Nota Bene

Hi, dearest readers of my modest blog (about business, travel, technology, cybersecurity, and a lot more besides that I consider interesting, pleasant, and sometimes even painful)!…

It’s somewhat unbelievable but… here we are already in mid-January 2023!

The year 2022 – oh my goodness: a tricky one, to say the least. What is it with this darn decade already anyway? First we had covid and lockdowns kicking things off; then, just as all that was finally coming to an end we get… you know what. For us here at K, that’s meant living and working amid a new reality. Tough as it’s been, we’ve managed to get out of our comfort zone, enter all-hands-on-deck mode, and overcome the new difficulties that get in the way of getting the important stuff done: building a secure digital world – despite the geopolitical s***storm that’s completely out of our control.

Still, for all its trickiness, I’d be fibbing if I were to say that 2022 didn’t feature also some great and memorable personal moments, like business trips around the world, meetings, conferences and spots of tourism, which – as per tradition now since 2011 – have been carefully logged on the e-pages of this here blog.

And now the time has come (also as per tradition (since 2014)) for my review of the highlights of the passing calendar year – mostly for me personally (+ some for the Kompany – but a dedicated post on those will follow shortly)…

If we don’t take into account online events, my schedule in 2022 wasn’t exactly the fullest, but at least it was a lot busier than full-covid 2020 and then post-covid 2021…

As per (yet another) tradition, I’ll start with my travel statistics:

The number of flights I took in 2022 was way down on my pre-covid ~centuries – in all just 60. This is around the number of flights I started taking way back in 2007-2008 when I first began practically living in a plane. Those 60 flights translate to around 240 hours up in the air last year. And as regards which airlines, I flew most of all on Aeroflot – 14 flights, then Etihad – 9, then Qatar Airways – 8. First-time flights were made on planes of both Egyptair and Royal Jordanian.

As to the number of countries I visited at least once: nine. Most were in the Middle East – three times in each of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. South America featured too: Brazil and Chile:

My +1 countries for the year: Egypt and Jordan. They bring the total number of the countries I’ve visited in the world to 102. On the road I was in 20+ cities, staying in around 40 hotels (not including those we stayed at on our Magadan-Yakutsk-Baikal road trip).

Read on…

Hi folks!

Been a while, I know, but (as some/most of you know by now) the first week of a New Year in Russia is always a non-working week. And – suddenly – oh my goodness: it’s January 9 already. Back to work!…

Now, where was I?…

Ah yes – South America; specifically – Brazil, then Chile.

After our day of graffiti-gazing in Valparaíso, the time had come for us to head on home. Normally, such a trifle would hardly warrant a post of its own, but, normal – what’s that? I’ve forgotten…

Back in those forgotten times, flying from Latin America to Moscow was doable in a day + a night + a day. Of late: a day + a night + a non-day + a night. Thus, we flew out of Santiago in the evening, took a connecting flight in Sao Paulo, night-flight to Dubai, then an evening flight to Moscow only to arrive there early morning. Not straightforward, not normal, but that’s how it is.

These pics were taken not long after we left Santiago. I thought we’d be passing Aconcagua on the left, but I was sat on the right side. However, it turned out we were flying round the tallest mountain of the Americas the other way – so I did have a window view after all! Hopes duly up… but… then I realized why they’re stricter than usual regarding belting up when flying over the Andes:

…For it’s clouds like that can mean bad turbulence. I mean – look at that column that’s risen up like that (next pic). Not normal. Probably due to how the air has been pushed up so abruptly due to the steep mountains not far below ->

Though the ride was somewhat bumpy, the views just kept getting better:

Is that Aconcagua? Mid-left? ->

I didn’t find out. Still, whether it’s Aconcagua or not – simply gorgeous:

One thing’s for sure – there’s been some serious volcanism going on down there in millennia/billennia past. I’d noticed this when we visited Christ the Redeemer of the Andes – that the rock was clearly of volcanic origin. The view from up above only seemed to confirm this ->

We pass over the Andes, and here’s Argentina. But… desert? ->

Yep – mini-desert! Learning – and remembering – geography: always best done by being there yourself, or at least in a plane up above!

Briefly, a rainy Sao Paulo – from where we fly out again at 1.30am ->

On the screen in front of me I switch from the map to the media menu; there’s an intriguing documentary on offer, but I opt for some shut-eye instead…

The flight was a very long one, but I’ve zero photos to show you. Yes – it was dark outside for much of the journey, but also – I was sat right above one of the wings, and the plane being a gigantic Airbus-380, that meant the only thing to be seen out the window was that (just as gigantic) wing:

Many an hour later – Dubai.

A few more hours later – back in the air flying north to Moscow.

And that, folks, I do believe, finally, really – is it: my South-America December-2022 tour – done and dusted. All the pics therefrom – here and here. And now – given it’s almost mid-January 2023 already (what?!) – back to work!…

Santiago and Sao Paulo are both real lucky: just an hour-and-a-half from each city there’s a resort town by the ocean. But while the temperature of the ocean by Brazil’s Guarujá is a comfortable one, that in Chile’s Viña del Mar is much less so. A cold current runs along the shore, so the water temperature is rather invigorating. Despite this, the whole shore is crammed with hotels:

Read on: Mind blown from red hot Chile peppers – and graffiti.

My recent tales from the Jordanian side wouldn’t be quite complete without a few words on (and pics of) the roads of the country plus the extraordinarily beautiful landscapes to be viewed all around therefrom. For we traveled no short distance along said roads – almost the full length and breadth of the country. The roads aren’t all great, but plenty are – while some are simply excellent. But the main thing, like I say, are the views from the roads; like this ->

Read on…

Jordan. Yes, of course, it boasts the wonderful Petra; yes – there’s also the lesser-known Wadi Rum desert; and yes, there’s the famously holy Jordan River. But there’s more. There are… hot waterfalls! Oh yes: thermal springs up in the hills, whose hot water falls down below in waterfalls. And those are what today’s post is about…

This rare phenomenon here goes by the name of the Ma’in Hot Springs.

Read on…

Hola folks!

Herewith, a continuation of my late-2022 international business trip series. You’ve had Egypt (+1); you’ve had Jordan (+1); you’ve had Brazil (+0); and now – Chile (+0)!…

You guessed it – we flew to Chile from Brazil, so of course the flight wasn’t long. That’s just as well, for I’d had my fill of extended long-hauls of late (one of which lasted 38 hours door to door!). Another bonus regarding this flight: the views out the plane’s window over the Andes – oh my good-gracious-me! ->

Mountains, cliffs, valleys, glaciers – in places fading from browny-gray to bright yellow and orange (no Photoshop) ->

Read on: Sweet Chile o’ Mine: Santiago and the Andes.

Hi folks!

And you thought my tales from the Jordanian side were done and dusted? No – not quite; not just yet. For there’s still the Wadi Rum (wadi = “valley” in Arabic) desert I need to tell you about and show you…

And I need to tell you since Wadi Rum is soooo awesome. A red desert, and everything else red too: red hills, red rocks, red canyons… I look at these pics and I’m already nostalgizing – and I was there only a couple weeks ago! Basically it’s the red rocks of Utah / Arizona + the red sands of the Namib desert = more redness than Mars!

But, curiously, it’s not all that well-known by tourists from afar. A bit like Kamchatka. But it should be! No, wait: but then there’d be too many tourists! But no, I can’t keep quiet about this place for such selfish reasons. All righty; conscience cleared, onward!…

Read on: Wadi Rum: red rocks plus red desert, minus the Martians.

Hi folks!

Despite a non-stop whirlwind of business trips, meetings and conferences toward the end of the year, it’s always pleasant to be able to stop for a moment to share some good news about our friends! // And this isn’t an advert – it’s completely voluntary!…

The already legendary story about 11 bold women crossing the ice of the Arctic in 2018 as far as the North Pole (details – here), has taken a step skiing-stride further: it’s now in book form! Yes, a hardback book – “Polar Exposure” – all about their record-breaking adventure! And it’s already published. Hurray!…

As you can see, the author is our good old friend, the British explorer Felicity Aston. But the other skiers all share their accounts of the extraordinary expedition too.

So glad to see the legendary celebration of women’s perseverance take its next logical step – for the whole adventure (with super photos!) to now be in print in a book :).

Hat: off.

Hands: clapping.

Champagne glass: raised!

PS: Curious polar-themed fact: in 2018 we were that last expeditioners (the women skied, we flew there!) at the North Pole! Why? Because: in 2019 – there were some kinda difficulties with renting a plane; in 2020-2021 – yep, you know; and in 2022 – you know that too…

Having dreamed of getting myself to Petra, Jordan, the ancient city and temple cut into a miuntain, since I was a child, finally, my dream came true!…

And a… supranatural sight to behold it is – or would be, if it weren’t for the camels and fridge-magnet sellers getting in the way!…

Read on…

My series of posts from both the Egyptian and Jordanian sides turned out to last longer than the trips themselves! As a result, there’s been a delay in my starting a new series from a different continent, which took place as far back as late November. And that continent is… South America. And the countries? Brazil and Chile!…

// Perhaps I should stop writing a sentence like the next one in my posts, as what it describes seems to go without saying for every business trip! The work portion of the trip was busy bust-a-gut intense! That is – lots of: meetings, presentations, speeches, interviews, new acquaintances, hand-shakes, and a lot more besides! Perhaps I need to also stop writing sentences like this one: After the work was all done, it was time for some rest-and-relaxation/tourism time – of both a quantity and tempo of similarly bust-a-gut intensity!… So in future, perhaps I’ll just link back to this blogpost and avoid the repetition! No – that won’t work; I’ll just try and be briefer somehow…

But before that “tourism till you drop”, a quick breather: some intro-photos and a few intro-words too…

I’ll start, logically, from the beginning: with the flight. Flying from Moscow to Brazil these days takes about as long as it does from Moscow to Australia (Sydney) – 19 hours up in the air – which is four hours longer than what it used to take. Before, for example, the first leg of the journey was Moscow to Paris (3.5 hours), and the second: Paris to Sao Paulo (+11 hours) = 15 hours. Now it’s 5 hours – to Doha – then +14 hours to Sao Paulo, which makes 19 hours.

But it is what it is. We just have to get used to living in the new geopolitical-transportational reality.

Read on…