Nota Bene

Hi folks!

I’m back home in Moscow – where it seems the fall has been cancelled! I flew out in summer – and flew back in winter! ->

The contrast was remarkable – from the tropics to this. And winter’s still a month away! All this talk of global warming? It doesn’t seem to apply to Moscow in November 2024!…

Right on cue to brighten-lighten my wintry mood, when I returned to my office for the first time in ages there was a surprise waiting for me in there…

Read on…

It was farewell to what is possibly the world’s remotest hotel complex, and off we choppered south to our next Kamchatkan volcanic wonder – Kizimen (pronounced KizEEmen). And here she is – the view from the south:

And from the north ->

What differentiates this particular volcano of Kamchatka from others are the two lakes at its foot set among wonderfully “designer” landscapes. There’s also the amazing view of nearby Kronotsky volcano – here on the horizon to the right, upon which you can meditate for an eternity.

Read on…

Just like in Kamchatka, in Indonesia (where last week we had our super-successful Security Analyst Summit), there are a great many really cool hot volcanoes! I should know, since I’ve checked some of them out a few times – in 2018 around New Year, and last year after a press event (when we scaled Mount Rinjani). Fast-forward to this year and it was time to leave Bali and head on over to Java – Indonesia’s main island – to check out the mighty Ijen (here)…

Read on…

At the foot of Kizimen volcano in Kamchatka – literally in the middle of nowhere, with no roads or settlements for 70 kilometers – today there happens to be… a five-star tourism base (here)! ->

What? The lap of luxury – out here?! Pretty much. For there’s hot springs, a marvelous view of Kizimen, digital detox (at least – partially; more on this below), delicious food, hunting & fishing, mosquitos, bears and assorted other pamperings to please office plankton. They’ve even done something to prevent insects from coming near the complex!

Read on: Kamchatka-2024 – Part 4: Could this be the world’s remotest hotel?

Hai folks!

The official part of our SAS-2024 conference: done.

Now – the fun part: our esteemed delegates, respected speakers, honorable guests (and I!) continue to enjoy this picture-perfect corner of the island of Bali while they come to their senses – still digesting the mega-doses of first-class cybersecurity content they’ve just received…

As to my (direct) participation in the proceedings (besides watching the speeches), the highlight for sure was my being on stage – not as interviewee, but as interviewer. I can’t recall if I’d ever done such a thing before (if I had it was decades ago). Anyway, it felt like the first time – and early on I was really nervous! Yes – me! But I soon got into the swing of it – no doubt partly due to just how interesting my interviewees were: the Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Leroy Chiao! We discussed all sorts of cybersecurity issues in space: how they duplicate the comms channels on the International Space Station, who’s responsible for installing updates, what happens if an incident occurs, and lots more besides…

Read on…

Hi folks,

After the brief Chinese interlude (the three intro-posts to our China-2024 trip), it’s time to move (figuratively) directly northeast back to… Kamchatka!

Without a doubt, one of the jewels in the crown of the Klyuchevsky group of volcanoes is Tolbachik. We’d already marveled at the northern volcanic trio (Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Kamen and Bezymianny) of the group, and also the canyon of the Studyonaya river. Now it was time for the mentioned jewel; actually – jewels. For Tolbachik is actually two volcanoes – the long-dormant Ostry (sharp) Tolbachik, and the rather active Plosky (flat) Tolbachik…

The view from the north:

And here’s the view of practically the whole Klyuchevsky group from up in a helicopter. The pointed-cone volcano in the foreground is Ostry (remember – sharp) Tolbachik; the flat-topped on next to it – you guessed it: Plosky (flat) Tolbachik ->

Read on…

Though these tales and pics from the Chinese side are only just warming up to get going – in the meantime we’ve gone and completed our China-2024 trip!

Cheeky spoiler: this year’s China-in-the-fall trip was especially full-to-the-brim with active tourisms:

• Over two weeks a full 23 (!) natural and historical objects were visited, strolled, prodded, delighted in, and – of course – photographed;
• Places we stayed for at least a night – 11;
• Distance covered on the road (by our driver) – more than 5000km!

The concentration of OMG-impressions and emotions during our China vacation this year was off the scale – all about which will be coming to these here blog pages soon (after the Kamchatkan tales are done)…

Just in case you missed them, here are parts one and two of this China-intro-trio. Now – on with part three! ->

Read on…

Hi folks – from Indonesia, where we’re holding our yearly international cybersecurity conference SAS – the Security Analyst Summit.

Dozens of cybersecurity events take place around the world every year, but ours has its own special format – its own special work-hard-play-hard ethic, and it’s always by the sea in a tropical clime. It attracts leading analysts and researchers of the most complex cyberattacks, and this year we’re in Bali ->

Read on…

Ni Hao!

Our China trip continues…

In the city of Xining we turned westward – thereby exchanging mountain forests, rivers and lakes for nothing much besides desert. Not that the views to be beheld were any worse for it…

So what can I say about this part of China? In no particular order, this is what:

These desert landscapes are in the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai, which sits next to the Tibetan Plateau – the Roof of the World; yes – the world’s highest (and largest) plateau above sea level. Yes – meaning breathing up here can be rather difficult. We’d planned for this however – having been acclimatizing up around two or three thousand meters above sea level for a week already.

By Chinese standards, the place is sparsely populated: just under six million folks live here over an area of 720,000 square kilometers. That’s a population density similar to that of the whole of Russia – the world’s largest country (including all its vast but sparsely-populated Siberian and Arctic regions).

Read on…

Regular readers of my tales-and-pics of my travels to far-flung countries (and some nearer to home) will recall that, usually, in the first half of October, colleagues & friends and I get ourselves over to China!…

Read on…