Test trip to Portugal today :)
Today, I am heading to Portugal for the 2011 Europeans. It will be a five day trip and I will use it as a test for my globetrotter travel, to see how it will work to bring all this stuff that I plan to bring. Packing my iPad, DSLR add pocket camera to see if it is too much to have with me. Will also try and blog from my iPad there and post some photos from my cameras, to see how it all works out “in the field”.
Having found all the stuff I need to bring for this short trip and put it out on my table, I can’t help wonder how on earth I am going to have enough room in my backpack for all the stuff I need to bring on a four and a half month trip around the world? :)
Got a pocket camera for the trip
Yesterday, I bought myself a nice little pocket camera for the trip. I ended up choosing the Canon Ixus 130, which has a very nice size and also seems to take good quality photos. Even more important, is shoots beautiful 720p video, so I will use it to do some videos from the trip, instructionals and film my matches when I enter competitions.
Looking for rashguards
I am looking for a few rashguards to bring for the trip. I think they will be much better to train no-gi in, compared to tshirts, since they are easier to wash and dry in a short time.
I don’t know which one to get though. If anyone out there have suggestions for what rashguards to get where, please let me know! If you would like to sponsor me some, please let me know as well ;)
Got a backpack
I’ve been looking a bit for a basic backpack to use for my gi and stuff when I will be going to training during the trip. A local martial arts shop sponsored me one of those for the trip, so it was nice to cross that off the list :) Thanks to BudoXperten for the support!
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.
