TravelVlog

Click to Play I was invited up the Longyearbyen which is an island in the Svalbard region about 500 miles from the North Pole for the 3rd annual North Pole Rock Paper Scissors Classic. Getting the chance to go dogsledding in such a wonderful location has got to be one of the great experiences of my life. Â

Watch the videoBeen a little busy of late and have not been posting too many videos. Here is the main reason why. Little Thea Audrey Walker arrived January 12th, 2007 and she is the sweetest litttle thing. This is just a quick 30 second video to introduce her to the World.

Watch the videoChapter 1 - I feel like a rock n' roll chick Andrea couldn't decide where we should have our wedding: Canada or the Czech Republic. Each option provided various levels of benefits and challenges. So we came to the conclusion that the best course of action was to elope in New Zealand since we had already planned a trip there. We also decided to vlog our wedding as best as we could (which is a rather hard thing to do when you are busy getting...well...married) so all of our family and friends could see what we missed. I have finally finished putting the video together, so over the course of 15 episodes, you are invite to be a part of our celebrations. Hope you enjoy our experience.

Watch the videoChapter 03. An odd turn of events What brought us to New Zealand in the first place was, believe it or not, a Rock Paper Scissors Promotion that was being staged by New Zealand Telecom. As the authors of the book "The Official RPS Strategy Guide" and the leaders of the World RPS Society, we often get invited to travel to some fun places. So my partner/brother also became the one and only 'invited guest' to our elopement (although he didn't find out about it until after we all had arrived). Anyway, perhaps the most surreal experiences in my life occoured in this elevator while Doug was doing a Radio interview on some morning talk show. It proved quite difficult for all of us to keep a straight face, but it is goofy moments like these that makes life such a wonderful ride. TOTAL TIME: 2:12min

Watch the videoChapter 4 - So here we are, going to get married The reality of our next steps really started to take hold in the car on the way to heli-port. Andrea just wanted to make sure that she read the vows correctly and as can be seen at the end of the video, I am looking a little like a deer caught in headlights. Total time: 1:24min

Watch the videoChapter 2 Honey, hold on... Not too much I can say about this short clip, but I thought it was a rather funny little moment. So I will just remind myself about how great Andrea looked in this beautiful day at the Hermitage Hotel in New Zealand which overlooks the country's most famous mountain: Mt Cook. She is wearing what we called her yeti jacket with her dress and those crazy boots. All these preperations will come in handy with where we are headed

Watch the videoWith the realization of the steps we were about to take, I think it is totally clear (if you look at our facial expressions ) that we did not hear a word of the safety briefing. In one ear and out the other.

Watch the videoLast part of the car ride to the hellpad and Doug leaves Andrea with a bit of perspective on the importance of the wedding vows.

Watch the videoTaking Off After not being able to pay attention to the Safety lesson, it was time to get on board. If getting married is not sureal enough then hoping in a chopper to forever change our lives together certainly was. The view all around was spectacular.

Watch the videoWould You Repeat After Me Andrea's biggest fear of saying the vows properly which turned out to be no issue at all, especially with a little video editing.

Vietnam Ventures: Fish Boy Watch the video This video played last year as a Rocketboom episode but I never put it up on the vlog, so I thought it was time to add it. It is one of those neat magical moments where you decide to film someone and then they end up doing something which I found to be quite extraordinary.

Watch the video Part 2 of my visit to some castle ruins in the Czech Republic.

Booming in Berlin Watch the video Here is the full video I did for Rocketboom while at the Weallspeakfootball.com bloggers house in Berlin. It is about the Street Football World Championshipsthat took place as part of the World Cup festivities. The event was a great counterpoint to the commercialism of the World Cup. These kids all come from underprivileged circumstances from all over the world and were playing for nothing more than the chance to travel and love of the game. It was really interesting to film them and learn a little bit about how football is helping to bring messages of hope from some very troubled areas of the world. If these kid's views represent the future of their respective countries, then it is time for me to become an official optimist.A good blog post on the event can be seen here World Cup Blog

Changing gears here a bit in this post. Instead of traveling around the world, I figure it is time to turn the camera on the place that I live: the Czech Republic. This is a video I shot last summer on an excursion I made with my wife's family to a couple of castle ruins about 40 minutes outside of Prague. The Czech Republic is littered with at least 1000 castles. I much prefer visiting the ruins, becuase they are generally more open, as opposed to the important castles that you must take a tour.Watch the Video quicktime 21.4 megs

Walking around Kathmandu, I saw two boys engaging in a game of old school marbles. I loved that their board incorporated the geography of their surroundings.Boys Play Marbles 6.1 megs Quicktime 1:07 min.

The craziness of Kathmandu seems all that much more visible through a cab ride. After spending a couple of weeks in Tibet, the food here was a great change. Kathmandu Taxi Ride 12.5 megs Quicktime 2:21 min.

Everest is often clouded over, so being able to see this mountain on a beautiful clear sunset evening was probably one of my greatest travel moments. To put things in perspective, basecamp is at 5200 metres above sea level (over 17,000 feet) which means that when you are standing there looking at the mountain you are at a higher altitude than almost every peak in the Rocky Moutains. This is probably as fitting an ending as any for this series of 36 videos on my trip to Tibet. Hope you enjoyed following me along.Next stop... Sunset On Everest 6.9 megs Quicktime 1:19 min.

It seemed quite fitting to see a Yak Train arrive at Everest which marked the major literal and figurative highpoint for our journey. With no light polution and less atmoshpere to look through, at night the stars were the best I have ever seen. Yak Train Arrives 7.1 megs Quicktime 1:21 min.Second last Tibet post...where will we go next?

Unless you are tenting it, there is only one place to stay at Everest Base Camp. The Rongbuk Monestary Guesthouse. Certainlly not one of the nicest guesthouses around, but it does have one thing that no other guesthouses in the World has and it is well worth any discomfort.Almost done the trip now, this is the thrid last video in the Tibet series. Ronbuk Guesthouse 6.1 megs Quicktime 1:08 min.

Just before we got to Mount Everest region we stopped for lunch at nice little Tibetan restaurant. Thought you might like a quick little tour.Next Stop Everest Lunch Stop 6.7 megs Quicktime 1:17 min.

Seeing the Himalayian mountain range for the first time (well, I lie a bit, we saw it from the plane on the way to Lhasa) is a pretty spectactular experience. We got our first view of Everest (lie again, saw Everest peaking from the clouds on that flight) and got exctied about getting even closer as we made our way to the base camp. Perfect day too (no lie there) Mapping Everest 4.2 megs Quicktime 47 sec.

In my romanticized view of Tibet I always had the image of seeing a Yak Train carrying goods through the mountains and I always wondered if I was being a tad sterotypical in this thinking. Obviously, I wasn't. Sometimes it can be very hard to capture the calmness of a moment like this. This Yak train was getting away from me fast, so with only a short window to capture this, I had to work feverishly which really means that I was not able to appreiate this moment until I was back at home editing it. The Yak Train 5.1 megs Quicktime 1:00min.

Tibet still has nomadic people. These Yak herders were camped out not to far from the road so we decided to drop by for a little visit. The night before, the hotel we stayed at gave us a carepackge with all sorts of bath and sewing stuff, so we gave it to them and they seemed appreciative. It is too bad we can't send the photos that we all took together ...being of no fixed address and all. Visitinf Nomads 7.3 megs Quicktime 1:19min.