Gi update!
I got my awesome globetrotter gi from Kauai Kimonos about a month ago and even though it has been love at first sight, the A3 size was a just a little too big for me. I could use it with no problems, but the size wasn’t 100% perfect.
Today I got a surprise as I, completely unexpected, received a brand new A2 size gi from Kauai, totally out of the blue. It fits me perfect and Jonathan (the owner of Kauai Kimonos) made it even cooler than the first one by adding a beautiful embroided “We Are All One” logo on the back of it plus throwing in a pile of personalized patches for me to pimp my gi’s with.
What a cool surprise and very nice of Jonathan to do that for me, thanks!!
Article in Gracie Magazine about my trip :)
Gracie Magazine features an article about my trip today, check it out:
Flight to Hawaii?
Does anyone know how to get the cheapest one-way flight from Asia (preferably Tokyo) to Hawaii? Can only find super expensive tickets :-/
Really expensive vaccination 1/2
Today, I got the first of two vaccination shots against Japanese encephalitis. Each of the vaccinations costs a whopping 980 DKR, equivalent to USD$ 170. It does last for life though, but still pretty expensive, I think :)
I need to figure out, wether or not I should get some malaria pills. They are even more expensive, so gotta talk to people living in the areas I go, if it is necessary or not.
Preparation status – leaving in 43 days!
I put a countdown timer on the blog and looking at it right now, it says 43 days and 12 hours till departure. Times runs so fast, it doesn’t feel like it was very long ago, I got the idea to do this project and here I am with just over a month before I sit on the plane towards my first destination.
I’ve bought the first ten tickets, got vaccinated, insured, and renewed my passport. I also got some gadgets for the trip, such as a flashcard reader for my iPad so I can upload photos on the road, and a funky tripod so I can hopefully do some cool long exposure shots somewhere out in the world. More importantly, I finally got my pimped out, super light weight globetrotter gi from Kauai Kimonos, which I think will be perfect for traveling. I still need to find some nice grappling shorts, new shoes and other stuff, but it is not so urgent and I can probably buy some of that cheap on the way.
My training preparations has been pretty tough, but I want to be in the best shape possible for this trip. First of all, to handle all that training (combined with jetlag, strange food and so on), which I think will put a lot of stress on my body. Most places, I will only visit for a few days, and I want to get as much training done as possible each place, so there won’t be many breaks. I also wanna try and hit some competitions, and being fit for that is of course always important. Last, but not least, I want to do my best to avoid injuries, which I think are less frequent when I am strong and flexible.
I started doing my physical training for the trip in the end of september and have been doing it since with no breaks, besides a few days here and there due to Christmas, tournaments etc. Mondays and wednesdays, I do a cardio/endurance workout with the guys from my gi class, who are also competing at the Europeans. We are doing basic circuit training and has upped the amount and intensity along the way. Saturdays, I do heavy lifting, mostly for upperbody, since I still have problems with my herniated disc. It is getting much better though, and I can do things like boxjumps, lunges and similar, which was impossible just a year or so back. I also, try to do a basic stretching routine daily.
It is very obvious, how I have gotten in much better shape over the last three and a half months, I have been doing this training. In the beginning it was extremely exhausting to finish the workout, but now I can do a much longer and harder workout with no real problems. Wednesday we did six rounds of five stations with lunges, clean & jerk, sledgehammer, tireflips and ropeswings, and by the end I felt like I could go six more rounds (and that was even the same day I just got vaccinated). When I get really tired from working out or rolling, I only need to rest for a minute or so to get my breath back, and I feel fresh and ready again. My movements in jiu jitsu feels faster, more explosive and my grip feels really strong compared to earlier. Really nice to be in this great shape, I recommend it ;)
Grappling wise, I have been rolling consistently five days a week, and I can feel how my body gets more used to the high volume of training. Six months ago, three times a week were more than enough for me. I am very blessed to live a life without an alarm clock, so my body is allowed to sleep as much as it needs to recover ever single night. I think that plays a big role in my energy needs for all this training. I have also done some extra sparring with a very skilled brownbelt from another local gym as preparations for the Europeans, and has gotten a lot out of it. Nice to roll with someone who has a different style than what I am used to, and can put a lot of pressure on my game. I will need all the defensive training I can get for all those headhunters in the gyms out there, who are hungry to test out their meanest headlocks on visitors from out of town :D
With all this training, keeping my weight up has been very difficult. At some point, I dropped all the way down to 76 kilos, so I decided I had to start eating A LOT more. I managed to crawl my way up over 80 kilos now, but I would like to hit 82-83 by the time I leave. I generally have difficulty keeping muscle mass, so wanna have something to lose during the trip, so I don’t end up competing in -70 for the Mundials in June ;)
My plan is to keep this workout going until the day I leave, so hopefully I can stay injury free for that.
Got tickets for Borneo, Singapore and Bali
Went shopping with my MasterCard on AirAsia.com today and got three more tickets. From Kuala Lumpur, I will go to Kuching in Borneo, where I was invited by a small gym. I know nothing about the place, but I read that there should be some amazing nature and I really want to sail a canoe through a quiet jungle river, so that is my mission for Borneo :)
After Kuching, I head for Singapore for a few days, before I go to Bali to visit Jonathan from Kauai Kimonos. Don’t know yet how long I will stay in Bali, but it will be minimum 10 days or so, since I want to surf there and also spend my birthday there (april 4th), before I move on. Next stop from there will probably be the Philippines, but not sure yet.
Got all three tickets for less than 1000 dkr (around US$170), so that was not bad at all :)
“Business” cards and vaccinations
I was bored the other day, so I fired up Photoshop and made some “business” cards, so I don’t have to write down my web adress all the time on the trip.
I also made it to the doctor today to talk about vaccinations for the trip. I am thinking I’d rather be safe than sorry, as I really can’t afford to get too sick on my trip due to my travel and training schedule. I got one for Yellow Fewer today, and they’ve ordered a few more for me to get in a month or so, right before I leave.
More flight tickets! :)
I am not on a total of nine flight tickets bought for my trip! Recently, I got the following tickets:
Istanbul -> Cyprus
Cyprus -> Istanbul
Istanbul -> Mumbai
Mumbai -> Kuala Lumpur
Especially the ticket from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur was a steal, since I got it from Air Asia for only 785 kr. or roughly USD$140. Not bad for a 5+ hours flight! Air Asia seems to have some REALLY cheap tickets, so I will do some powershopping on their website soon.
My plan right now is to get to Bali from Kuala Lumpur, maybe with a short stop in Kuching and Jakarta on the way. These flights are ridiculously cheap, I found some at around 10-20 US dollars??
Apparently, the apple doesn’t fall far…
When looking through some old photo albums this Christmas evening, I found these photos of my father, when he visited Taekwondo and Karate gyms during a trip all the way to Australia in 1979. It is funny to think, how the world has gotten smaller and I feel like anywhere on the planet with BJJ is easily reachable for me during this trip. Australia must have seemed extremely far away back then. Compared to today where we have google, forums, email and facebook, imagine being in a far away country with your gi in the (most likely brown and orange) suitcase, flipping through the phonebook to find local gyms and walking in there with no knowledge of who to meet or how training would be compared to home. The flight ticket was ordered by phone through a travel agent, handwritten and had seven stopovers on the way. What an adventure it must have been!
I hope to find similar adventure on my trip. I obviously seek that feeling of being far, far away from home, in some little corner of the world that I know nothing about and couldn’t possible read about in a travel brochure. Experience things and meet people who I will remember for the rest of my life and can tell my children about to inspire them to live life to the fullest. There are millions of amazing adventures like that out there in the world, just waiting to be discovered, what are we all waiting for?
One life, one chance.
The official BJJ Globetrotter gi has arrived!
A big thanks to Kauai Kimonos for covering my gi needs for the trip. Their super light weight gi is really a truly unique product, perfect for travelling due to it’s size and very fast drying. I can’t wait to take this around the world!
Cauliflower Chronicles
Just finished reading the book Cauliflower Chronicles about Marshal Carper, who went to live six months in Hilo, Hawaii, where he studied and trained at BJ Penn’s gym.
I found it pretty interesting and relevant to my own trip and it it only took me two days to get through it. I don’t normally read books, but maybe I should do it more, it was a nice break from computer, tv and iPhone. It also sparked my own interest in writing a book about my own trip. Could be a combination of travel stories and tips on training while traveling. If I should ever write a book about something, it would have to be on combining traveling and BJJ :D
Cauliflower Chronicles gave me some good inspiration and tips on training in Hawaii and I am looking forward to go there. I will probably hit the islands sometime late April or early may depending on how long my Asian adventure ends up taking.
I recommend anyone training BJJ to check out the book, it is only $11 or so on Amazon and they shipped it all the way to me in just a few days.
Visit from a fellow BJJ globetrotter
This week, I had the pleasure of getting a visit from a fellow BJJ globetrotter. Simon, a blue belt from New Zealand, stopped by Denmark during a Europe trip and while his friends at home couldn’t understand why he would train on his vacation, we had not problem doing just that ;) We even persuaded him to join our crazy Beachbody/Europeans 2011/Globetrotter workouts in our new CrossFit gym downstairs.
I have gotten so many great experiences from traveling and training over the last many years, so it is a big pleasure for me be able to give some back to whoever comes by gym. If any of you out there are ever in the neighborhood, feel free to drop by any time for a roll :)
Two Christmas gifts for myself
I bought myself two early Christmas gifts for the trip:
First thing is a special tripod for my camera called a GorillaPod. Basically it is a flexible tripod, that can attach to almost anything. Since I am an avid amateur photographer, I am planning to carry my heavy DSLR camera equipment around the world so I am not missing any photo opportunities I might run into. With this tripod, I hope to make some cool long exposure shots. I don’t know yet what lenses I will bring, maybe I’ll just stick to my basic 18-55mm, but I would really like to see if I can find room for my 50mm f/1.8 and my 8mm fisheye too. Might be a little optimistic though.
My next gift to myself was a book about a guy who went to Hawaii for six months to train BJJ. Pretty relevant to my trip so I thought I would check it out and maybe find some info and tips on training in Hawaii, since it is one of the places I really want to visit on my trip. Also, it kind of sparked the idea in my head, that I could do the same and write a book about my own trip. Why not! :)
Ticket for Turkey
Got my ticket from Chisinau, Moldova to Ankara, Turkey today, going there on Thursday, March 3rd. Cost me 1400 DKR (USD$250) so not the cheapest flight on the trip, but will be cool to see Turkey.
Flight on to India from looks to be difficult to find. I can find some cheap tickets but they have 20 hours layover, so maybe it will be an expensive flight there. Is there a bus from Turkey to India? :D
Got the ticket to Romania
Just bought the ticket from Montpellier to Bucarest. I will take the train from Montpellier to Paris on february 25th in the morning, then fly directly to Bucarest, arriving around 19:30 in the evening. I should be able to make it to training i Bucarest that evening :)
Total price for train + flight was 100 euros or about 750 DKR. I could get the same tickets for about halft the price, but then I could only stay one whole day in France, which I think is not time enough for me.
Just bought the first ticket!!
This is a special day in my preparations for this trip, as I just bought my first ticket. Suddently it all feels so real, I can’t believe I am actually doing this :)
I just spend a few hours deciding what tickets to buy to get the best deal with minimum hassle, and I finally settled on something and paid it. On February 21st, I will be flying out of Copenhagen in the morning, arriving in Paris around 10:00 am. From there, I have about five hours to walk around the city and play tourist a bit, before I take the train (four hour trip) down to Montpellier, where I will stay with my friend Thomas and get some good training done in his club Arte Suave. I talked to the owner of the club, and he told me I was very welcome to train there for free, which I am very grateful for. I should just be able to make it to training already monday evening when I get there – first training on the globetrotter trip!
I ended up paying 560 DKR for the flight to Paris (about USD$100). I found tickets to roughly half that price, but then I would arrive really late at night at an airport with no real train connections and in the end it would be more expensive because I had to stay one night in Paris then. The train from Paris was only 164 DKR (USD$30), much cheaper than flying. It is offseason for Montpellier, so either I had to take and expensive flight there, or fly to another city (Marseilles) and take a train from there anyways. So I will spend some hours strolling around in Paris before I take the train down south. Actually I am more excited about the train ride where I get to see more of the country, than if I fly.
Next mission: Find cheapest transportation from Montpellier to Bucharest to hook up with Robert and go to Moldova.
Got travel insurance!
Took some time today to look into the different options I have for travel insurance. The danish national health insurance only covers me within Europe and my regular insurance covers travel for up to one month, so I needed something else for the rest. I ended up buying an insurance from Gouda, which should cover everything for the entire trip, including theft, baggage, medicine, transportation and so on. Most importantly, it fully covers in case of injuries or accidents from all sort of sports (only exception is skiing), so that was the selling point for me. Ended up paying 3377 DKR for the insurance, which is equivalent to about US$620.
Ready to go!
Change of plans
Ok so my original plan was to go to the European Open tournament with my kids team in Disneyland, Paris and then travel on from there. We have prepared for this tournament for almost a year, but I have had real problems getting some info about it and even a date. I have asked everywhere for the last four months, and finally today I received a reply. Seems like the tournament is not gonna happen this year, so that kind of changes my plans a bit.
I had expected the tournament to be in late February, but no I have no plans in that month. We are going to the Europeans in Portugal in end of January, so maybe I should start my trip there instead? That would just extend it by almost a full month since I don’t wanna go home before the Estonia camp (I know when I get home on my couch, I am not going to get back up :D). Or maybe I should just start the trip the same date as planned but without going to Paris first. I don’t know, gotta sit down and plan it and see what flight tickets I can get.
At least I now have something that I can plan my trip accordingly to.
Flashcard reader for iPad
So I finally bought me a flashcard reader for my iPad so I can download, edit and upload photos from my camera while I am away. I decided to try it out right away, so I took this photo, copied it to my iPad, edited it a bit and posted it with the WordPress application. Hope it works? :)
UPDATE: Damn the WordPress app is really, really buggy. This might take some patience :(
Mission: Get in ridiculously good shape
One of my biggest concerns about this trip is, if I am unlucky enough to get an injury, that will keep me from training. If my knee pops, like I experienced last time I competed, it will pretty much put an end to the training and competing part of my trip, and that would seriously suck. Then I would have to travel the world and get drunk instead of training, imagine that?!!? ;)
Therefore, I have started my program of getting in as good shape as possible before the trip. I wanna be as strong and flexible as I can get in the next four months before I leave, to minimize the risk of potential injuries. I know I can’t travel and train for four months without getting some sort of injuries, but I’ll prepare myself as much as I can, then I guess that the rest is up to chance.
With all this training, I have also lost some weight and is not down to around 78 kilos. Not much, and I know I will lose some on the trip too, so I will try and get to around 82 before I leave, while keeping the same bodyfat percentage as now. All my physical training is being done in our newly opened facility, which is a part of our gym. It is really awesome and inspiring to have a full size training facility for physical training available, it is actually the first time in my entire training career that I have had that. I train three times a week, doing a full body workout with kettlebells, ropes, hammers, etc. and I am very determined to get in the shape of my life for this trip.
Saying goodbye to my old passport
My old passport expired last month, so I went down to get a new one. It was somewhat sentimental to say goodbye to my old one, since it has followed me so on so many great experiences around the world for the last ten years. I am looking forward to receive a brand new one in the mail though, and I will do my best to wear it down like the last one, starting with the globetrotter trip in five months ;)
