about legacy and documentation. I have for example quite a lot of notes on my families genealogy and I would like to make them available to my family at one point. And what happens with all those digital photos? How do others manage this? Do you have a dedicated backup/document platform?

Chat Jimmy

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 15:44:12 +0000

I have been doing lots of coding with different models over the last weeks. Waiting is probably the biggest annoyance downside to developer productivity at the moment. But this seems to change. I just found Chat Jimmy and it’s is crazy fast.

YAML is bad whats the alternative

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:00:00 +0000

YAML […] human-friendly […]

May I disagree?

Too Vertical

I can’t grok a YAML that is longer than it is wide.

Also vice-versa.

Tippy Taps or just Tap

Why does your format make me press shift-tab key so often? That’s way too many chorded taps.

Lists are not listening

Finally a list. Do we indent or don’t we? The equivalent to inserting a USB-A stick. Oh no, why does it look that way?

Looks are everything

Let’s not fool ourselves.

Is it sinful to yaml?

P1: God is in the details. P2: All details are made by humans. P3: YAML is made by humans. P4: Any Gods except the one true God are demonic. C: Somewhere in this YAML file here is a bezelbub to be found.

Why won’t it stop

We dug too deep and too greedily in the mines of go-k8s and now for the next 25 years we will have the to pay the price.

What then?

hedge knights sleep under the stars

I propose hedge:

# COMPONENT DEFINITION
Component Deployment
Name nginx-layout
Zone production
# LAYOUT & SCALING
Replicas 3
Strategy RollingUpdate
# VISUALS (METADATA)
Labels
App nginx
Tier frontend
# CONTENT (CONTAINERS)
# The schema knows 'Container' starts a list item
Container nginx-main
Image nginx:1.21
Port 80
CPU 500m
Container sidecar-logger
Image fluentd
Role logging

Structs as mutable interfaces in Go

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:01:56 +0000

This is one of my favorite and underrated patterns in Go.

Let’s assume a format based on Lua tables, let’s just call it LTRN (Lua Table Resource Notation) and I was imagining a mock value generator for that format.

Now is the perfect time to use a struct of function types!

Imagine we have a simple spec for a property in our imaginary resource:

type LtnSpec struct {
 Type string // "string", "int", "bool", "table"
 Default any
}

Now we want to generate mock data for that primitive types:

func generate(s LtnSpec, generator Generator) any {
 switch s.Type {
 case "string":
 return generator.String(10)
 case "int":
 return generator.Number(0, 100)
 case "bool":
 return generator.Bool()
 }
 return nil
}

The generator would be a concrete struct that contains functions that we can swap as we like. We need a seam to insert our mock data during testing. Injecting a struct of functions makes this code easily testable.

Why, oh why, is this not an interface, I hear you ask? My argument here is that fill is an un-exported function. It won’t be used by 3rd party developers.

Let us take a look at how the struct looks:

type randStringFunc func(length int) string
type randNumberFunc func(min, max int) int
type randBoolFunc func() bool

type Generator struct {
 String randStringFunc
 Number randNumberFunc
 Bool randBoolFunc
}

This is very flexible for low state structs that you want to heavily test. Ideally it would not have any fields at all. (Please don’t store your db connection in the generator!)

Back to my argument: The advantage of using a struct over an interface. When we implement the interface for a test mock we have to implement every single function even though we might only need one of them for the particular test. For large interfaces, this sucks! Add that to the reasons why large interfaces are generally discouraged and not idiomatic Go.

With a struct with function types we can provide only the functions that we actually need. To be honest, function types are reference types. But for our purpose we can think of them as pointers. They can be nil! This saves us from writing a lot of unnecessary code in our tests. (don’t forget to check you nils or you might run into panic)

func main() {
 fixedStringGenerator := Generator{
 String: func(length int) string {
 return "TESTSTRING"
 },
 }
 x := generate(LtnSpec{Type: "string"}, fixedStringGenerator)
 fmt.Println(x.(string))
}

My heuristic:

Standard Interfaces are for defining API Contracts (what a library provides)
Structs of Functions are for defining operational dependencies (what a library needs internally to work).

It is clean, easy to read and also fast to write.

What do you think? Would you prefer an interface or maybe just hardwire the functions without injection? Let me know!

Reading while listening

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000

From time to time I catch myself listening to a podcast and also reading a book at the same time. It’s not a good habit because I probably won’t get into either. It’s easier when it’s a both in english. If one is my native language then I do get tripped up.

I wrote about last liminal year and the effects it had on me. I did not mention self-respect. I think engaging in behavior of disrespect towards yourself or in this case disrespecting the attention is in the context of virtue ethics a profound immoral act . This aligns with my feeling when I catch myself engaging in the aforementioned multimedial overload. The feeling itself might be thought pattern stemming from early childhood and parental amplification but I think it rings true on an intellectual level as well.

I do think self-respect leads to happiness and have seen the fruits of that every time I stay true to it. And on the flip side I can see the decrease in happiness when I have engaged in less self-respecting activities. That goes against a grain of maybe a fundamental part of my psyche. An aspect probably best described by Freud’s Autothanatos or the drive to regressively search for self-destruction. That might be an oversimplified model but it at least begins to shed a light on these dark corners and pulls them into the light to be examined and scrutinized without it becoming a criticism of my own character. And I don’t think it is universal.

Other people might see this behavior in themselves and not feel it to be disrespecting. So it might be a highly subjective valuation. But my valuation for myself is now clearer. It’s just something I have to deal with to be happy. It should be part of my psychological hygiene. Like brushing teeth. It should just be part of my life to keep media consumption separated.

I think of Glen Gould’s eccentricities when I catch myself reading and listening. He famously left the vacuum running while playing the piano.

This text is not really about reading or listening. I chose it as a digestible example because it might be a harmless self disrespecting behavior.

Is Markdown still it

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 21:51:21 +0100

I have been using Markdown for over a decade in all kinds of projects and also for note-taking. It’s far from being niche anymore in software development and computing circles. I do forget image and link syntax often but since I use wikilinks in most of my notes that’s not a big problem.

Still, I feel we come to end of the Markdown-era. Let’s try to collect some requirements or a wishlist for “Markdown2”:

Stay close to plain plaintext: We want to keep it light on the clutter so that the cruft doesn’t obscure reading the actual text of the file even when you don’t have a render at hand.
Extensions instead of flavors: Having to remember quirks of Markdown flavors leads to all kinds of issues. Could we just have a ‘base’ markdown2 and then have extensions?
Frontmatter is ugly. Metadata the first thing you pop into your eye is distracting and ugly. I don’t have a solution here. Sidecars and metadata DBs seem too decoupled and will get forgotten when copied. Maybe just keep metadata out of text files all together?

What are you missing? Is orgdown or ge mtext the answer?

Scheduling Pitfalls

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 15:37:05 +0100

I have been thinking about time again. More in terms of programming practices and less as in technical scheduling. This is just a point I try to remember when working on scheduling related problems. That being said: engineering reality often forces you make tradeoffs of course.

Moments slip by

In logical time we are starting from identity: We can tell points in time (also called moments) apart from another by them being distinct. M1 has an unique identity and M2 has an unique identity. These moments are different from each other. This ontology is not just philosophically relevant but gives us great power to create machines to perform work at certain moments. I would argue that logical moments are also persistent in state. A crontab file is not going to change unless you change it. Logical time is always discrete but two moments might have a relationship to each other.

Chronological time is a lot more analog, dynamic and “fuzzy”. A moment in chronological time is an observation of a stream. A sample if you will of a continuous function. The stream is continuous but the observer is discrete.

I should remember: A lot of problems arise when dealing with chronological time from logical time and vice versa.

Category error: Time as approximated state

Time in a sequential procedure is a most always the worst indicator for a state change.

put pasta water on stove -> wait 5 minutes -> put in pasta

Obviously the pasta water might not be boiling after 5 minutes(stove might be turned too low or even off). The correct way would be to verify the state by looking at data or features. The water is bubbling and steaming? Or a thermometer shows actual degrees? We often combine time and state checking in polling to wait and check. But a blind timer is almost always the wrong answer. Timeouts are a special term for blind timers. State relations triggered by timeouts depend on chronological time and can be helpful as a last resort. But think about this: Would you add a “just-in-case” clause to a while loop just because you are afraid about it not terminating?

Don’t use time as a scapegoat for unsharp thinking or being lazy: If the e2e test runs more than 5 minutes it might be safe to assume “something” has timed out and therefor we can time out the whole test? No, I should at least make sure that the systems and environment is handled.

Liminal Year

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 17:41:14 +0100

2025: the liminal year. Inside of a Zwischenzustand, a chapter already finished a new one not yet started. My round-the-world trip. New experiences. Meeting most interesting people and moments of deep self examination.

My moral compass realigned to a hard north and resuming the search for honesty with my self. Eventually coming back to generous leniency as the maxim of my interactions with others. The dialectic has dominated my personal thoughts in most of 2025. It’s not easy to always hold on to both leniency and honesty when exhausted from rough nights traveling.

Saying no the wrong things is the first step of saying yes to the right things. Do I trust my gut? And Taste. Taste is my reflective intuition in application of internal honesty. So I try to hone my taste.

Of course plenty of missteps happened and will continue to happen. It is now clear to me that honesty as the foundation is oftentimes obscured by the typical hedonistic pleasure and comforts. But those come with an internal dissonance that made me deviate from my values. But I see the source again. It feels authentic to be in touch with my honesty again and can’t wait to see how it will evolve. I hope to stay in touch into the next year which will be filled with lots of new challenges.

Technology of 2025

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 16:43:12 +0100

A couple of words about gear and technology I used this year. This isn’t a top 10 list of things I liked, but just a few thoughts about artifacts that resonated with me in one way or another.

Smartphones

This might seem counterintuitive. I know that these days everyone wants to “be more offline” or “stop doomscrolling”. But in my travels and in my daily life, this is such an invaluable tool. Navigating and finding accommodation, having basically infinite entertainment while waiting 6 hours in an airport for your connecting flight, staying in touch with friends and family, getting information about a place, taking pictures or recording sounds etc. It is convenient as heck while traveling. Don’t get me wrong: I do think the current state of enshittified iOS and Android is awful. And planned obsolescence of the hardware is even worse. I hope we do better in the future. But don’t get it twisted: miniaturized all-purpose computers with all kinds of sensors and interfaces that fit in our pockets are an absolutely great thing.

AWK

I tried to use AWK a lot more and really get a feel for the language. Reading the book helped a ton. I already had tons of applications for it. It feels to me like a real boost to my shell fu.

Obsidian

This is still one of my absolute favorite tools for note-taking. Linking thoughts and notes is very much how I think. It’s also a real good WYSIWYG Markdown editor. The abundant ecosystem provides high quality plugins, and you can customize your vault into oblivion. I did set up a couple of global shortcuts like CMD/CTRL+Shift+B to open a quick note. I also used it for writing my blog posts. The browser extension is awesome to save quotes from pages. All in all - I wish this was around when I was studying in university. It is such a great tool. And even if one day I get tired of Obsidian itself: it’s just markdown and I could port it to vimwiki, Org Mode or Zed easily.

Speaking of …

Zed

This one is a bit more nuanced. I tried this code editor late in 2024 and loved it immediately. It’s superfast and felt just right. I used VSCode and Vim before, but I always felt that VSCode was slow, especially when used with lots of plugins. And Vim/NeoVim has problems with some systems clipboards when run in the terminal. I still use vim for shorter editing of code almost every day. But for bigger projects I began to use Zed heavily in the first half of 2025. I ran in a lot of issues this last half year with Zed and at this point I am looking for an alternative. Issues I experienced were related to the Agentic/AI Integrations, the Git integration and sometimes even with saving files to different file systems or symlinked files. Maybe I just need a fresh install, but it seems that this editor is struggling a little bit.

Steam Deck

Kind of late to the party, I bought this around September 2025. There has only been a couple of days since then where I did not use it. What else is there to say that hasn’t been said already? It’s a great linux based handheld.

Circuit Tracks

It’s just such a great and intuitive little portable groovebox. Can’t wait to use it for a gig. Thinking about getting the Rhythm as well.

Travelers Notebook

I have yet to use it at work but I really like the refillable notebooks from Travelers Company.

Codeberg

Similar to Zed: I am not sure If I will stay on CB or if I will finally move away from it. It works great as a Githoster, but my experience with the workflows has been hit-and-miss. I might need to set up my own runner. I am not sure. I also should take a look at setting up my own instance of forgejo.

Bambu Lab A1 Mini

It might be a toy but oh boy it’s a really enjoyable toy. Be it risers, stands, knock boxes, housing for synths, cookie cutters, Christmas decorations and so, so much more. My brain is now wired to see a physical problem and somehow find a way to use the 3D Printer to solve it. Yeah, yeah, I know, everything looks like a nail.

Trains

Trains are amazing.

That’s it for now! What did you enjoy in 2025?

Happy Holidays 2025

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 11:50:17 +0000

I wish everyone a couple of good days!

My first 3D printing model

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 12:44:00 +0000

I noticed my vacbot struggling with the height of my sofa and bumping into the side or getting caught underneath it. I decided to fix it using 3D printing.

I am still new to my A1 mini and even though I worked for a CAD-related software company for a while I actually don’t have a lot of experience creating parts. I heard good things about fusion and after reading a little bit and watching some tutorials I started to design my part.

It is a very basic height extender. A cylinder with a rectangular cut-out as a slot in the dimensions of the sofa foot.

I iterated over the design. Each time using the low 10% lightning type infill and a 0.20 mm layer height preset to speed up printing of these prototypes. My first attempt would have used way too much filament because the cylinder’s diameter surrounding the slot was way too big. Since I am such a 3D printing newbie, I could only appreciate these problems once the prototypes were printed. At least the slot fit perfectly from the start. When I got the diameter down to a more reasonable size, I finally used the fillet tool to round off the top to save on material and because I thought it looked cool.

Then it was time to slice: I was unsure what kind of infill to take so it could bear the load of the sofa and 1 to 2 people. I went for the triangle and 40% infill, which seemed a pretty good tradeoff between printing time and sturdiness. I printed two Sofadisks on a plate with the ‘by-object’ setting and used the auto-arrangement to make sure that the tools path between those two Sofadisks don’t intersect. I also added a brim because I wanted to have the best first layer adhesion possible.

And it worked great! The Sofadisk was a fun and easy afternoon project. From idea over prototypes that could be printed in 30 minutes to the final print in 3 hours.

Let’s see how it holds up or if I need to print it again with higher infill percentage.

Stationary

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 20:46:19 +0200

All signs are pointing into the direction that my long term travel seems to be coming to an end. I am giddy as I’m getting to the point where I can finally unpack all my collected goodies in the new apartment. What makes me especially happy are the notebooks from travelers factory and the leather keychain holders I found in Thailand. I still need a lot of time to furnish the apartment. But today I put down my first rug, and it really tied the room together.

I am sure my travels will continue but now in a more interlaced pattern between different obligations here. The default feed of the blog will be linking not just to travel in the future as I want to write about other topics as well. Life is still filled a lot of question marks at this point, but I am happy to have a place again.

Moving to Codeberg

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 02:25:16 +0000

I moved most of my repos away from GitHub. Forks that were used for contributions will stay on GitHub. Some repos emptied and now only contain a README.md with a link to the new location.

I also took a look at sourcehut but in the end decided for codeberg.org . I really like the idea of my open source code being hosted on a platform run by a non-profit organization. Codeberg is a German e.V. and well funded is also inspiring confidence in the project.

The move was a great moment to take inventory of all the little repositories I have over the years on GitHub. I found a lot of one-off projects and tiny little tools. I decided to merge a big chunk of the repositories into mainly two monorepos(belt and labs ).

git filter-repo --to-subdirectory-filter and git remotes were incredibly helpful to sort this out. I am not sure if I will continue using git lfs because it creates many problems. I might put the images on a storage and copy them directly from the store to my VPS.

All in all I am happy with my decision to move and Codeberg is very stable and usable.

The Sambas are waiting

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 18:50:42 +0200

My trusty Sambas. They have been with me since the start of the year and they have been once around the globe. They sure are starting to show signs of aging. But I usually wear my sambas until they fall apart. Where will they go next?

Europe on the edge

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 11:31:23 +0200

Having been back in Western Europe a couple of weeks now. I want to write down a couple of situations while these impressions are still fresh.

An elderly driver shouting overly angrily “do you have a death wish?” to a lady on a bike in Germany who overtook him while he was maneuvering into a tiny parking space.
A disheveled looking person clearly in psychological distress shouting curses at passengers waiting for the train to arrive. (Happened on more than one occasion and in different countries)
A cashier asking a homeless guy not to lean on the checkout conveyor belt because “that’s where people put their produce”. I did the same and leaned on the belt. She didn’t call me out. When it was my turn to pay she said: “I am sorry but I can’t change it.”
A group of drunk football/soccer fans harassing people on a metro.
People often in groups not making way on the sidewalk when you walk into them head on.(Happened on more than one occasion)
A young driver of a van shouting expletives for 5 minutes at jaywalkers that rushed over a red light in London. Finally driving off tires screeching.

Thames Barrier

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 16:04:57 +0200

After a couple of very interesting days in London I took the plane from LCY. The view from the small BA Embraer plane departing the tiny airport was breathtaking. I enjoy these daytime flights. I could even see the Thames Barrier and it’s massive gates. As always, I’m fascinated by the UK and London in particular and can’t wait to come back soon and explore more. There is still so much to see.

Eurostar

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 15:04:15 +0100

It must have been 20 years or more, but I finally got the opportunity to take the Eurostar from Brussels to London again. The two hours were over quick. The seats were comfortable, and the ride was smooth. I couldn’t think of a better way of traveling to London. The Wi-Fi was spotty at best. Even parked in Gare du Midi.

Anyway, I would love to see a train from the south of Germany to London without a change in Paris. The prices could be better too. Most of the time, flying in Europe is cheaper than taking a bullet train. If you have direct connection, the train beats airplane in terms of travel time and comfort by a lot. I can’t wait to see how the European rail system evolves.

Yoko Tsuno

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 18:14:24 +0200

Brussels

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 07:07:05 +0200

I decided to go to Brussels next. I have a personal connection to this city. I am glad to see the city center pedestrianized. It’s august, and it is absolutely filled with tourists. The sun shines. It is warm but not hot. The beer is refreshing, and the Kip Curry is delicious as always. I’m having the time of my life exploring the city of my youth.

Heimaturlaub

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 05:52:16 +0200

The journey back to Germany was smooth. In two 6 hours flights I downloaded and watched bike farmer videos and finished The Armour of Light . I seem to read a lot more on planes and trains than I do when I am stationary.

The weather is a nice 20 degree here. I went to Europe without knowing when I actually can move into the apartment. I have plenty to do here including signing the contract with the coop for the apartment. Then I will be off again (somewhere!?) until it is time to get the keys!

Dreamliner

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 16:31:12 +0700

It’s going back to Europe!

Last Days in Bangkok

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:23:05 +0700

I have had a great time here in Bangkok. And in Asia for that matter. Only a couple of days are left now before I return to Europe. Lots of open questions for the near future: when is my new apartment going to be ready? What kind of job will I find? Whatever will happen, will happen. I already got the ball rolling on most issues. I try not to obsess too much and enjoy my last days in Siam.

Thailand has been one of the friendliest and easiest countries to travel. The people are amazing and the infrastructure pretty good. It is easy to get around. I arrived with my usual anxieties, but was comfortable here. I understand that Thailand is praised for being a good ‘first travel’ country, and now I know why. Did I stay a little too long here in Bangkok? Yes, probably. But it was soothing for the soul, and there was a lot to see and do. I tend to fall into ruts even when traveling, and I had to shake myself out of them a couple of times here because I got a little too comfortable. But most of the pleasure of travel in Southeast Asia is just being here. Call it immersion, experience or whatever you like, but taking your time and not rushing from tourist destination to tourist destination was interesting to me. Just being somewhere is sometimes enough.

On most days I catch myself thinking about Japan. Japan has changed me and has become somewhat of a standard for comparisons. Seeing all the Japanese influence here in Bangkok amplifies my longing to go back to Japan. We will see when that could be possible again.

Between elephant pants, gashapon and other souvenirs, my luggage grew to quite a respectable size. I had to buy an additional bag (decathlon to the rescue) in order to transport it all. Let’s hope everything fits.

Ayutthaya

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 21:30:07 +0700

Golden Mountain

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 10:19:10 +0000

Today was a tourist day! After enjoying the masked dance in the royal theatre I made my way up the Golden Mountain Wat Saket Ratchawora Mahawihan. It is 344 small steps (probably not DIN 18065) to the top where a golden Pagoda crowns the artificial mountain.

Along the way there are lots of interesting corners and tidbits of information sprinkled throughout. Many many buddha statues but also interesting information about the vultures that lived here in the 19th century during cholera times. The view from the top is worth the 100THB entrance fee alone.

Khim

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 14:49:55 +0700

Coffee at Kinokuniya

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 20:23:36 +0700

Laundry Day

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:49:42 +0700

Being on the road this long lends itself to a certain rhythm. Not every hostel or hotel has a laundry service or some of them charge outrageous per-piece prices I am not willing to pay. Usually there is a full service laundry shop nearby wherein the workers will wash, dry and fold all your laundry until the next day for a per kg price.I used many such shops in the Philippines and in Vietnam. Always very happy with the result and the easy access of them.

In rare cases I will do my laundry in a laundromat myself. Here in Silom I don’t really have any good laundry services nearby and even the closest self-service laundry is 10-minute walk. No problem: just jump on a grab bike or walk the short distance up to Decho Road.

In a small side street in the back houses is a glorious laundromat. The machines are quick and easy to operate with signage being clear and in English. You buy your detergent from a vending machine on the wall for a mere 5THB. You then spend 60THB for the washing cycle and 50THB for the drier. I won’t put some shirts in the drier in risk of shrinking them to doll sizes.

The wash takes 25 minutes. Just enough time to go around the corner and enjoy a nice hot bowl of duck noodles and have a short chat with the duck noodle lady who speaks English very well. Then back to the laundry and change my clothes from the washer to the drier. Another 28 minutes to go I check out the assorted goods of the 7-11 around the corner. After cooling down inside and buying water, vitamin-c drink or to be honest any kind of snack I head back to the laundry a last time. I bundle up all my fresh clothes and head back to my accommodation.

I do this about once a week and usually am done in about 1.5 hours. Not as easy as having a washer and drier in the apartment with me, but I find it to be soothing activity that brings back a bit of structure into this current vagabond life of mine.

Sri Maha Mariamman Temple

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 06:55:37 +0000

Hungry I stumble down the Si Lom Road in search for food. I smell the familiar spices of south Indian cookery. I get lucky next to the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple. A huge Masala Dosa being brought to my temple. Filled with lots of potatoes. I revel in memories of my trip down to Bengaluru a couple of years ago. Sweat running down my back. The heat of the chilis combines with the unrelenting humidity of rainy season.

Silom Sathorn

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:44:04 +0700

This area is probably my favorite. Vendors sell prepared food in bento boxes or cups. Come noon workers from the nearby business towers swarm the street. Even then, you’ll find plenty of quiet backstreets. The locals seem relaxed and there is plenty to explore.

jo - JSON from key value pairs

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 08:28:00 +0000

Reading discussions on creating JSON on the command line gave me the idea to create my own small tool called jo.

You can find it in my belt repository on codeberg .

If you want to install using go:

go install codeberg.org/usysrc/belt/jo@latest

It takes a number of arguments in key=value format and generates json from it.

jo user=untilde

{
 "user": "untilde"
}

It also supports nested keys.

jo "users[untilde][url]=untilde.co"

{
 "users": {
 "untilde": {
 "url": "untilde.co"
 }
 }
}

If you pipe in some pairs you’ll get a mix of both.

echo "name=untilde" | jo "url=untilde.co" "status=hungry"

{
 "name": "untilde",
 "status": "hungry",
 "url": "untilde.co"
}

On the BTS

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:04:21 +0700

I am happy that I am staying close to the BTS. When I fancy to go somewhere I can just jump on the train. They are frequent, cool and cheap.

My Go CLI Tools

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 02:47:51 +0000

Working with the CLI is still one of the main modes of computation for me. My approach to scripts and tools on the command line has changed. Instead of writing complex ‘god’ shell scripts that try to cover all edge cases, I began to write a lot simpler scripts. Yes, they might not work in all situations, but reading and maintaining them is a lot easier for me.

Since working with Go is so comfortable to write, I started to write more and more CLI tools in it. I collect those tools in my belt repository on codeberg .

A couple of tools that are included currently:

├── hasenfetch
├── hex
├── jenv
├── jo
├── nibs
├── obs
├── pal
├── repo
├── serve
├── slow
├── ssl-expiry
├── timezone
├── urlencode
├── uuid
└── xls-format

I appreciate a lot of what Golang is doing, and some CLI tools are just thin CLI’s around a Go function. But Go is great for some more complex tools. Charm makes excellent libraries that I often use. Cobra is very useful when a tool grows to have more rich CLI options.

When writing a Go tool I still practice the approach that less code is better. I start with just a main.go and as the tool evolves I slowly refactor it into Cobra cmds or different files.

I also make extensive use of code agents to write and rewrite. Nonetheless, I like to think there is still a human touch in these tools. If anything, this is a great way to learn and improve.

I usually try my idea for a new tool and put it in my labs repo on codeberg . It then might graduate to belt if I use it for a while, and I get the impression of it being kind of well-rounded.

I can only recommend anyone to also create their own set of tools like this. It feels great to be able to add features when needed and there is a subjective boost to my capacity not only on the terminal but to my computing in general.

Sticker Update

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 07:45:04 +0000

The current state of the stickers on my 2023 M2 MacBook Pro after 6 months of travel.

Taking pictures while traveling light

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:17:43 +0000

I love taking pictures. I got some kind of Casio EXILIM EX around 2005 that I used extensively. Eventually I decided that I wanted a DSLR. Finally, in 2007 while visiting the US I had the opportunity to buy a Canon 400D with the kit lens from a small camera shop in Maryland for a reasonable price. I loved that camera so much. Only much later in 2018 I sold my Canon 400D and upgraded to a Canon 450D for the Live View mode. In recent times I tinkered with toy thermal print cameras and I enjoyed the dithered images and the immediacy of the prints.

I started my big trip in January this year. And by the time of writing it is now July. I wanted to feel as free as possible and wanted to travel with minimal luggage. One bag should be enough. I also didn’t want to bother syncing images every evening. I didn’t want to haul around a huge Camera. In fall of 2024 I sold my remaining Lenses and the 450D.

I’d gotten an iPhone 15 in 2023, and I found the camera to be quite ok. It is an expensive device so it ought to be expected, I guess? The years before I had used cheaper Motorola Moto G phones mostly. The cameras were not great but serviceable. Beside the whole vendor lock in: iOS has some things that I really don’t like and will probably exit the iPhone ecosystem once again when my current phone dies. But the pictures it takes are quite ok. Ok enough to be my main camera.

How is traveling with just a smartphone as your camera? Well, it is a lot more ‘point-and-shoot’. But between navigating foreign cities and trying to organize my travel I found it to be liberating. I see more and more people (young western tourists) with analog gear and disposable film cameras. I think it’s funny that while I am loving the freedom this multi-use rectangle in my pocket gives me other people have been going back to deconstructing and defuturing the smartphone device. Like the rise of dumbphones in recent years. We live in a time of parallel trends. Of streams that go into all kinds of directions at once. Some of it might be driven by nostalgia, but mostly it is driven by the choices we have.

Of course, there were moments that I wished for more control over my photography. But just taking my phone on this trip instead of a bulky camera gave me so much freedom and less to worry about. Sorting through and deleting pics directly my phone, on a train, on a plane, on a bus (if I don’t get motion sick, that is). Sharing a quick picture to friends and family through Signal. I still do some image ‘developing’ in darktable before posting them on the blog. Not only to remove the EXIF data but also to creatively work with the picture.

I still love photography and digital photography in particular. I am not done with dedicated picture taking devices. There might be a future where I go back to having a bigger camera. Especially full frame has been calling me for some time.

Eternal Soup, Ancient Noodles and Taxes

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 11:40:00 +0000

Only a five-minute walk through the blistering midday heat is a very interesting store that always garners quite a large line. I also decided to watch for a little while. But in the end didn’t want to wait 30 to 60 minutes in the scorching heat for a bowl of this soup. It is famous because it allegedly is the same continuous soup for 50 years. It is Sunday and the foreigner crowd here seems even bigger today. I might try them one day. But not today.

I finally wander off to a nearby mall to eat a some eternal noodles in a blissfully airconditioned room. Why they were called eternal was not revealed to me but they were darker than other noodles I had here so maybe these were made with whole grain? In any case, dining here was a great idea not only for my sensitive skin but also because the ancient noodles were delicious. The large number of locals confirmed my suspicion that this restaurant was not only cheap but also well regarded.

I feel the humidity rising while I walk home. Was that a drop?

While I sit on the balcony of my apartment I suddenly hear the sound of wind blowing very strong through the palms and the scaffolding of the nearby construction site. It begins to pour like I have never seen before. Best to get inside.

After all that hard work of eating, reading and watching YouTube I finally can do something I was looking forward to all weekend: my taxes. Thanks to Elster I am able to do these from Thailand no problem. I finally press submit on the tax form. No 10 seconds later the electricity stops working. A black-out. Well then, back to my book.

Boat Noodles

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 23:43:53 +0700

Visiting the Grand Palace in Bangkok

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:38:56 +0000

The palace is at a considerable distance from my hotel. I decided to walk anyway. It is required to wear long pants and sleeved shirts, so I was already drenched in sweat when I got there. You can buy and rent elephant pants for the duration of your visit from one of the many vendors outside the entrance. Well, at least I do know that now.

Speaking of entrance: we had to walk through a park, down through a subterranean foyer and through a gate to finally be able to buy the (quite expensive) entrance ticket to the palace. It is well worth it, don’t get me wrong. By the time we arrived in the foyer we were a big crowd of visitors, but the lines for the ticket sale moved quick.

It’s crowded everywhere. I take off my shoes to go into the palace temple. No photos allowed inside. It is full of people. I barely find a place to sit. Everyone seems respectful. Don’t point your feet at the Buddha. I stay for about 20 minutes observing the foreigners and locals praying.

I get why it is such a popular place. It felt very exotic : Symbols, figures, ornament, and gold everywhere.

After a couple of hours wandering around the palace grounds I went to buy some water and onto the next destination. Wat Pho. I posted a picture of Wat Pho or Wat Pho before. I might post even more pictures in the future. It has many aesthetically pleasing spots. The main attraction is the reclining Buddha. Yep, it is… big. In all honesty, I was even more impressed by the amount of shear Buddha statues here.

Full of these new impressions I decided to also walk back the 3 km to my hotel. It didn’t rain. A great day.

Added tag categories and filters

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 02:35:50 +0000

For a while I have been working on introducing ✨tags✨ to the blog.

I went through all posts and retroactively tagged all of them.

The design has also changed a little bit. The filters for the tags can be found on top and the list of last N posts has been removed. For now the blog link in the main menu directly links to the list of travel tagged blog posts.

Staying in Bangkok Thonglor

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 12:41:46 +0700

The last week I have been staying in Thonglor. It is supposed to be a hip neighborhood especially colored by the Japanese diaspora and the affluent upper class of Bangkok. The mix sounded intriguing enough to make me book here a room for a whole week. Even between prenatal yoga classes, Japanese Kindergartens or the Donki mall you can still find some pretty amazing Thai street food. 100THB for a milk tea at the luxury mall or 20THB for a milk tea in the street?

The room itself might be not the best. The walls are thin as paper and I heard things in the night I’d rather forget. But the Thai staff is superb as ever and the location is hard to beat. The washer/dryer combo in my apartment basically ran non-stop the first couple of days. The gym is well-equipped and the pool is pleasantly cool and uncrowded. I still love being in Southeast Asia, but it’s time for a change soon.

Merging Blogs

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 01:22:00 +0000

I merged usysrc.dev and untilde.co into one. Don’t be afraid if you see more and more technical posts popping up!

In an attempt to simplify my digital life I have decided to scrap my usysrc.dev blog and move the posts here. I recently moved this blog to a VPS on Netcup and don’t want to be responsible for DNS, two Caddy servers containers, and all the other shenanigans. I liked the design of usysrc.dev, but there was never a lot of content on the site or the blog to begin with. So it just made sense to move all of it here. To be honest I like untilde better as a name anyway. I will most likely continue to use usysrc as the name for some code related stuff in the foreseeable future.

Watches and good news

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Time is running out. I am now officially entering the last few months of my travel adventure. The good news arrived last week in the form of an E-Mail: My coop informed me that I won the housing lottery for the option on an apartment in Karlsruhe. The lease will start in September. That gives me ample time to conclude my travels as well as to prepare for my return to Germany.

Concerning the next weeks it’s probably sensible to stay in SEA for at least a little while longer. To keep my costs in check. I am still enjoying Bangkok. I explored many markets, temples, malls, small streets and parks over the last days. But it feels like my time to leave Bangkok comes soon. I am unsure where to go next. I did amass quite a bit of luggage over the last 2 months. One idea I had was to just store part of it here in Bangkok and go explore the north of Thailand. I am surprised that it’s such pleasant weather despite it being the rainy season.

Being prone to anxious thought patterns, I find that my planning always takes more energy than I anticipate. Counteracting that I tried to go into a new place with minimal to no information but that gets problematic real fast too. Being tired and stuck at an airport at 2am with no idea how to get to the accommodation is no fun too. When I land in a new place, it takes time for me to orient. I noticed that I am not as quick to adapt compared to some other travelers I met. Striking a balance between planning and “figure it out when I get there” is surprisingly challenging. Even after five months, I still make mistakes. I face challenging situations often: no clean shirt and no laundry in sight, the sink or bathroom is stinky or outright dirty, roaches saying hello, bad planning that leads to expensive refund of flight reservations, accidentally booking a room in a sketchy neighborhood or accidentally ordering food from questionable places. That is part of being a traveler, I guess. Even the best of planning doesn’t prevent mistakes. Stuff goes wrong, and I became used to it. Sometimes it’s my fault, sometimes it’s the circumstances. I learned to be ok with either and roll with the punches.

There’s less self-blame and less anxiety about it these days. I try to find a balance between planning and spontaneity. My new timeframe reset the focus, but I still embrace the slow-traveling mindset. I am never afraid that I could miss out on something. I can always come back to that specific country/region in the future for a dedicated visit. I am more relaxed and less stressed by smaller obstacles. If I compare myself now with me when I went to Santiago — I am way more laid-back and confident. In just a couple of months I developed a deep trust in my abilities to work through anything. I am so grateful to have this opportunity and the time to explore the world on my own terms. At the same time, I am looking forward to establishing a stable base in Karlsruhe in September.

Wat Pho

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 18:14:57 +0700

“Here no Ox can hide!”

Chatuchak Weekend Market

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:22:23 +0700

Time to do some tourist stuff in Bangkok! It took me a couple of hours to explore this famous market near the Mo Chit BTS station. It’s huge. You can get your usual cheap trinkets and souvenirs here but I was more interested in the section which had more handicrafts and local products. I bought a couple of things but not too much. The customized passport covers for around 100THB is a huge hit with us Farangs. I couldn’t resist to get one myself. This market is clearly aimed at tourists but feels very chill and you don’t get harassed by the vendors like in some parts of MBK Shopping Mall. There are also street food vendors everywhere. With a wonderful Pad Thai in my belly and a bag full of goodies I made my way back home.

How I blog in 2025

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0000

I want to take some time to describe the current technical process of blogging on untilde.co .

For me, it is important to be able to jot down ideas and posts as quickly as possible. I already use Obsidian for a number of different things. I do enjoy it for writing and editing. I even made and published a plugin for Obsidian . So I decided to house my blogs also in obsidian. This all evolved and continues to evolve in 2025.

A tale of two directories

I work with two significant directories:

My Obsidian Vault
Local Clone of the Hugo git repository

The Obsidian Vault

For better or for worse I have all my personal notes and the public blog content in the same Obsidian Vault. To not confuse posts with my private notes I have a special folder called public/ in my Obsidian Vault. The individual blogs live in a subdirectory here.

The Filetree in Obsidian:

+inbox/
 |-- a new personal note
notes/
 |-- an old personal note
attachments/
 |-- backpack.jpeg
public/
 |-- untilde/
 |-- 01 Knolling
 |-- 02 Packing
 ....
 |--- usysrc/
templates/
 |-- blogpost

Some blog posts are numbered so that they can be sorted or appear in order in various file explorers. I guess that this is probably not future-proof, and they should be ordered by publish date or something else in the future. The built-in Obsidian file explorer is relevant during writing and editing for me.

The template for the blog post is applied using the Templater plugin . I use template tags to populate the date into the frontmatter:

---
title: <% tp.file.title %>
draft: false
date: <% tp.file.creation_date("YYYY-MM-DD") %>
tags:
slug:
---
Your blogpost here

To build the site from the markdown content, I use Hugo with a custom theme that I made from scratch called ‘untilde’. I usually have a preview server running with hugo server -D -t untilde.

Commander is a great plugin to execute the scripts from my ribbon or the command palette in Obsidian. These are needed to sync my writing from the public/untilde folder to the local copy of my blog. I have two buttons: Sync and Publish.

Starting Hugo

I want to see my posts locally before I put them out there in the big scary internet. I usually pull up a new pane in Zellij and run:

hugo server -D -t untilde

This way I get to see all my posts even the ones that are still marked as draft. They appear very, very similar to how they would ‘in production’ and I typically do another round of proofreading here if I have the time and energy.

The Sync command

It executes a python script that lives in the repo of the blog. This script is the actual workhorse in this process. Essentially it copies files and transforms the markdown from Obsidian-style markdown to Hugo-style markdown. It changes the links, updates image embeds to the right path, optimizes the images and more. The length of the script grew a lot over time but since it is straight forward procedural code it’s easy to extend.

The Publish command

What it does:

changes the working directory to the local copy of my Hugo blog repo
creates a new git commit
push to the remote(s)

The GitHub action is triggered by pushes:

name: Deploy to Production
on:
 push:
 branches: [main]
jobs:
 prod-deploy:
 name: prod-deploy
 runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 steps:
 - name: get latest
 uses: actions/checkout@v2
 - name: Setup Hugo
 uses: peaceiris/actions-hugo@v3
 with:
 hugo-version: "0.139.4"
 - name: Build
 run: hugo --minify
 - name: sync files
 uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@4.3.0
 with:
 server: ${{ secrets.ftp_server }}
 username: ${{ secrets.ftp_user }}
 password: ${{ secrets.ftp_password }}
 local-dir: "public/"

When this is done our new or edited blogposts appear on the site.

I currently use echofeed to syndicate posts from my blog to mastodon. It runs every x minutes to check for new entries in the RSS of my site and then crafts a toot including the images from the post.

Is this a good approach?

I am happy that the .git folder is not blowing up my Obsidian Vault or the Vault metadata blowing up the git repo. But I am still not 100% sure that this is the best approach. There are many things that could certainly be improved about my ‘workflow’, but it… works, and it makes it super easy to publish something. I usually need a keyboard anyway to edit blog posts so it’s no problem that I am not able to publish something from a smartphone. Having all my writing in markdown files at least gives me the option to switch to a different process in the future.

Life without a home is easy / is hard

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 12:35:36 +0000

For some reason, I saw the trailer for City Slickers today: “For Mitch Robbins turning 39 wasn’t the end of the world. It just felt like it”. This was a movie that was shown on RTL all the time in the 90s. Can you believe Jack Palance won an Academy Award for his role in that movie? As corny as the movie is: Being 39 myself and having too much time on my hands, I also had some existential thoughts. Most relevant, the ‘where’ and ‘how’ of living in my near future. In the end of the movie, Mitch Robbin’s monomyth hero’s journey is completed as expected. My own travel journey is slowly, slowly coming to an end as well. The next steps have to be carefully considered.

I could make a home anywhere, sure. But it draws me back to the city in Germany that I have been living in since my 20s. Seeing so many possibilities out there, I realized that it’s not the worst place in the world. It has very good public transportation. Karlsruhe, being a college town it is pretty bike friendly and I coincidentally do like biking. It has most the amenities you’d want, friendly people and (pretty important) lots of employment options for computer nerds like me. A close contender is Berlin, which is even more enticing in terms of employment, but it is a cold place and I even when I lived there I never felt at home.

My thoughts keep coming back to Karlsruhe. With a little patience, I would also be able to get an apartment through the housing co-op that I am a member of. It all just makes sense. I sometimes resented living in Karlsruhe for various reasons. Reminding myself that the perfect place doesn’t exist. Traveling has shown me a lot of the positives of living in Germany. And I realized that in my core I am an urban creature.

With these feelings in mind, I entered the monthly housing lottery of my co-op this week. Might take a couple of tries before I win, but I am looking forward to having a home again.

Of course, you always want what you don’t have. Same time last year, I couldn’t wait to get rid of the apartment. But I realized that for me, it is really restricting to live out of a backpack for an extended amount of time. Having a place where to put things sounds nice.

And it was never meant to last forever. Travel will of course end. I don’t regret anything. The trip is amazing. And it was great that I purged so much stuff before I went on this (now 5 months long) trip. I can restart my settled life there with hopefully less clutter in a new apartment. Maybe in a new part of town. Fingers crossed.

Getting my bearings in Bangkok

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 21:29:44 +0700

After a stopover in Manila I made my way on a red eye to Bangkok. Very sleepy I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 2 in the night trying to find my way around the A/B Grab stations to hop on a car to my hotel near Sukhumvit road.

The next day was spent walking around the immediate neighborhood and checking out the local stores. But to be honest I was still exhausted from the night lost in the flight. The spicy curry for lunch only woke me up for a couple of hours. After that I relaxed most of the day. It’s a chaotic place and I might want to try to find something a little more quiet soon.

Anyway, it seems like Bangkok is a convenient place to stay. It is a major hub that offers plenty of flights to Europe. I might need them for example to attend apartment showings or sort some stuff out in Germany. My tourist visa for Thailand is valid until early August so that gives me some time to organize things.

Leaving Japan

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:31:34 +0000

Narita town is 15-minute train ride from the airport of Narita – who would have thought? But seriously, it’s a cute town with an awesome temple and a street to the temple with lots of local products. Highly recommended if you want to stay the last night before your flight close to the airport. I was able to catch a real impressing firing ceremony and got lost in the temple grounds for a couple of hours. For lunch, I finally tried a Japanese McDonalds. Happy to try their edamame with corn and one the chicken sandwich had the best presentation I have ever seen. I went to the local Soba shop for dinner to get some cold Soba with Duck. Simply delicious.

This marks the end of my Japan trip. It felt like a vacation from traveling. Everything was so comfortable, new, and interesting to me. I am left with a sizable hole in my travel budget and a backpack full of souvenirs. Next up will be Thailand while I try to sort out my future. I’ll be honest: I’m drawn home to Germany and will slowly start to make my return but it might a few months until I have an apartment and the job situation has been addressed. For now: flying from Narita has been a delight. I felt safe in Japan not only because of this SecBot. Bye Japan. I am sure I will come back as there is lots that I want to see still.

Cyber cyber cyber

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 12:47:49 +0000

Walked all the way from Asakusa to Jimbocho to see the book stores there. The 50-minute trek took me once again through the backstreets of Akihabara. Most of the books were in Japanese but it was still interesting to see so many specialized shops in one place.

The somber silence in the shops and the smell of paper made for a unique atmosphere. My feet were hurting but my book loving heart was happy. I didn’t buy anything because of the usual reasons — luggage space and keeping additional weight of my poor back. Next time I’ll come with an additional bag to Japan for sure.

Tokyo and Tokyo Tower

Sat, 31 May 2025 00:18:32 +0000

My last days in Tokyo are spent relaxed wandering around, enjoying the city as much as possible and soaking in the vibe. I went to Roppongi but wasn’t too into it but I liked the walk to and around Tokyo Tower.

Tokyo National Museum

Thu, 29 May 2025 08:55:51 +0000

It’s an excellent but also immense museum. With only about 10% seen of it I got lost in the museums grounds between the old trees and the small tea houses. The weather was cozy, warm, and sunny. All the right ingredients for a relaxed day at the museum. I don’t want to leave Japan. But I have to. Soon.

A daytrip to Kawaguchi to see Fujisan

Wed, 28 May 2025 00:10:00 +0000

Through the jungle of lo-fi Japanese website I managed to book tickets from Shinjuku Station to Otsuki with the express train and a seat on a train back to Shinjuku from Kawaguchiko. Since I had to get from Asakusa to Shinjuku first I woke up at 5 to get the Yamanote train at 7, no need to reserve that one.

The trains were neat, tidy and on time – as always in Japan. I arrived in Otsuki after only a short 50-minute ride from Shinjuku and couldn’t wait to get on the local train to Shimoyoshida that would take another ~40 minutes. I was warned that in Summer the view could be pretty obscured, but I monitored when to see mt fuji to select the best day. It was a real good idea to reserve those seats back from Kawaguchiko because a lot of people had to stand for 1.75h after a day of walking and more walking.

The stairs up to Arakurayama Sengen Park to the Chureito Pagoda had me out of breath. Luckily there was the Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine at the bottom of the stairs and the view at the top was more than a reward for my huffing and puffing. I thought I’d be fit from my running, but maybe I should train more stairs.

The rest of the day was spent around Lake Kawaguchiko with Fujisan looming in the back. The sun tried to kill me and shade was in high demand. It’s crowded for sure. The red bus that runs every 15 minutes was often too full, and you had to wait another 15 minutes in the sun. With plenty of time to spare I arrived back at Kawaguchiko Station and finally found a restaurant to my liking. After a late lunch consisting of Hoto Noodles and a Coke Zero I enjoyed the view of the mountain and lake until my train brought me back to Shinjuku. I arrived in Asakusa around 8 – all tired but very happy about the trip out of the city.

Coffee in Sumida Park

Tue, 27 May 2025 06:11:20 +0000

Nothing like some filter coffee served from a cute car

Sensoji

Mon, 26 May 2025 03:00:00 +0000

Kaminari Mon Gate that leads to Sesoji

Actually the Senso-ji Buddhist Temple is right around the corner of where I stay. That made it easy for me to go there and explore it bit by bit. First was Nakamise Shopping Street, then the Temple and finally all the surrounding area.

There are plenty of muscular buddhas in the temple but also this one.

Smaller structures on the temple grounds

Skytree

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bright may sun with the Skytree in the background.

Asakusa

Sat, 24 May 2025 08:30:00 +0000

My last week in Tokyo has started and I will stay in Asakusa. The area is not far from Ueno so I can go back there to check out more Museums. Also there is an astonishing amount of tourists here. Even more than I am used to. But I enjoy being in Tokyo and I am happy I extended my stay here.

A rainy night in Asakusa

Odaiba

Fri, 23 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The unicorn gundam next to Diver City Mall

When going to Odaiba on the Yurikamome Line you get to go through a neat loop right before going over the rainbow bridge and see the port from different angles. Surprisingly there is a Statue of Liberty set up here. The beach here was empty as it rained a little and the sun was hiding behind a closed curtain of clouds.

Enjoyed the Malls here. Tempted to buy an Entry Grade RX 78 Gunpla in Gundam Base Tokyo. I can’t. I shouldn’t. I wouldn’t. Would I?

Had the best Miso Ramen of my life in Aqua CiTY and went to see Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in the Cinema there. The ScreenX side projections made me nauseous but were only activated in a couple of scenes. The movie is a 3/5 for me because of some structural issues, but I was entertained every second of it. Tom Cruise thanked the Japanese people (in English) for watching and supporting the franchise before the movie which I found quite cool. I also found that watching movies in English with Japanese subtitles really didn’t bother me at all.

Lots of callbacks in this one

Pond in the Park

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The rainy weather made for an ideal day to explore more of Ueno Park. Equiped with my umbrella and jacket I went back to Ueno Park to take a closer look at the shrines and temples.

Wall near Toshogu Shrine in Ueno

Shinobazuno Pond Benten

Old Things

Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

First rough buildings I saw here in Tokyo

Later that night I went to search a Hard Off near Ueno Station. On my way and in the store I found a couple of old things.

I liked the weathered look of this shop I walked by

It is known that the Hard Off locations in the city center are not great to find bargains but it was fun browsing and seeing all the colorful GBs.

Not exactly cheap either

Ameyoko and Ueno East

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Entrance to Ameyoko Street

Ameyoko was busy with lots of foreigners, restaurants, and vendors trying to sell trinkets, clothes, and souvenirs. I really wasn’t in the mood to buy anything here.

Colorful vending machines and Gashapon machines in a side street

After I got a delicious pork and rice set at the Hidakaya near my hotel I wandered down the road to find a Book Off with some nice Famicom games. I love the design of those and wish I could take some home and put them in a display case. But my backpack is already way too full and I need to be careful not to get in trouble. I thought about buying some new luggage so I can take more stuff home. No decision until now. Also, I sold most of my physical game collection last year before beginning to travel. With one major exception: My Game Boy games (without boxes). I actually bought some GB games here too. I may report about them in another post soon.

Super Famicom games and more in the Book Off Ueno

Ueno

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I had to change hotels and decided to go into a different part of Tokyo Metropolis: Ueno in Taito City. It really is a lot more residential here. It’s close to many museums and to Asakusa as well as to Akihabara.

View from a pedestrian bridge over Ueno Station

I went for a long walk around the area and the park. Later I visited the National Museum of Nature and Science which was interesting as only 30% of the signs were available in English, so I had to use camera translation a lot.

Especially enjoyed the calculators and early japanese computers section

Trees in Ueno Park

Shinjuku West

Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of the big stroads here.

After resting, I made my way to the other side of Shinjuku Station to see Shinjuku Chuo Park and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to relax in the late afternoon.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

There were a lot of joggers that I had to dodge or that had to dodge me. I found a peaceful part to sit down and relax the scenery. Just sitting there people-watching. There were people meditating on the grass, people walking their Shibas, groups of western people walking straight to the Starbucks or trying to find entrance to the nearest shrine.

Junisha Kumano Shrine Haiden

Soba and Palace

Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cold Soba for breakfast

I wanted to make my way back to Tokyo Station to walk around the Palace. It was a super bright day. Clouds and the bright ground were reflecting the light and my legs were getting tired from days and days of walking. I decided to take it easy after I visited the Imperial Palace.

Nijubashi Bridge and Fushimi-yagura

I got some supplies from Lawson Station and put my feet up for a couple of hours.

Ikebukuro

Thu, 15 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This time to the north of Shinjuku only 3 stops on the Yamanote Line I visited Ikebukuro.

Owl is a homonym for parts of the areas name

I walked a little bit around until I went into Sunshine City to look at some shops inside. I saw a lot of western people lining up to buy Pokemon merch and I browsed a bookshop for a while.

Vending machines in the streets of Ikebukuro

After some sushi from Kura Sushi I walked some more and found some really quiet streets and a really nice buddhist temple. I enjoy the stillness of these places.

Honryūji Temple

Night walk and Tokyo Station

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Without aim, I wandered the streets of Shinjuku in the night to see the lights and billboards. Trying to take in the metropolitan night atmosphere. It’s always amazing how quiet and peaceful streets can be just 5 minutes from a major amusement spot.

Small Shinjuku street at night

The next morning I awoke very late but with a fire in my belly. I found a rice with egg set at the local Matsuya for breakfast for about 4 Euro.

Waking up slowly I figured that I’d check out Tokyo Station which was about a 25-minute train ride away. I took the JY Yamanote Line from Shinjuku to Tokyo Station.

In Tokyo Station I checked out character street with its cute anime shops and Travelers Factory for notebooks. Tried hard to not spend all of my money on Gashapon. Sat in front of the station for a while admiring the weather and the architecture.

I had Ramen for lunch in Ramen Street and went home to rest.

Tokyo Station

Shibuya

Tue, 13 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The afternoon was more walking but this time in Shibuya. After walking over the scramble, seeing the Hachiko statue and visiting the Nintendo store, I looked through the Miyashita Park Mall for a coin purse. I have collected tons of coins. They are not as heavy as for example the Filipino Peso coins, but it’s annoying to have them jingling around when walking. I didn’t yet find a purse, but I found a few cute shops.

Japanese minimalism or cluttercore?

Speaking of shops: I went to Don Quijote — total sensory overload. I didn’t buy there anything this time.

On my way back, I sat down for sushi at Sushiro in Shinjuku. First time Sushi in Japan! 50% of the seats were taken. There were many free booths. The sushi was better than anything I ever had in Germany, and I paid around 9 Euro for the whole meal. I wasn’t aware you could get solid cheap sushi in Japan. Food in general has been affordable. My biggest expense is the accommodation, which is unsurprisingly a lot more expensive than in Southeast Asia.

You should not ride a bicycle here

Harajuku

Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am slowly expanding my radius of action here in Tōkyō Metropolis. Next on my list are the areas directly to the south of Shinjuku: Harajuku and Shibuya. But first I had a Japanese breakfast teishoku with salt-grilled mackerel, natto, miso soup at Yayoi. A real good workout of my poor chopstick skills.

Harajuku Station

Most of the morning was spent visiting all the obligatory sites like Takeshita Street, Kiddyland and the Meiji Jingu Shinto Temple.

Big Sake Barrels near Meiji Jingu

After 20k steps I capped off the morning with a small bottle of calpis and a tuna mayo sushiroll from Family Mart.

Shinjuku

Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m still not convinced that Japan is a real place. I have been here now for three days, but it really feels like I have landed on another world. Narita Express took me early Saturday morning to Shinjuku Station. It was a rainy and gloomy day, but I enjoyed the view from the train.

1.5h train ride from Narita to Shinjuku

Google Maps works really well for navigating the streets and public transport. I found my hotel and explored my immediate surroundings for an hour. I got snacks from 7-Eleven and Family Mart and basically called it a day.

Everything is photogenic

I am still recovering from my second cold in a month, so I went to bed early(let’s not go for the triple, please). Missing not much because of the rain. The next day I awoke to the perfect weather: blue skies and sunny 28 degrees. Perfect day to explore Shinjuku.

Godzilla!

I did the usual tourist stuff in Kabukicho when I stumbled upon a small market in front of the Hanazono Shrine.

Movie Posters

After delicious Gyumeshi at Matsuya for lunch, I went for a long walk in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden before exploring Shinjukus stores for a while.

Sunday vibes in the Garden

Narita

Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The security queue in Manila was not only an inconvenience for my self, but in the end our flight was delayed because we had to wait for passengers traversing said obstacle. We arrived in Narita Airport with about an hour of delay, which made it impossible to get my booked connecting train. Feeling pretty tired, I decided to get a room close-by the airport and take the train first thing in the morning.

The Zipair flight was very pleasant and not at all what we would call budget in Europe(looking at your Ryanair).

I am scared to admit: It feels good being back in a first world country. Clean hotel rooms, no black mold, safe food/water and functioning infrastructure. I am happy to be here for sure.

Zipair

Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The weather in Manila changed in the last week. Summer has come and gone. Now humidity is a lot higher and a lot more clouds appeared. I am getting ready to leave Manila after being in the Philippines since mid-March.

NAIA Terminal 1 bade me farewell in the form of a horrible security queue which took about 2 hours to traverse and was uncomfortably crowded. Elated by finally seeing the 787-8 from a window I headed to Gate 2. Sitting here and munching on Piaya I reminisce about the awesome time I had here in the Philippines and all the nice people I met here. Next stop: Tokyo.

Toilet Legazpi

Wed, 07 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Mural on toilet in Legazpi Park, Makati

Ayala Triangle Gardens

Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I came back to Manila Metro from Iloilo a couple of days ago. I am staying in Makati this time and enjoy it’s 70s charm. The nights are incredibly hot, but I enjoy walking around and explore the endless Malls and Parks here. I am also using this time here in Makati to prepare for my next destination.

Fountain inside the park

ODC International Plaza Building

Sun, 04 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

219 Salcedo, Legazpi Village, Makati

Makati

Sat, 03 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

View from KL Tower in Makati Manila

What to do

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Earthquake instructions in Iloilo airport

Used books in the Philippines

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have been struggling with a cold for the last two weeks. I decided to extend here in Iloilo until I am recovered. This gave me the opportunity to do some reading. I sold my Kindle back in Malaysia because I wasn’t using it at all. Not hauling around unused gear is freeing. When I read ebooks it’s usually on my phone during takeoff and landing.

Stacks of James Patterson books in a used bookstore in Iloilo

The great thing about the Philippines is that there is a ton of English literature available. I ventured out to find a great selection of books. I have been reading a lot these last days. I will leave them behind though. Might be hard to finish them before I leave but happy about these being available.

Used fantasy books in a book store in Cebu City earlier this year

Jaro and Jackfruit Turon

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of the drivers suggested that I check out the Jaro Market and Plaza. So one sunny morning with about 42 Degree Celsius I made my way to this Part of Iloilo.

Jaro Belfry and Plaza

I rushed from shadow to shadow. There is a local market nearby with fresh fish laying in the sun and meat being butchered in front of your eyes. My mind was set on finding a coffee. Well, I went early so most coffee shops were closed.

Coffeeshop in Jaro

Getting a bit peckish I found a supermarket where they sold deep-fried dough with jackfruit inside called turon langka. It is surprisingly hearty and less sweet than you might think. It was huge and I had trouble finishing it.

Turon with Jackfruit

Iloilo Mandurriao

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Impressions of a modern subdivision in Iloilo.

Megaworld Mall

KTown

Iloilo Business Park

Esplanade

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Today I wanted to check out Iloilo.

But first I had to get breakfast. Sadly one of the Longganisa sausage on my breakfast plate was undercooked. The second one had off flavor that suggested it was not thoroughly fried. Visual inspection confirmed my suspicion. Let’s hope my stomach acid did its job and killed those germs. To make matters even more complicated for my stomach, I decided to take the ferry to Iloilo. I had heard the day before that seasickness a common occurrence on this route.

Around 9:00 I checked out of the hotel and took a Grab to the Passenger Port Terminal. The last Oceanjet ferry had just left. I had to book a slower one with Montenegro Lines. The Terminal had a fee of 40PHP, and it was hot waiting there. No aircon because of a brownout. I bought pita crackers which in taste and consistency reminded me of Panzerplatten . The ferry was scheduled for 10:30, but we didn’t leave Bacolod until around 10:45.

Ferry from Bacolod to Iloilo

The ride was indeed quite bumpy, and my fellow passengers were dozing off. I probably slept too. A little queasy at first, the crackers, and water helped a lot. After about 1.5 hours, we arrived in Iloilo.

Sleep or watch Aquaman 2?

It’s pretty cool that the Iloilo passenger pier here is up river and not on the ocean. You are right in the city when you arrive. There was a convenient line to metered taxis right at the arrival zone. It even had shade. The guards here are super helpful in the Philippines when you don’t know what you are doing. I always try to be extra nice to them because they helped me out a lot.

I finally got my luggage to the hotel and went exploring. While buying bottled water, I had a chat with the guard at the convenient store to get suggestions for places to see and how to get there.

Batchoy Lapaz is what’s for lunch. After eating and resting I went to Calle Real which reminded me a lot of Carbon Road in Cebu City. The Spanish influence is even more pronounced here in Iloilo. They have a traditional plaza and colonial buildings along this street.

Calle Real in Iloilo City

One of the things I liked here is the Iloilo River Esplanade. It’s a neat bricked walk next to the river, perfect for running. Around dusk, plenty of locals were jogging or strolling.

Sunset on the river

I had a great day in Bacolod and another great day here in Iloilo. People are friendly and curious, as foreigners seem to be a lot less common here than in Manila or Cebu. And so far my stomach has held up, which is a relief.

Flying to Bacolod

Sun, 20 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I got up at around 5:00 to catch my 1-hour flight to Bacolod on Negros. While waiting for the hotel staff to check my room I called my Grab. He arrived quickly, and I had to apologize because it took a while until they gave me the ‘all clear’. But then I was off to Terminal 3 of NAIA Manila Airport. It is Easter Sunday. Almost empty streets. Lots of bicyclists and joggers, but it was a peaceful morning.

I managed to check in online the night before after some confusion. I’d booked with AirAsia, but the flight was a Cebu Pacific flight. I was provided with a special mailadress. After I got the right Check-in details all went through. I like to get a printed boarding pass in addition to the digital one, “just in case”.

Most Asian airlines allow 7 kg of carry-on luggage which is way too low. I am habitually over the weight limit with my backpack and my Aldi bag full of overflow. So I usually try to print the boarding pass at one of those self-service kiosks. It worked this time. At the gate they asked for volunteers to check in some bigger backpacks and I happily put up my backpack, getting free check-in bags at that point. Now, I don’t mind paying for my overweight bags but the airlines webapps or mobile apps make it horrendously difficult to do so. Especially if you book via a 3rd party. So often times the only way is to just ‘risk it’ and try to get on board with my overweight bags.

Anyway, after getting my printed boarding pass I walk through the light domestic security and splurge on a pack of peanuts. 3 hours of waiting, but at least the view is nice.

View from inside Terminal 3, Airside

Finally, we boarded the plane and had a pretty uneventful flight which I used to watch downloaded YouTube videos and read my instapaper articles.

Bacolod’s airport was tiny and had one belt for bags. My bag was the second to last to come out, and it seemed like they were shutting down the airport for the day after me. Outside I had trouble finding a Taxi as all had been taken. I waited a while and tried to find a Grab. Worst case, I’d have to take one of the PUJ (what they call minivans here). But as I was walking to the PUJ Terminal I heard my phone ding. A pleasant and talkative driver brought me in about 25 minutes to my hotel in downtown Bacolod.

Arriving in the province, Bacolod Airport

It was around noon that I arrived. Hotel check in here in the Philippines is around 14:00. They were kind to let me Check In early without any fees. And I could throw my bags into the room and go exploring. The sun beating down on me, I quickly explored the neighborhood of Lacson Street. The driver had recommended me a place to eat the famous local dish of Inasal which was in walking distance of my hotel. Less than two hours of landing I was enjoying skewered grilled chicken with chicken oil and rice on a banana leaf in the middle of Bacolod city.

After a quick nap at the hotel and I went to a Pharmacy. I paid roughly 300PHP for unbranded sunscreen and hope it protects. Took a stroll around the Capitol Park and then set my target to the Bacolod Baywalk. I decided to walk there. I love walking through the streets like these here in the Philippines. People are friendly and say ‘Hello’ or ‘Hey Joe’ with a big smile. My heart feels light, I enjoy being here in Bacolod.

I meet more and more young people going in the same direction as me and join them walking to the Baywalk Park. Just in time for the sunset. Since it’s close to the equator the sun sets pretty early around 06:00-06:30 each day with not a lot of changes years round.

People in Bacolod Baywalk Recreational Park

Half of the Baywalk is closed due to a hip-hop concert which I listen to from outside the entrance for a while. After exploring the open part of the Baywalk I sit down and enjoy a cold bottle of Tubig(water) while watching the sun go down. What a great day.

Aura

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sunset over SM Aura

Pembo

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Only a couple of steps away from SM Aura Premier in BGC is the Barangay of Pembo. It’s right next to my current hotel and I go down here to enjoy the street food and get my clothes washed for 210PHP. I have to dodge tons of motorbikes, cars and tricycles on my way down but I enjoy the atmosphere and chaos of it.

Stark contrast to the boujee streets of BGC

Let’s get some BBQ while we are here!

Escrima

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since the temperature in Manila peaks at about 36 Degree I have found myself more often than not enjoying the air-conditioned gym instead of running around the city.

running with a view

The temptation of fast food and deep-fried Filipino food makes it really hard to eat healthy. No amount of exercise is going to fix that. I feel myself longing for a healthy routine. First thoughts of how I want my life to be after traveling come and go.

Anyway: After my workout in the hotel gym while sitting and sweating I saw some Filipinos practicing Escrima .

Jeepneys

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Jeepney Terminal at Ayala Market Market

Fully Booked

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Wall art in Mitsukoshi Mall next to the Fully Booked bookshop

Materialist Urbanism in BGC

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Lutheran Evangelical upbringing made me deeply skeptical about materialism. And even if I reject most of the teachings today, it still remains a part of me. Affluent cities-inside-cities bubbles like Bonifacio Global City trigger the Lutheran in me. I had a similar impression of Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.

Sadly, the execution is mindlessly copied from the worst examples of car centric American urbanism. Of course, it’s better to have sidewalks than having no sidewalk at all. But I wonder why some of these sidewalks are so wide?

Traffic lights for pedestrians! In the Philippines!

My small 25sqm Airbnb studio apartment has 2(two!) aircons. One for the bedroom section of the room and one for living room section. Both of them unable to handle the scorching heat of the Philippine summer. People will say to me: „of course, it’s summer“. As if that would explain the two underpowered air conditioner in my room. My cheap room for €16 a night with one unit was way cooler than this. Ahh, but you are paying for the location, I guess.

I’m standing on a sidewalk in front of One Uptown Residences vis-à-vis the expensive Hyatt hotel. A liquid is dropping on me from above. I look up, but I only see endless rows of windows. Some cables hang from the side of the building. From the window cleaner, I guess.

There is a Denny’s restaurant near my apartment. The slogan on the back of their uniforms is: „a diner is the world’s smallest neighborhood“. They of course allude to being a third place . Is this just a slogan, or are they actually trying to create a humane place for social interactions? This questions can be extended for the whole of BGC. Just like Denny’s: it’s more of a veil (a simulation, a self proclamation) of a humanistic neighborhood to give you warm fuzzy feels. It’s a capitalists dream of a functioning city. Ready to satisfy your material cravings(those that you saw on TV, YouTube or Netflix) given you bring enough Pesos. Oops, that’s me being a skeptic, I guess.

Bike and scooter parking spots

“It is a bubble” - but not really. It’s thinly veiled urbanism over reckless car centric culture. Not integrated into, but very much like the rest of Manila. The famously horrible traffic in Manila might be slightly better here, but it’s still here. Try crossing a street during rush hour.

An unsustainable bubble, for sure. Not built to last and without proper maintenance, you see the cracks already forming everywhere. Will this be left to the urban blight, only to be replaced by the next new and shiny city? Never mind the cost to nature. Flying into Manila over south-west Luzon, I saw a ton of green jungly areas. Will those still be here in 30 years?

Only in the Philippines: A church on top of a mall next to a Starbucks.

Enjoy the splendors while you can! Drink overpriced chain coffee in American coffee shops. Eat at expensive but average quality restaurants. Take your selfies in front of giant advertisement LED screens here now! The people here thirst for some(any, all!) kind of luxury. I don’t blame them.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy being here. I am a materialist when it comes to all these comforts and amenities. But it feels extremely wasteful and in no way sustainable. The contrast of simple barangay life and the hedonistic excess of these big city bubbles in the Philippines is fascinating. But I’m just a guest here, and I won’t have to face the consequences or hardships of either.

Bonifacio High Street is expensive and walkable.

Last sunset in Boracay

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The sun is hot, water is wet and yours truly figured out he is not a beachboy

Maybe it’s not as bad as my last post made it out to be. But it certainly isn’t as good everyone hyped it up. And my north germanic genes are not made for sitting on the beach all day. So this is good bye Boracay! Did I enjoy it? No. Will I come back? Also no.

The Boracay Problem

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Paradise. Or is it?

I really tried to come here with an open mind. Boracay is being sold as this peak of tropical beach experience but in reality it’s an overcrowded, expensive and somewhat smelly destination. The white sandy beaches might look nice on pictures but during summer season (right now) the amount of stinky algae from the polluted water and the oily fried food here is pretty disgusting.

Maybe this is the part of my travel where I begin to realize that I am not a beach person.

The very crowded Station 2 in Boracay

As a super white skinned dude I need to hide from the sun and especially in the afternoon there is not enough shade. The little amount of shadow is crowded by tourists. Talking about crowds: beaches here in Asia are similar to walking streets: all the oily fried food and bars become crowded and ugly as soon as the night hits. People trying to sell you a massage, boat activity or beaded hair becomes real old real fast.

Algae in Boracay

Hmm more nice smells from the Algae

This place is being sold as paradise, but in reality it’s just a messy money grab built on the photogenic nature of white sand and palm trees. But I get the feeling that may be true for most tourist destinations here in Southeast Asia. They build the restaurants and stalls right up to the sand. Nature? Not here, for sure. You’ll need to hop on one of those overcrowded island hopping tours.

It gets even more crowded in the night

Travel to Boracay

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A short 45 minute hop with Cebu Pacific from Cebu City to Caticlan

Night in IT Park

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The skyline of the BPO offices in IT Park Cebu City

Christian Philippines

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Santo Niño

Music Store

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Mural on a Music store in Cebu City

Ukay-Ukay

Sun, 30 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I went to a ukay-ukay pop up second hand market here in Cebu city. Apart from second hand clothes the sold a lot of hand made jewelry, food and other small knick-knacks. Since my bags are full and I try to travel as light as possible I bought stickers for my laptop.

Resting in Cebu City

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I decided to extend my stay here in Cebu City as I feel the exhausting effects of long term travel. Catching my breath before diving back in.

A small sugbo/nightmarket near IT Park in Cebu City

Cebu City Cat

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hidden beneath some flowerpots.

Travel as a selfish act

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is the 60th post in this blog. Instead of doing another report I want to use this milestone to write down some thoughts that came up during travel.

I feel that in current mainstream culture, travel is often times seen as one of the highest forms of self actualization. The luring promise of the hero’s journey is insight, transformation, personal growth, but in reality you could just as well return empty-handed .

Manila as seen during final approach to NAIA(Ninoy Aquino International Airport)

And I get it: It’s a luxury to experience a place half a world away. WEIRD people are super privileged by their wealth and strong passports to go to just about anywhere they desire. During my travel, I often get comments by locals and fellow travelers alike when I mention that I am long-term traveling. “Sana All” is a Filipino expression. Meaning something similar to “I wish everyone had that”. But even for folks coming from rich countries, vacation days are scarce and obligations to family and careers make traveling hard.

So is travel just a normalized hedonistic form? Used to rationalize unscrutinized pleasure over a number of days, weeks or – in my case – months?

The first days in a new country can certainly feel similar to a drug. You are intoxicated by all the newness. It pushes us to the front seat of our perception. It shuts off the dark and bothered part of your brain, even if it’s just for a moment. Of course, soon we’ll get used to all this, and we settle back into familiar patterns. Conventional wisdom is that you cannot outrun your yourself or your problems, and that certainly is true. As overstimulated as you might be on those first days: The first night in a new city, a new hotel, a new bed you are likely to have some trouble sleeping through the night. The second night you got used to the strange sounds, architecture, and lighting, and you are finally able to recover. Travel seen from this perspective is a fleeting pleasure.

Spaghetti wrapped in wrappers wrapped in other wrappers

You will release tons of greenhouse gases while flying, riding a bus or traveling on a ferry. You will also produce a lot of single use plastics like coffee cups, plastic bags, plastic cutlery or wrapped plastic snacks. Especially here in Southeast Asia the amount of trash I produce on any given day is staggering. And I try to make a conscious effort to employ my reusable bags and sporks and whatnot as much as possible. But I know that if I want to travel our planet will pay a price. A price for the sake of a heightened experience of a different place on this earth. The environmental impact is discussed so often. I think the selfishness of travel goes far beyond this.

It’s also a selfish act in terms of solidarity, relations, the local, and your society that you left hind. And in the end also against yourself. You can only offset your impact so much: by giving to local charities in places that you visit, offering a helping hand and being polite to the people that host you. But a traveler is rarely an actual help. Weary from the road and exhausted from the unfamiliar country and culture. In more ways than he can think, he is making it difficult for the local people. Following the boyscout rule or ethical travel advice is probably not going to change that.

I am unsure of what I will get out of my trip. But I am realistic and conscious about the negative side effects.

I have dedicated this long term travel trip (and this whole year really) to one person: myself. Sometimes to the extent of being unwilling to compromise. In the end, traveling is a selfish act.

On the Bus back to Cebu City

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I took a non-aircon bus from Daanbantayan back to Cebu City. The weather was nice an only around 30 degrees with a cool breeze from the open window.

Bus back to Cebu City

The only problem was that the seats were definitely not built for westerners. I had to sit over two seats and after 4 hours I was happy to arrive in Cebu City South Bus Terminal.

Short stop in Bogo City

Bakhawan

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m staying in Bakhawan, a tiny village in Daanbantayan in the far north of Cebu Island.

A hand drawn map on the wall of the hostel

The village consists of 3 streets and probably a couple of unoffical paths into the backcountry that you will never see on any maps. Right on the beachfront is a church, a community center and a roofed basketball court. The Philippines is undeniably of spanish influence especially compared to Malaysia or Vietnam.

The local church

A reading center

A 10 minute tricycle ride brings you to the Poblacion(the town of Daanbantayan) where the bus terminal and a small roofed wet market is. And a Jollibee.

Wet market in Poblacion Daanbantayan

Rain In the Philippine Province

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was unsure where to go next, but I heard that it’s summer in the Philippines. So I jumped on a plane to Cebu City. After a way too long overlay in Manila and one gruesome(so loud) night in Lapu-Lapu I hopped on a bus to the north of Cebu island. I will stay for a couple of nights in a Nipa Hut inspired house.

Contrary to the expected warm weather it’s raining cats and dogs here. The locals are happy because it’s a much-needed cooldown after days of 35+ degrees but for me the rain and coldness (only 25!) it’s a little underwhelming. As a lady I met in New Zealand earlier this year put it: “The summer has been a bit shit.”

Nipa Hut in Daanbantayan and rain

Intermediate rainfall doesn’t deter me to enjoy the province life here as much as possible. Since I have been here in the Philippines already before it feels a bit like coming home. The people are the sweetest and the nature so nice. I love going to the small Sari-Sari stores and taking a tricycle to the next town.

Probably won’t swim here today because of the rain

Complacent in KL

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I feel like I am getting better and better in planning my energy levels during long term travel. It’s super exhausting to travel from place to place every day and do all kinds of tours. It is not sustainable. I know some people can do it, but my pace is my pace. So I try to take plenty of rest days in between travel and tours.

After Vietnam, I felt like I needed some stationary time. 10 days in Kuala Lumpur in an AirBnB helped a lot. Also having a healthy routine of running on the treadmill in the morning, exercising in the gym, journaling and meditation. I felt my energy coming back and even worked on a couple of smaller projects.

View from my laptop

There are lots of positives about Kuala Lumpur. It’s clean. The public water supply from the faucet is not as toxic as in Vietnam (or other countries) which makes brushing teeth, salads, and ice cubes safe everywhere. The food was diverse and delicious. Indian, Chinese, Malay and western food – you name it. But they also had relatively cheap Australian oatmeal, oat bran and psyllium husk. My gut biome was happier than ever. Would I still get fat there if I stayed longer? Probably.

I just feel good here. I still haven’t seen everything the city has to offer. I also enjoy the whole multicultural atmosphere there. I can see this being my base to explore more of Southeast Asia. It was a nice place to recharge my travel batteries.

Only negative so far: It is very car focused. Walking outside a mall or park can be pretty inconvenient.

Small snack-size meals wrapped in banana leaf

Batu Cave

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Inside the atrium of the Batu Cave in the north of KL

View from the Atrium into the cave

Entry to the temple inside the cave

Temples in KL

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hindu Temple in Chinatown

Hindu, Chinese Buddhist, Muslim and Christian worship sites can be close together or even on the same street here in KL.

KL at night

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

KLCC Park

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Arriving in KL

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I had a window seat during my flight from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur, and the partial cloudiness offered interesting views of the landscapes across Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia.

View of Laos from the airplane

I arrived in KL on a hot but mostly clear afternoon, experiencing a brief 30-minute thunderstorm shortly after. I’m staying in an apartment in Bukit Bintang which is in the city center. Despite it also being busy, I immediately felt at home here in KL.

Petaling Street at Dusk

Chao Vietnam

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am leaving Vietnam after 3 weeks here. It was the first country I visited in the Sinosphere really, and it blew my mind.

I enjoyed the extended stay on the beach of Da Nang and the hustle and bustle of the cities like HCMC and Hanoi. I successfully dodged all motorcycles and ate some amazing Vietnamese street food.

Entry to Ngoc Son Temple in Hanoi Old Town

There are beautiful and exotic spots here that really opened my mind. But I found Vietnam in some places to be very touristy and a little superficial. I know those spots are popular for a reason, but can feel soulless after a while. The train street in Hanoi being a prime example. It’s cool to see the train up close for sure. But really why are we there? Just to take another cute selfie like it hasn’t been done a million times on Instagram? The deeper beauty of nature and religious places I can understand. But some of these Instagram spots remain a mystery to me. Maybe best to avoid those in the future.

Everything is super organized and the service is at such a high level here. The language barrier is another thing that keeps you from interacting with locals in deeper meaningful ways. But luckily a few Vietnamese are undeterred by any barriers and I had some interesting conversations through translation apps.

I’ll take a couple of days rest in Kuala Lumpur now. I think it’s a great hub to explore more of South East Asia. I’m not certain where I will go after that. I hope to get more off the beaten path again after that.

Hanoi

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It might be me coming down with a cold or just the sheer exhaustion. But even after a full day I feel like the Oldtown in Hanoi is super overwhelming and chaotic. It’s hard to put into pictures but it’s feels so crowded, dense and not clean. It’s an experience for sure. One or two days in Hanoi is about the extent I will stay here.

This street wasn’t too bad.

This was.

Thien Mu Pagoda

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hue

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hue at night

Bun Bo Hue for breakfast

Hai Van Pass

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cultural cabin on the train

The view from the window

Lanterns

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rotating lanterns in Da Nang

Hoi An

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Old Town in Hoi An

Lanterns and River in Hoi An

Marble Mountains

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On top of the Marble Mountains in a Cave

One of the five Marble Mountains

Pagoda on top of the Marble Mountains

Con Market

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of the over 1000 stalls at Con Market in Da Nang

Son Tra Linh Ung Pagoda

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Lady Buddha, 67m

It rained the last three days in Danang. With rain came high humidity and lots of fog. The fog finally lifted this morning. I used this small window of clear air to rush halfway up the Monkey Mountain. I wanted to see the Linh Ung Pagoda — a Buddhist temple sanctuary on the absolutely stunning Son Tra Peninsula.

Monkeys were playing between in trees while groups of visitors strolled around the extensive site and marveled at the ornate devotional art and buildings.

Inside the Pagoda

I am blown away by all of it. Sad that there is so little to find about this on the English Wikipedia and even on-site there was not a lot to read in English. An exhausting but insightful day on the mountain nonetheless.

The second Pagoda, Reclining Buddha

White Coffee

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 12:00:00 +0000

White Coffee in Cafe Phoung, 45000 VND

Bridge

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 22:00:00 +0000

Another view of the dragon bridge

Street Temple Danang

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Small temple in Da Nang

Walt Disney

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dragon Bridge

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Coconut Coffee

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

blended coconut ice with pour-on coffee shot, water

Danang

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I now understand what they mean when they say that the tourist path through Vietnam is well established. Almost a little too much. The upside is that all western amenities and comforts are readily available.

Danang especially in My An can be a bit much for me on some streets but other streets are blissfully relaxed and quiet still.

The My Quang right outside my door is delicious, the coffee as abundant as ever and the water of the East Sea refreshingly cold. The humidity of a constant >80% is something I need to get used to.

Saigon

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It was already dark when I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. First impression: Coffee. Coffee everywhere anytime. Doesn’t matter if it is in the middle of the night or early morning.

Also, the food is pretty good here (understatement). Next morning Breakfast Banh Mi. I always get a tactical one for the road as well.

Off to Nam

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Jetstar flight from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh City

After only two short nights in Sydney I am heading out to Vietnam where I will probably stay for a longer time. I again found a very reasonably priced flight and on Sunday 16th of February I left the Southern Hemisphere. I can see myself visiting Australia again in the future but for now I want to explore SEA.

Taking me over Australia and Indonesia to the south of Vietnam

Koala

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Even though I only stayed in Darling Harbour Sydney for two nights I had to see some Koalas. There were some only a two short ferry rides away. I went super early when there were still not so many visitors around. Maybe too early because the Koalas were also still sleeping.

Layover

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tiritiri Matangi

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of those days when you don’t need an alarm because you know that day will be great. The boat to Tiritiri Matangi was leaving early from the Viaduct Harbour in Auckland.

Tuhi Rapa waiting for us to board

There are strict rules to keep pests from the islands in the hauraki gulf. We had to scrub and disinfect our boots before we could get on board. After a short 50-minute cruise to Gulf Harbour and another 20 minute we were dropped of at the wharf on the Island for 4 hours to explore the island.

The clear water near Tiritiri

The island was a pasture island until the 80s and then was reforested with native trees and plants. Today it is the home to many native and endangered birds including Little Penguins, Hihi and Korimako.

Korimako

The northern part of the island feels almost untouched. Even though we were like 50 people you would barely meet any when out on the trails. They also did a great job of explaining the preservation efforts and educating on different flora and fauna.

Cabbage Trees and New Zealand Flax

I hiked once around the whole island and saw a lot of wildlife. Especially the rugged east coast had some stunning views.

East Coast

Auckland Domain

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Albert Park

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bag End

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Waitangi

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Close to Antarctica

I arrived in Auckland in the early morning. I only bought the flight tickets last week and together with being a solo traveler coming from Chile I must have been a walking red flag for the customs officers. After I got questioned for about 10-15 minutes I was released and found myself outside the airport waiting for an Uber.

The very friendly Uber driver took me to my hotel which was it turned out is still closed until 8:00 in the morning. I found out it is a national holiday in New Zealand today called Waitangi Day. My driver was so nice to bring me to the next coffee shop (LaLa Cafe) where I could wait. The coffee was especially helpful in waking up after the more than 12 hours of nodding off over the pacific. Check-in would only be at around 15, but the cheerful Filipino staff in the hotel told me that my room would be ready for me around 12. I then stashed my gear in the hotel and explored Auckland on foot.

Pueblito and City

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Barrio Pueblito los Dominicos

I went to a small artistic handicraft village in the Las Condes barrio of Santiago, right next to Los Dominicos Park. I went early after opening and not a lot of tourists were around. Through small windows you can watch how the crafts are made. Anything from stone-masonry, leather wallets, indigenous art or bird cages can be found here. All made by hand and most of the time by those who sell it right in this village. The 19th century low roof houses and small alleys are full of character and charm.

It’s in stark contrast to the metropolitan Providence part of the city where I am staying. Everything is modern and convenient here. Actually there is a convenient store on every block and the metro is never more than a 10-minute walk away. It is also considered very safe. Did I mention they have excellent and actually walkable sidewalks?

As nice as it is it also is pretty expensive. This is the most expensive part of my journey. The next few weeks will be probably the most strenuous on my travel budget. It will equalize a bit once in SEA where I might stay for a longer time. But first I’m off to the southwestern part of the Pacific. I am packing my bags and this time I am preparing for even stricter border controls. My stay (or layover) in Santiago is coming to an end. I found a very reasonably priced flight ticket to Auckland, New Zealand for tomorrow. 12 hours crossing the pacific over nothing but open water? Let’s go!

Santiago

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Chile seems to have a lot more rules at the border than other countries in South America. They are pretty strict about bringing in vegetables — even the famous forgotten and undeclared apple could cost you dearly. Luckily I got rid of all my food in Asunción. The provided meal by LATAM Airlines was excellent for a ~3 hour flight (chicken breast and quinoa). The border guard lady was very serious about my plans in Chile. She said I will have to answer in Spanish and I tried my best, but she switched immediately back to English after that. So I guess there is still a lot of room to improve my spoken Spanish.

I traveled through South America extensively in 2015, but this is my first time in Chile. It really is hard to compare it to any other of the countries here because of its wealth. It’s not the cheapest city to visit and is cost-wise on par with big cities in the US if not more expensive. 8 dollar for a sandwich is on the low end here. But maybe I’m just staying in the wrong side of town. Safety is generally a concern as is always the case in South America. I try to stick to the typical tourist areas.

Big parts of the city of Santiago could just as easily be in Europe. But there’s a distinct vibe here which I still cannot quite grasp that is unique. Maybe it’s the Italian influence? The people I met are super friendly and helpful. The weather is a very nice 32 degrees. The culture and especially the museums are awesome.

Wooden Statues of the Mapuche

The Museo de Chile de Arte Precolombino was recommended to me by friends of my family in Paraguay. I can confirm: It’s a great overview of the pre-Columbian timeline of all the Americas. Some artifacts are sensational, and the presentation is world-class. I enjoyed the part about Chilean pre-Columbian culture immensely. The impressive wing about south Chilean tribes that live in more temperate climates near or in Patagonia stuck with me for the day.

Andes

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Pettirossi

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Getting through security in the tiny Asuncion airport took only a couple of minutes. They were interested in my pair of small facial hair removers that looks like scissors but in the end decided that I could take them on board. I only travel with cabin luggage and security rules on every airport are different. I am happy to oblige any way. During my small airside breakfast at the havanna cafe I saw these cute birds resting in some palms near my window to the runway.

Parque de la Salud

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Back in Asuncion I am trying to establish healthy habits for my travels. Looking through the map of city I saw the Parque de la Salud not far away from me. The Park is maintained by the institute of social security (IPS) and is free to enter. They only ask for documentation(passport or ID) when entering and exiting the park. It is a lovely ~1,5Km circuit designed for fitness, walking and running. It even includes some elevation changes. The park is very much designed to look like a forest. I loved the signs on the native trees giving you the common name as well as the scientific one.

I’d rather not try to pronounce that

Apart from the signs on the trees the institute also provides health education in form of small signs next to the path(“Don’t put too much salt on your food!”).

It wasn’t too crowded but also not empty. Mostly walkers. Lots of groups of middle-aged women walking fast and talking even faster. I wasn’t the only runner either. Everyone was very considerate and friendly.

I didn’t break any records today. I ran for one lap and walked for two. The humidity really got to me by the end of the third. I was happy that I managed to do some pull-ups in between laps. The crumbling metal bars were shaking and wouldn’t be too sure that they would hold anyone with more than my 77 Kilos. Apart from the rusty equipment I really enjoyed the park. I loved the serene early morning atmosphere with rays of light shining through the lush green canopy.

Guairena

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I traveled back to Asuncion. This time I was eager to take the bus from the temporary bus station in Villarrica.

After a stop in Oviedo the bus took the new ruta 2 to the capital of Paraguay only to stop in Caacupe. Coming closer to Asuncion at around midday traffic slowed us down considerably so that the whole drive took around 4,5h until I landed in the Terminal barrio of Asuncion.

It rained like no tomorrow, but the sun came out soon, and it got so sunny and hot that you’d forget that the rain ever existed. Thankfully the aire (aircondition) was working great in the bus. So great in fact, that I had to put on a sweater. Only to rip it off quickly as soon as I stepped out of the bus. Really no complaints here. I love the sun and the weather here.

Rainbow sending me off from Villarrica

Cactus

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

top down view of a large pillar cactus amongst the native trees

Mercado

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

not an unusual sight

I went to the Mercado part of Villarrica where you find fruit, vegetables, and cheap knock-off clothes from small vendors. I finally found some shoes for running. The people were all very friendly even if you did not buy something. It was a bit hard to find a 44 size (EU) shoe. Maybe it is not a common size here?

I enjoyed the atmosphere of the market-style barrio with all its colorful wares on shanty stalls and shops in aged houses. Mercado was originally centered around the bus station which is currently being rebuilt with a roof and bigger bus stands.

Ybaroty

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Photo Store

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of the many small shops in town.

Plaza

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A plaza in Villarrica

I went shopping in town for new running shoes today. Unsuccessful. I did find ice cream near one of the plazas.

Ybyturuzu

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cordillera del Ybytyruzú

The view from the drone of the mountains nearby .

One Week in Paraguay

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

No more wasps here

It has been a little over a week now that I arrived in Paraguay. I have been staying with family on a rural farm near Villarrica for the last couple of days. It feels like eternal summer here. I enjoy running on the dirt roads in the morning, going for a swim and meditating after my morning workout. I feel deeply relaxed here. The local or home-grown food is a treat, and spending time with family makes me very happy.

The sunshine and mostly blue skies are awesome. In the night you can see countless stars. Light pollution is very low. We are quite a distance from the next city.

There were a couple of aquacero rainfalls that didn’t really bring enough water. It is bone dry here and the temperatures have been high. The workers on the farm still work. While cutting down grass on a part of a field, they found some wasp nests and decided to burn it down. Maybe not the best idea in this climate, but they took a lot of precautions so it wouldn’t spread. They have a lot of experience with the weather and vegetation.

I enjoy it here, and some family matters make it so that I will stay here for a while. I will stay in Villarrica part-time and hope to share some more details of city life (or small town life rather) as well.

Plumeria

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Linea

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of the smaller paths where folks live here are dirt roads. This makes driving an adventure especially going up or down hill. Small rocks hitting the bottom of the car is the least of your worries. And on rainy days you almost slide more than you drive.

The roads along the powerlines.

Mangos

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This one is actually not ripe yet.

I don’t want to just talk about food, but I have to tell you about these fruits. I had mangos yesterday and today as a side for lunch. They taste amazing. I even got to pick a couple of ripe ones today from one of the trees, washed them and put them in the fridge for tomorrow.

Above

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ruta Diez

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rare sight

You will see mostly flat lands driving down from Asuncion to Villarrica. Only the occasional hill will break the horizon in the three hour journey. There are some cows grazing on the side of the road or some more white cows on some fields far away. But mostly you can take in all the beauty of this fertile part of Paraguay. Wild palm trees, eucalyptus monoculture farms, fences, chiperias and full service gas stations.

My driver was a bright and pleasant young farmer of swiss descent. He was weary of the dry and hot weather preceding my arrival and that he hoped for rain to soon come – not only for the crops. The unpaved roads could also benefit from some water. They were a spectacle of dust and flying rocks. We saw a couple of (out of control?) fires and a lot of already burned down fields. Displeased with the tradition of burning the fields instead of tilling he pointed them out to me and shook his head.

Getting out of the red air-conditioned camioneta I began to really feel the heat and humidity. I have arrived at my first longer stop in this travel. How long exactly? I don’t know.

Terere

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Refreshing: yerba mate with ice water

Officially jet lagged I am exploring the upscale Villa Morra while trying to stay in the shade as much as possible. Can’t help but try some of the cheese/wheat combinations(Chipitas and Mbeju con tres quesos) and of course the Tereré .

Entry into Paraguay was super smooth. The border agent asked only a couple of questions: why I am traveling to the country and how many days I intend to stay. I did get an Onward ticket before leaving Germany in case the airline or the border patrol wanted to see documentation for my return. Nobody wanted to see it. She did ask if I have a cédula. I am always debating of getting one when but I never had the need to stay more than the 90 days allowed by the visa free entry yet.

View from Paseo La Galeria

Number one priority last night was resting the swollen legs after flying for 15+ hours. But I did find a steakhouse in the nearby mall to enjoy a sensible priced(100k PYG) steak with mandioca fries for dinner last night. I am enjoying the amenities of metropolitan life. I know those will be rare in the countryside. And that’s where I am heading next.

Asuncion

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Super smooth travel with LATAM. Made it to Asuncion in one piece.

Palms and 37°C

Triple Seven

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

777-300

First big hop in this journey.

Moved out

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

january rain

Moved out of my apartment today. I got pretty wet when walking to the hotel. It is a weird feeling not having any keys to a place. Technically I am homeless now. I liked that apartment a lot. Bittersweet. But super happy that now this new chapter of my life has started.

Packing

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

everything packed up

The time has finally come. There are a couple of days left to prepare, handover my apartment and get to the airport. After what feels like years of dreaming about it I finally start long term traveling.

How long will it be? Where will I go? What will I do? Who knows! I only have a rough plan for now. I will probably talk a little bit more about the plans at a later point.

The last couple of days were warmer. But we are in the darkest part of winter in Europe so that just makes easier to leave. Towards the sun. Light. Warmth. Adventure awaits.

Knolling

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Will all of it fit in the three bags?

knolled

Text Focus for Obsidian

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 20:32:34 +0000

I work fast. Well, at least I like to think that I work fast.

I want to be able to open Obsidian and throw whatever is in my clipboard in there as fast as possible.

The usual behavior of Obsidian is to move the cursor to the title and highlight it. So if I want to paste I get into trouble because the title or name of the note does have some restrictions and shouldn’t be too long. I want my clipboard stuff always to be in the body of the note! I was surprised to find out that this behavior is not default in Obsidian.

The Plugin

I am developing the Obsidian Text Focus Plugin to make my life easier when working with quickly creating notes. It will always put the focus on the text when you create a new note or when you switch from Reading View to Source View.

Tables in Pico8

Sat, 16 Jul 2016 16:50:31 +0200

This blog posts discusses two common techniques when working with objects in Lua for games especially when working with Pico8 .

The Concatenation Trick

2D movement on a grid is so common in games that I use this trick all the time. It’s easy to implement and and easy to use.

Let’s look at an example. Create a new object in a cell at (i,j) in myArray with the following code:

myArray[i..","..j] = {}

This makes it incredibly easy to retrieve an object at a certain cell. Want to know if there is an item laying on the floor on the map tile in x/y? Just check if the coordinates! local item = myArray[i..","..j] and then if item then pickup(item).

To iterate over all objects in myArray you can use the pairs iterator. Caution: the objects are not ordered when using pairs!

for k,v in pairs(myArray) do
 -- v is the cell object
 -- k is a string in the form of "i,j"
end

If we want to access the objects in a particular order we should use nested for loops:

for i=1, 8 do
 for j=1, 8 do
 local cell = myArray[i..","..j]
 -- do stuff with the cell
 end
end

Objects And Container

Entities like the spaceship in this GIF are objects. Containers for objects are special in Pico-8 because we have a couple of built-in functions to help us manage insertion and deletion. I strongly propose to use add(), del() and all() for container and entity management.

Create and add an object to a table with add():

local entities = {}
local player = {
 x = 3,
 y = 3,
 sprite = 5
}
add(entities, player)

In your _update or _draw callbacks, you will most likely want to loop over all objects. You should use all() for that:

for entity in all(entities) do
 -- do stuff here
end

You can use del() to remove an object from the container even while iterating over the container:

for entity in all(entities) do
 del(entities, entity)
end

This only works with all() and del()! This is great for games where you have objects such as bullets, effects or timed events that are added and removed dynamically.

I hope that these two hints help you to get started with objects and tables for games. For advanced users, other methods might be more efficient. I recommend reading the Pico-8 Docs or PIL for more information.

A CPU in Lua

Sat, 12 Apr 2014 17:13:34 +0200

I thought it might be interesting to implement a small register based Virtual Machine in Lua. Let’s start by considering the architecture of a register machine.

The “machine”

If we look at how existing Register Machines are designed for example the Lua VM itself, we see a few things:

registers
a program
something that executes the program

The last part will be the point of entry for the Lua program itself. This might seem unimportant but it will help us shape the core features of the design.

The memory

Let’s start by asking: How are our values stored in memory?

A typical approach is to use a counter to fetch the program from a certain cell in memory. This counter is sometimes called the program counter or short PC. In Lua we can represent the memory as a flat table and the PC as a number type.

local MEM = {}
local PC = 0

The registers

A data registers is a small storage cell defined by its name (address), wordlength and content. In other machines such as the DCPU-16 , for example, there are 8 registers named A,B,C… and correspond to the values 0x00-0x07 with a word length of 16bit.

We can use a Lua table and init the fields to numbers that represent our registers:

local registers = {
 A = 0,
 B = 0,
 C = 0,
 D = 0
}

Now we can use the registers table to access each register by simple dot syntax: register.A.

Opcodes and operands

Instructions might be represented as byte sequences in the memory and can be instruction like NOP. NOP is the no operation and does nothing to the state of the registers. It could be an operand that is meaningful in conjunction with a opcode like MOV A, c (move constant c into the register A).

We represent instructions as Lua functions in a table where the keys represent the bytecode of the opcode:

local opcodes = {
 ["0x00"] = function() -- NOP
 end,
}

Fetch and Execute

We need to establish a cycle to read out the instruction and fetch the opcode.

The first step is easy. We offset our instruction register:

PC = PC + 1

Then read out the current instruction at the location of the program counter into our instruction register:

local IR = MEM[PC]

Since our opcodes are stored in a table where the opcodes are keys we can decode the opcode by addressing the table and then executing it:

opcodes[IR]()

We need to check if the PC has reached the end of the program memory:

local FDX = function()
 while PC < #MEM do
 PC = PC + 1
 local IR = MEM[PC]
 opcodes[IR]()
 end
end

To get better insight in our little cpu we add a couple of print statements:

local FDX = function()
 print("PC", "IR")
 while PC < #MEM do
 PC = PC + 1
 local IR = MEM[PC]
 opcodes[IR]()
 print(PC, IR)
 end
end

Let’s test the program! You can fill the memory with a program and execute the FDX function:

-- TEST

MEM = {
 "0x00",
 "0x00",
 "0x00"
}

FDX()

The output should be similar to: PC IR 1 0x00 2 0x00 3 0x00

Great! Now our machine finally does… nothing.

Fetch operands

In order for our machine to do something a little more meaningful we need to implement operands. Let’s introduce a fetch function into our program:

local fetch = function()
 PC = PC + 1
 return MEM[PC]
end

We can change the FDX function to use the fetch function and print out the A register:

local FDX = function()
 print("PC", "IR", "A")
 while PC < #MEM do
 local IR = fetch()
 opcodes[IR]()
 print(PC, IR, registers.A)
 end
end

We define this somewhere above the opcodes because we will need to use it to get the operands.

Let’s create a helper conversion table that translates bytecode to operands:

local operands = {
 ["0x00"] = "A",
 ["0x01"] = "B",
 ["0x02"] = "C",
 ["0x03"] = "D",
}

We now add the MOV R, c instruction to the opcodes table:

local opcodes = {
 ["0x00"] = function() -- NOP
 end,
 ["0x01"] = function() -- MOV R, c
 local R = operands[fetch()]
 local c = fetch()
 registers[R] = tonumber(c)
 end
}

We change our testprogram to: MEM = { “0x00”, “0x01”, “0x00”, “0x01” “0x00” }

Our output then tells us that our A register is being filled with 1.

PC IR A
1 0x00 0
4 0x01 0x01
5 0x00 0x01

JMP around

To show how to extend this, I added three more instructions: ADD, SUB, JMP and IFE. JMP sets the program counter to a specific address. IFE adds 3 to the PC if two registers are equal.

local opcodes = {
 ["0x00"] = function() -- NOP
 end,
 ["0x01"] = function() -- MOV R, c
 local A = operands[fetch()]
 local c = fetch()
 registers[A] = tonumber(c)
 end,
 ["0x02"] = function() -- ADD R, r
 local R = operands[fetch()]
 local r = operands[fetch()]
 registers[R] = registers[R] + registers[r]
 end,
 ["0x03"] = function() -- SUB R, r
 local R = operands[fetch()]
 local r = operands[fetch()]
 registers[R] = registers[R] - registers[r]
 end,
 ["0x04"] = function() -- JMP addr
 local addr = fetch()
 PC = tonumber(addr)
 end,
 ["0x05"] = function() -- IFE R, r
 local R = registers[operands[fetch()]]
 local r = registers[operands[fetch()]]
 PC = (R == r) and PC + 3 or PC
 end
}

-- TEST machine

MEM = {
 "0x00", -- NOP
 "0x01", "0x01", "0x05", -- MOV B, 5
 "0x01", "0x02", "0x01", -- MOV C, 1
 "0x02", "0x00", "0x02", -- ADD A, C
 "0x05", "0x00", "0x01", -- IFE A, B
 "0x04", "0x7", -- JMP 1
 "0x00",
 "0x00"
}

Now we have a small loop that counts to 5 and then stops! Yeah!

PC IR A B
1 0x00 0 0 0
4 0x01 0 5 0
7 0x01 0 5 1
10 0x02 1 5 1
13 0x05 1 5 1
7 0x04 1 5 1
10 0x02 2 5 1
13 0x05 2 5 1
7 0x04 2 5 1
10 0x02 3 5 1
13 0x05 3 5 1
7 0x04 3 5 1
10 0x02 4 5 1
13 0x05 4 5 1
7 0x04 4 5 1
10 0x02 5 5 1
16 0x05 5 5 1
17 0x00 5 5 1

Conclusion

There is a lot of room for experimentation: Write an assembler. Handle errors, add your own instructions and make small programs with them. Try to enforce the register sizes or create “stack and add” subroutines. You could also try to create opcodes with different cycle length or implement a small pipeline (and then resolve stalls). Have fun with it!