17 lutego 2015

GeAr on the road

Few remarks about the gear & gadgets I used during the trip.

* Honda PCX 150cm3 was flawless. Never let me down, even once. Quiet and economic enough (200km per tank). But the best feature by far is relatively compact size. It made very comfortable commuting around bigger cities and saved tons of hours from traffic jams.
The only thing that needs improvement - seat comfort and position. But I guess only bigger bike can provide that.

* Coocase top case - served well especially its mobility - easy take off and carry to the room. However it's not fully weatherproof as advertised. During heavy storms the water tend to gather in lower bottom of inside the case.

* Samsung Galaxy Note3 - this gadget served fantastically! Completely replaced laptop on the go. It delivered quality music to my ears, GPS navigation, booked hotels and flights, served as language translator, managed bank accounts, took thousands photos and lots of 4k video footage which i'm gonna use one day. Absolutely awesome.
There are things that annoyed me a little a bit too: display could be much brighter outdoors, real waterproof chassis would be great as well as much faster camera speed. And there's big personal complaint when driving - touch interface is so inconvenient that it's almost useless. I am aware that Note3 wasn't designed as bikers dream device but there must be some workaround available. To control device without touching. Touch screen just doesn't work well on bumpy Indonesian roads.

* GPS Navigation - I'm a huge fan of completely Off-Line maps for one big reason - I don't have to be constantly on-line when using them. Maps + gps chip = works like charm. FREE :)
I used 2 applications: "Sygic" which worked just fine as main navigation system, Besides its little clunky interface and outdated POI, the Sygic never got me into trouble. And planning route is a pure pleasure.
And "Maps.Me" which provided very detailed maps of area like for example at Toba lake which was stunningly accurate.
When wifi - I used "google maps" for planning trip the next day. Too bad cannot download anything for offline use.
I also tested two other free navigation apps: "CoPilot" and "Navigator" but both of them were pretty bad. Very lagging interface and slow navigation made me give it up.

* Nikon D90 + lens 18-200mm. - Actually, I haven't used it much at all! What the hell! I became so lazy or...just more video obsessed? This camera served very well for many years but i think that's it. Time has come to move on. It was probably the final trip for my Nikon.


Honda PCX 150cc. Only 1 flat tire during whole 2 months trip! It happened in Georgetown and it was partially my fault. 

for booking hotels I used: www.agoda.com or boooking.com . Worked great as usually.
"Maps.Me."  in action on the ferry from Melaka > Dumai.
Sygic 3D view in Jakarta

the stylus of Note3 comes in handy quite often. But especially when I had to explain something to locals or ask for help :)
Photo above: evening set in Kanchanaburi resort. But why no beer on this picture?

3 komentarze:

Bali Accommodation pisze...

Very nice post, i love it

Bartek/Kasia pisze...

Borys, odezwij się chłopaku !!!
Bartek Chentko

Bartek/Kasia pisze...

Borys, odezwij się chłopaku !!!
Bartek Chentko