Category: Blog

Getting to Tena The bus ride from Quito to Tena normally takes about 5 hours. I travelled on a Friday so it took 6. It was not as bad as I expected. The bus was very modern and comfortable. To be honest, the 1.5 hour trolley journey from the North of Quito to Quitumbe bus…

Hitting rock bottom can take many forms. You may lose your job, a loved one, go broke, get evicted or all of these at once. The question after hitting rock bottom is usually not how to get up, but why. Why bother? Why start again from scratch? What’s the point? There is no explicit answer…

I never had a smartphone. Not out of some sort of stubborn eccentricism, I just never needed one. Working on the computer all day, I didn’t need another opportunity to check my emails. Unfortunately, my good old dumb phone wouldn’t work on South American networks so I had to make a choice before I left…

I’ve been on the road for hardly two months so what I’m saying here is by no means my final verdict, but so far I’m very glad I chose minimalist travel as opposed to carrying everything I “need”. The bag Buying a bag was a tough choice. I had no idea what I wanted. I…

William was the first Ecuadorian I came in touch with. I rented a room in his apartment in the first two weeks of my stay in Ecuador. In addition to being a great host, he is also a successful entrepreneur. I thought William got his entrepreneurial spirit from his family as his parents had a…

I learnt from my first attempt of climbing the Pichincha so we took the Teleferico this time. It’s about a 10 minute ride and is well worth the $8.50 foreigners are charged considering the alternative of climbing for 3 hours. Quito is around 3000 meters above see level. The teleferico takes you up to around…

Josh Adamski – Running Contrary to popular belief, we humans are physical beings. Through millions of years of evolution, our bodies have become extremely good at chasing animals, running away from them and picking up fruits from the ground. Then we started building tools. And perfected this skill to such an extraordinary level that we…

Excess Mental Baggage. Photo by Manoj Jadhav. I must have my own apartment. I must have a car. I must have coffee in the morning. I must have at least a dozen shirts. I must have total silence at night. I must not have a TV. Before I embarked on my journey to the Americas, I’d…

A week after setting foot on Ecuadorian land I feel at home. I had no expectations whatsoever so I can’t say I’m pleasantly surprised, but I still am in a way. The first thing I did was I walked around old town. It’s quite pretty with all of its churches and nice little squares, but…

I’d never been to Madrid before so I thought why not turn my changing flights into a quick “sightseeing”. So I did. Landed at 3 PM to be welcomed by bright sunny weather. After locating my accommodation and dropping my bag off, I went for a run. It’s definitely the best thing to do on…

I asked her how to get to the city center from Madrid airport as we waited in queue before boarding the plane in Budapest. She was a 25 year old journalist, “unemployed like everyone in Spain at the moment”. I told her I was going to travel South America while working online. She said I…

I have a crappy old performance bike. I bought it when I was 16 and have been wrecking it ever since. I get a little worried sometimes that the handlebar might come off when I least expect it, but it works like a charm otherwise. I went for a ride the other day. As I…

I came to prefer doing and having few important things to doing and having many unimportant things. I’ve grown to like simplicity and dislike complexity. The design of this site (or the lack thereof) perhaps reflects this. I don’t think that qualifies me to be a minimalist. But if you want to call me that, fine.…

Many small businesses are profitable not as a result of, but despite what their management is doing. At the grand scheme of things, there is nothing wrong with that. Not all companies will grow and move from infancy to adolescence. But if you happen to be one of those businesses and feel stuck, you might…

RATING: ★★★★ I’ve always been fascinated by the mysterious ways of the human mind. Why we do what we do in certain situations and why we act sometimes totally irrationally. Dan Ariely’s book, Predictably Irrational, attempts to explore this question. He investigates irrationality from different aspects such as market dynamics, human relationships and government policy,…

A friend of mine is 3 times Iron Man. He runs a 100k in 12 hours and can do it again the next day with a smile on his face. Much as I love to exercise and although I run the occasional long distance, I could never imagine a life of an ultra runner for…

I spent my fair share of time being a wantrepreneur. I’d have an idea, work on it secretly for months so that no one could steal it, and I’d eventually decide not to go through with it for some reason. I’d always find a reason… I don’t do that anymore. But there is still room…

It takes 10 000 hours to get good at something. We’ve all heard that. I wanted to become a salsa dancer. So I asked people what it takes to become one. They said 3-5 years of practice, which was pretty much in line with the 10 000 hour rule. I thought I’d never have that…

In a Roman Osteria – Carl Heinrich Bloch. Click for large image, worth it! I hate shopping malls. To my mind, they represent everything that is wrong with our world. They are the high temples of limitless consumption and buying useless crap. And yet, I’ve had lunch in one of them today… so much about…