Travel | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly was a backpacker before being a backpacker was a thing.

I knew nothing about Asia, or even travelling; I had never even been out of New England. I knew nothing about what to expect. I went to the bookstores and it was really hard to find any information. There were these Fodor’s guidebooks for people who had a lot of money. I didn’t have any money. They barely covered places like Taiwan, so these books weren’t of any use to me. There was no internet, of course, and the libraries didn’t have much. I travelled kind of blindly because I had to.

Shanghai is clearly missing here.

If you’re not yet convinced that Iceland must be your next destination, here are 37 photographs with astonishing Icelandic scenes to prove that it should be!

Wow.

The beginning of our two day study trip to Linan organized by the International School. Price: 50 Yuan (about 4,50 Euro).

I’ll be aboard Air China flight 962 on my way to Shanghai. I’ll have written two more exams, cleared the apartment I have been living in for the last three and a half years and hope I won’t have to sleep under a bridge when I will have arrived.

For about a year I’ve been knowing that I would go to China. It has always been in the future. Months, weeks and now it’s only days. 10…9…

One exam next Thursday, two more the Friday after next, then two days to clear out the apartment and I’ll be gone. Is there any time for a farewell party?

I thought I’d get a student (X) visa but this is a business (F) one. So I don’t have to apply for a residence permit and can avoid the health check. But, and I hope that won’t be a problem, I have to get re-entry visas when I visit other countries. And I have to extend in order to do an internship.

I don’t know if it’s really that hard but in Germany we drive on the right side of the street. So if you’re the slowest car on the Autobahn your place is the inner lane and only the inner lane!

Four weeks until I have to be in Shanghai. No appartment yet. But a flight:

I’ll arrive in Hongqiao rather than the modern Pudong Airport. It’s nearer and I better get my things to wherever I stay before exploring the city.

According to the lady of the Air China service hotline I may take thirty kilogram to Beijing but only twenty to Shanghai. Different regulations for international and domestic flights. Ok. I thought about sending some stuff by mail. Beijing, Shanghai. That shouldn’t take too long. A Chinese friend advised against it. Hm.

I don’t want to write on my semester thesis, don’t want to study for the exams, don’t want to clear out my appartment and don’t want to go to China. Although I have to admit that the images Jan and Michael took look quite good.