jeffkao.net

Every week the writers for The Onion AV Club answer a question. I thought I’d share my own answers to one of their previous Q&A’s.

This week for me is: What was the first album you bought with your own money?

I don’t remember exactly which album would be my first since my memory is just garbage. There’s a good chance it was Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker’s Greatest Hits, but my dad might’ve bought that for me. Instead I will tell you that I distinctly remember buying Metallica’s “…And Justice For All” at Bizzy Bee music in my hometown of Naperville, IL. Paul the owner was a great guy who ran the shop out of his home and later would make fun of me endlessly for all the Green Day I bought and how I thought they were better than Nirvana.

Click here to watch one of the greatest music videos of all time. Landmine!

It always bugs me when catalogs advertise shorts & swimsuits in March. I get that in places like L.A. it really is spring, but sending those images to Chicagoans like me is just mean. Luckily for me I can relive sitting on a warm sandy beach while writing this post about my trip last fall. Enjoy.

Today we woke up and made the trip to playa de chao which is only reachable by boats. The boats are these small fiberglass jobs that skip along the ocean powered by a big outboard motor.

I got my first question! Sweet. What camera equipment did you bring on your trip?

Here’s my camera bag which I carried with me nearly 100% of the time. This was for two reasons: 1. I never knew when a good picture was around the corner and 2. frequently my hostel doors did not lock.

As you can see I shoot using one of two prime lenses. I like prime lenses a lot because of how easy they are to use. When I shoot I simply frame the shot, pick the right aperture, & click. Not having to zoom means one less thing to worry about. Now granted this means I switch my lenses often, but I’ve gotten pretty fast at it. Also I can’t really afford a zoom lens that is as sharp as my primes.

Of course what this means in terms of my pictures is that I have essentially only a few styles of photos. Really far away, sort of up close, and really up close. Looking back at my pictures from my trip I always imagine a spastic little kid as the narrator. “Look at that cool building!” or “No wait look at this crazy bug over here!”


Please feel free to send me any more questions either by posting a comment or sending me an email at jeffunderscorekao at gmail.com

Back in the middle of November last year I spent about 30 days traveling in Peru & Venezuela. During that time I took over a thousand pictures and took some notes about my experiences. Here they are for your enjoyment. – jeff

Saturday after taking our time waking up and packing we spent the rest of the day on an arduous journey to Choroni. The day before Amy & Simon had warned me of 3 major annoyances:
1. The touts would be constantly bothering us.
2. How cold the first bus would be
3. A second bus ride so epically awful that the only way to recover is to spend a couple days lounging on a sun drenched beach.

Indeed the touts (nice word Simon) at every opportunity harrassed us, but to no less degree than the ones in Beijing. Mostly they wanted us to board their particular buses, but there were also some selling snacks.

Before getting the first bus in Caracas I was sweltering in the heat wearing rolled up pants & a t-shirt. By the time we arrived in Maracay I was bundled up in a long sleeve shirt, parka, and a wool cap.

No lie, the second bus from Maracay to Choroni was the most exhausting ride I’d ever been on. We packed into a school bus with every slot totally filled. My legs were long enough that I couldn’t sit with my knees together touching. I was totally wedged in, which ended up being a good thing after all. The first half of the trip was up a mountain winding through the switchback roads that while on the hairpin turns can only fit a single car at a time. This mean the driver had to pull a rope in order to blare the horn warning oncoming traffic all while negotiating the turns, one handed.

Unbelievably, the second half of the ride down the mountain was worse. We were going downhill so we were going much faster, the turns seemed sharper, a steady rain had fallen, and a heavy fog reduced visibility to mere feet. Adding to our discomfort was the heavy based Latin pop music blaring from the enormous sound system.

When we finally arrived in the town of Choroni I was so taxed both physically & mentally. It was such a huge relief to check into our rooms and to walk around the small town. We briefly walked over to the nearest beach which was incredibly beautiful with swaying palm trees. Even better was the seawall where all the tourists & locals hung out in the evenings.
Look at how happy we are to be in Choroni!


Next time: Speedboats! Wild Packs of Dogs! & Floods!

Back in the middle of November last year I spent about 30 days traveling in Peru & Venezuela. During that time I took over a thousand pictures and took some notes about my experiences. Here they are for your enjoyment. – jeff

Awesome panoramic by flickr user ervega

It seemed like just as soon as I arrived in Peru I was leaving for Venezuela to see Simon & Amy. The days that I was traveling from city to city were when I really wished I had a traveling buddy. Even with my pack being relatively small it still would’ve been nice to have someone trustworthy to look after my stuff while I went to the restroom. Or maybe learn just a couple more Spanish phrases that were different then the ones I depended on.

Fact: I have no concept of the size of large land masses. I thought the flight from Lima to Caracas would be one or two hours instead of four. I’m glad I didn’t try & take a train.

Landing in Caracas is like landing in any of the other developing cities I’ve landed in like Beijing, Shanghai, Lima, Mexico City, etc. Namely, that on exiting the secure area one get’s bombarded by taxi drivers looking for fares. Normally, I’d just walk a little farther out of the terminal, haggle a fair fare, and hop in, but not this time.

I should explain that of all the places I’ve visited Caracas was the one I feared/respected the most. Partly this was due to the subtle language differences that different literature had when describing Caracas compared to Lima. See for Lima crime was called out as something that may happen while for Caracas crime was something that would happen.

Mostly what had me spooked was Amy & Simon’s insistence that we hire from a specific taxi company. Like most large urban airports Simón Bolívar is on the outskirts of town and it is not uncommon for crooked cabbies to use this to their advantage to get an extra “tip” from unsuspecting tourists.

Soon enough I was at my friend’s very cool apartment in the Altamira neighborhood of Caracas drinking tea. Dinner that night was the best of the trip so far. We ate at a country/western-style steakhouse within walking distance. First we had some arepias which are these tasy corn meal cakes and then we split a huge platter of various meats & sausages served over a bed of french fries and topped with slices of avocado.

After dinner Simon & Amy took me to a nearby shopping mall for some ice cream and people watching. They pointed out that Venezuelan men have a propensity to wearing comically large fanny packs.

Next time: A journey so harrowing it takes days at the beach to recover