Technical Articles on www.danieljchu.com

CouponCabin Fails to Fulfill Their Commitments

contact@danieljchu.com — 5/13/2019

Trip:
On a recent trip to couponcabin.com I followed their click through to an offering in which they promised $50 off $50 at Macy's. It seemed to good to be true and apparently it was. Following the purchase, I was promised that so long as I did not cancel, return, modify or change my order with Macy's, in August I would receive this magical $50 refund on my $100 order placed with Macy's.
I proceeded with the order and several days later, my spouse decided they would like to join in for these savings. My partner used their own account - completely unique from my own to also leverage one of these great deals; however, since we both live at the same address and use the same Internet, both our accounts were reported deactivated and the promised benefit was declined.
Since no where on their site does it very clearly suggest that two unique people, each with their own unique accounts, should avoid such activity in order to prevent Coupon Cabin's system from detecting multiple accounts to the same individual - it is hugely disappointing when they refuse to honor their commitments. A bate and switch sort of activity - promised that you will receive money for an order you probably would not have otherwise purchased and instead Coupon Cabin receives the benefit on your behalf.
I would beware of leveraging Coupon Cabin.

Manual Backup Interrupts Backup Chain after Upgrade to 6.1.0-402 Of Avamar

contact@danieljchu.com — 4/23/2013 11:48:25 AM

Problem:
After an upgrade, performed this summer, to v6.1.0-402, and once we upgraded each of the clients to this latest version of both the Avamar client and SQL agent, any backups performed through Microsoft SQL Management Studio or run manually would interrupt the backup chain and prevent the Avamar backups with Forced Incremental from capturing the transactional logs of databases in Full Recovery mode and thereby preventing the truncation of the transactional log database until a separate, manual non-forced-incremental Avamar full backup was run to start the initial capture and backup of the database. We discovered, by continuing to use the older v6.0.101-66 Avamar client and SQL agent, we could continue to back up the way we currently do. Our DBA has scheduled daily backups (through a Maintenance Plan) to allow her immediate access to a database without the need to review Avamar and from time to time consultants run backups prior to an upgrade. By using this older agent, we can continue to perform these backups taken outside of Avamar as needed. However; we have recently discovered a problem with this version of Avamar which from time to time will cause a stripe in the grid to become faulty and require support to repair this stripe and bring the grid back to a consistent state. The only resolution has been to plan a upgrade to the latest SP version of Avamar; however, we are told this new revision will no longer support the v6.0.101-66 Clients/Agents and based on supports original comments, we would have to choose whether backups would be 100% owned by Avamar or 100% owned by SQL with a file agent backup by Avamar. This to me is ridiculous, the errors in the Avamar log complain about gap detection and snap up errors with regard to those databases in Full Recovery mode when a Avamar backup is taken with Forced Incremental and a manual backup is run in-between. Those exact backups taken using the v6.0.101-66 clients/agents with the in-between "COPY_ONLY" manual backups complete beautifully and when I test out a restore, I can restore to any point in time before, after and in-between any manual backup run using just the before and after v6.0.101-66 backups taken by Avamar. Support; however, continues to claim they repaired problems with prior versions which never observed the SQL log for gaps in the backups and any type of backup run, even COPY_ONLY, will interrupt this chain.

Action (Tuesday, April 23, 2013):
A process you can perform on the SQL server is to query the status of backups performed on the Log Database to see verify they are running successfully. SELECT server_name, database_name,'backup_type' = CASE WHEN type = 'D' THEN 'Full Backup' WHEN type = 'L' THEN 'Log Backup' WHEN type = 'I' THEN 'Diff Backup' END ,max(backup_finish_date) FROM msdb.dbo.backupset WHERE name is NULL AND type = 'L' AND database_name in (select name from master.sys.databases where recovery_model IN (1, 2)) GROUP BY server_name, database_name,type ORDER BY database_name

Action (Tuesday, April 23, 2013):
v6.0.101-66 Backup and Restore Test Process:

-	P01 Created Table & Added Initial Value
	o	"Initial Value 6.0.x"
-	P02 Backed up using Avamar 6.0.x Agent
	o	Captured Avamar Logs (6.0-P2)
	o	Updated Values
		+	(1) Initial Value 6.0.x (Updated)
		+	(2) New Value 6.0.x
-	P03 Backed up using COPY_ONLY SQL (S.C.01)
	o	Updated Values
		+	(1) Initial Value 6.0.x (Final)
		+	(3) Final Value 6.0.x
	o	Unchanged Value
		+	(2) New Value 6.0.x
-	P04 Backed up using Avamar 6.0.x Agent
	o	Captured Avamar Logs (6.0-P4)
-	Deleted Table
-	Restored Table using Avamar backups ONLY be to a point in time before & after the COPY_ONLY backup (S.C.02)
	o	Restore P02 backup as f-0-P02.bak
	o	Restore P04 backup as i-0-P04.bak
	o	Before (S.C.03)
		+	P.I.T. 11:04 AM - Right before the COPY_ONLY backup taken at 11:05 AM
	o	After (S.C.04)
		+	P.I.T. 11:07 AM - Right after the COPY_ONLY backup

S.C.01: 6.0.x COPY_ONLY Backup S.C.02: 6.0.x Restore to File System - f-0 & i-0 (Both P02 & P04) S.C.03: RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY (Before COPY_ONLY) S.C.04: RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY (After COPY_ONLY)

Resolution:
After demonstrating proof that I can perform point-in-time restores with the v6.0.101-66 despite the COPY_ONLY backups run in-between (regardless of their "bug"), they finally provided me a hotfix that allows the v6.1.0-402 to have COPY_ONLY backups taken in-between Avamar backups, it therefore captures the transactional log databases and truncates the log database successfully. I have tested it and using a similar restore process I have confirmed I can restore to any point-in-time before, after and in-between any manual COPY_ONLY backup performed. There is a slight difference, backups using the v6.1.x agent seem to require the transactional log restore to be performed twice once on each of the two incremental i-0 files. This hotfix "46780", I am told, is only available for v6.1.0-402 and will soon be available 4/30/2013 for the SP version we are being asked to upgrade to. It comes as a single avsql.exe [there is only 1 file for both 32-bit & 64-bit systems] which is to replace the existing v6.1.0-402 file located in the Program Files\avs\bin folder. There was another hotfix we tried a while back as part of our troubleshooting - hotfix "45717" which is a completely different and I believe unrelated issue, this hotfix did not resolve our issue.

Recover data from expired NetWorker tapes

contact@danieljchu.com — 6/4/2012 10:29:47 AM

Problem:
We have just past our one year of using Avamar & the ATO tape out process. As such, we recently had a request to recover data from an expired set of tapes. As a result of this request we had to learn the procedure for re-activating these tapes so we can browse and restore data from them.

Action (Monday, June 4, 2012):
Some sample illustrations of the command lines and screen captures are shown below.

Resolution:
The procedure, documented on EMC's site: https://solutions.emc.com/emcsolutionview.asp?id=esg98649, in my opinion, was not well explained. Therefore the essential components are explained in a bit more detail below. 1st: Obtain the SSID: In the NetWorker Administration GUI, you can browse the expired tapes under Media and Tape Volumes. We have all our backups/tape barcodes recorded in a spreadsheet so identifying the required tape for a particular backup is fairly easy. This is where I began, by right clicking on the tape in which I expect the backup to be on and selecting "Show Saved Sets." In the following window, you will see the list of backup jobs on that tape, what you need to begin is the SSID, a unique set of digits that identify that particular job. You can also obtain this SSID by the following command:

-	mminfo -avot -c [servername] > C:\TapeBackups.txt
-	This command will list a summary of all backups on each tape with the corresponding SSIDs

2nd: Obtain the CloneID: The next step is to fetch the CloneID which can be done using the below command:

-	mminfo -av -q ssid=XXXX -r cloneid
-	This command will spit out the CloneID, replace the XXXX above with the SSID obtained from step #1

3rd: Set the new expiration date:

-	nsrmm -e "mm/dd/yy" -S XXXX/YYYY
-	This command will reset the expiration date of the job you specify, replace the XXXX above with the SSID and the YYYY with the CloneID obtained from the above steps

4th: Set job to "Recoverable" state:

-	nsrmm -o notrecyclable -S XXXX/YYYY
-	This command will change the state of the specified job from recyclable to recoverable, again, replace the XXXX/YYYY accordingly

The next steps will require you have in place a process for backing up NetWorker's index or catalog of backups. This is referred as a bootstrap backup (I believe) of the NetWorker system. So for example, we do a bootstrap backup daily of our NetWorker server, if I wanted to restore from a tape, which expired on May 1st, I would need to go back to a backup of my bootstrap sometime before May 1st, such as April 30th. This backup of the bootstrap will still include the needed index of my backed-up job which after having run the above 4 steps will now be recoverable. Once I complete the below steps, it will then become browsable which I can then use "winworkr.exe" to browse the backup job and select to recover items from it. 5th: Determine the Tape required to restore the index from the bootstrap backup

-	mminfo -avot -N index:[servername]
-	This command will display all the bootstrap backups and their required tape, if you already know the tape with the date you want to restore from, you could skip this step; however, I would suggest at least confirming the date you need is on the tape you expect it to be on.

6th: Restore the index from the appropriate bootstrap backup Insert that tape into the tape library and execute the following command to restore the required index of the expired job

-	nsrck -L7 -t "mm/dd/yy" [servername]
-	This command will take the associated tape pulling out of it the index that was set as "recoverable" and make it "browseable"

7th: Using winworkr.exe, you can now browse to that previously expired/recyclable job and select to restore content from it. Just insert the appropriate tape(s), select the various components to restore and restore it!

Share Any Printer using AirPrint on a Mac computer

contact@danieljchu.com — 4/30/2012 2:30:36 PM

Request:
Through working with AirPrint and AirPlay, it turns out you can share any printer through AirPrint simply by using a Mac Computer.

Action (Monday, April 30, 2012):
Some sample illustrations of the configuration and dns-sd query tool are shown below.

Outcome:
Through OSX Lion, under System Preferences, "Share" the printer your Mac computer uses - it doesn't matter if it is attached to your Mac through USB or via WiFi. Once the printer is shared, open Terminal and launch the following command to record the Bonjour record your computer is broadcasting. Command to issue: dns-sd -Z _ipp An example of results may appear as: _ipp._tcp PTR NetworkPrinter\032@\032vmDJCiMac._ipp._tcp NetworkPrinter\032@\032vmDJCiMac._ipp._tcp SRV 0 0 631 vmDJCiMac.local. ; Replace with unicast FQDN of target host NetworkPrinter\032@\032vmDJCiMac._ipp._tcp TXT "txtvers=1" "qtotal=1" "rp=printers/_192_168_201_20" "ty=Canon iR3235/iR3245" "adminurl=http://vmDJCiMac:631/printers/_192_168_201_20" "note=Help Desk" "priority=0" "product=(iR3235/iR3245)" "printer-state=3" "printer-type=0x80B0D6" "Transparent=T" "Binary=T" "Fax=F" "Color=F" "Duplex=T" "Staple=F" "Copies=T" "Collate=T" "Punch=F" "Bind=F" "Sort=F" "Scan=F" "pdl=application/octet-stream,application/pdf,application/postscript,image/jpeg,image/png" Take the above and use it to create your own advertisement like my sample below: dns-sd -P "AirPrint_NAME" "_ipp._tcp,_universal" "" "631" "vmDJCiMac2.local." "192.168.27.27" "txtvers=1" "qtotal=1" "rp=printers/_192_168_201_20" "ty=Canon iR3235/iR3245" "adminurl=http://vmDJCiMac:631/printers/_192_168_201_20" "note=Help Desk" "priority=0" "product=(iR3235/iR3245)" "printer-state=3" "printer-type=0x80B0D6" "Transparent=T" "Binary=T" "Fax=F" "Color=F" "Duplex=T" "Staple=F" "Copies=T" "Collate=T" "Punch=F" "Bind=F" "Sort=F" "Scan=F" "pdl=application/octet-stream,application/pdf,application/postscript,image/jpeg,image/png" "URF=NONE"& Seven things need adjusted: 1st, Update the Name, in my case I named it "AirPrint_NAME" this will be the name as it will appear on your iOS device 2nd, Add a "2" or something to make your advertisement unique as in my case I entered it as "vmDJCiMac2.local." 3rd, Update the IP "192.168.27.27" to reflect the IP of your Mac computer - this needs to be static, so you may want to setup a DHCP reservation on your router 4th, Copy from the output of your dns-sd -Z command everything "txtvers=1" onward replacing everything in my command up to the "URF=NONE" 5th, update "note=Help Desk" to reflect description text about your device... 6th, Leave the text output "URF=NONE" - this is required for the iOS device to see the advertisement 7th, Leave the "&" at the end of the command to let it run in the background That's it, you should see it so long as your Mac is turned on and not asleep. You can script this or what have you on boot of your Mac to automate the startup, but if you only run it once, then when you shut down your computer and reboot, it will not begin again automatically doing just the above. As with all Bonjour services, you must be on the same subnet for this to work; however, there are ways to advertise the mDNS record allowing multiple subnets to be aware of the Bonjour advertisements...

AirPrint or AirPlay Across Subnets

contact@danieljchu.com — 3/12/2012 1:26:14 PM

Project:
Our district is exploring how we can offer the AirPrint or AirPlay services to both students and staff. A major problem with Bonjour services is they rely on multicast broadcasted DNS (.local) which resides only on the local subnet a device is connected to. Our wireless is separated into two networks - one offered for students and one for staff.

Action (Monday, March 12, 2012):
Some sample illustrations of the configuration and dns-sd query tool are shown below.

Outcome:
AirPrint, appears to allow for two options:

-	Option #1: Specifying a "search domain" and in this DNS zone offer the server records required for AirPrint
	o The first set of records required are entered once, they direct Bonjour services to the location of where to browse the search domain
	--Start Code--
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com b._dns-sd._udp PTR yourdomain.com.
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com db._dns-sd._udp PTR yourdomain.com.
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com dr._dns-sd._udp PTR yourdomain.com.
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com lb._dns-sd._udp PTR yourdomain.com.
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com r._dns-sd._udp PTR yourdomain.com.
	^--End Code--^
	o The second set of records are entered for each printer, i.e. a HP Laserjet CP1525nw
	--Start Code--
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com PrinterName A 192.168.0.5
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com _ipp._tcp PTR PrinterName._ipp._tcp.yourdomain.com.
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com _universal._sub._ipp._tcp PTR PrinterName._ipp._tcp.yourdomain.com.
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com PrinterName._ipp._tcp SRV 0 0 631 PrinterName.yourdomain.com
	DNSCMD SERVERNAME /RecordAdd yourdomain.com PrinterName._ipp._tcp TXT "txtvers=1" "qtotal=1" "pdl=application/postscript,application/vnd.hp-PCL,application/vnd.hp-PCLXL,application/pdf,image/urf" "rp=ipp/printer" "URF=CP99,W8,OB10,PQ3-4-5,ADOBERGB24,DEVRGB24,DEVW8,SRGB24,IS1-2-4,MT1-2-3-5-12,MT1-2-3-5-12,RS600" "ty=HP LaserJet CP1525nw" "product=(HP LaserJet CP1525nw)" "priority=10" "adminurl=http://PrinterName.local." "note=Rm 100 (HP LaserJet CP1525nw)" "Color=T" "Duplex=F" "Scan=F"
	^--End Code--^
-	Option #2: Using a dedicated machine to artificially create these mDNS records (a sort of proxy) on the subnet it is attached to. I have a simple Windows 7 machine multi-homed on both the Staff and Student wireless networks and it is broadcasting the services accordingly.
	o Install the Bonjour services onto the machine
	o I added the commands to the Local Group Policy of the machine, setting the commands to run under:
	Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Scripts\Startup
	--Start Code--
	dns-sd -P "PrinterName" "_ipp._tcp,_universal" "" "631" "PrinterName.local" "192.168.0.5" "txtvers=1" "qtotal=1" "pdl=application/postscript,application/vnd.hp-PCL,application/vnd.hp-PCLXL,application/pdf,image/urf" "rp=ipp/printer" "URF=CP99,W8,OB10,PQ3-4-5,ADOBERGB24,DEVRGB24,DEVW8,SRGB24,IS1-2-4,MT1-2-3-5-12,MT1-2-3-5-12,RS600" "ty=HP LaserJet CP1525nw" "product=(HP LaserJet CP1525nw)" "priority=10" "adminurl=http://PrinterName.local." "note=Rm 100 (HP LaserJet CP1525nw)" "Color=T" "Duplex=F" "Scan=F"
	^--End Code--^

AirPlay, I tried to replicate the search domain (Option #1 above) with AirPlay; however, I could not get DNS to work. So the Option #2 above is what we went with:

-	Same as above, using the same dedicated machine to artificially create the mDNS records.
	o This requires two entries per AppleTV, I believe 1st is for video and the 2nd is for audio, but I am not certain.
	o Again, I added the commands to the Local Group Policy of the machine, setting the commands to run under:
	Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Scripts\Startup
	o AirPlay:
	--Start Code--
	dns-sd -P "Apple-TV" "_AirPlay._tcp" "" "7000" "Apple-TV.local" "192.168.0.10" "deviceid=28:E7:CF:00:00:00" "features=0x5a7ffff7" "flags=0x4" "model=AppleTV3,2" "pin=1" "pk=6464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464" "srcvers=160.10" "vv=1"
	^--End Code--^
	o AirTunes:
	--Start Code--
	dns-sd -P "28E7CF000000@Apple-TV" "_raop._tcp" "" "5000" "Apple-TV.local" "192.168.0.10" "txtvers=1" "ch=2" "cn=0,1,2,3" "da=true" "et=0,3,5" "ft=0x5A7FFFF7" "md=0,1,2" "pw=false" "pk=6464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464" "sv=false" "sr=44100" "ss=16" "tp=UDP" "vn=65537" "vs=160.10" "vv=1" "am=AppleTV3,2" "sf=0x4"
	^--End Code--^

We are presently reviewing our options to incorporate AirPrint with our PaperCut deployment which doesn't so far play nicely with either Option #1 or #2. UPDATE 9/2013: I have revised the AppleTV commands with more current variables. Because of such variables like "pk", I would first search your AppleTV VLAN using dns-sd -Z _AirPlay._tcp and dns-sd -Z _raop._tcp to get all the proper values to pass along to the VLAN you want the artificial record to exist. We have started this year to make use of these artificial advertisements, we have a special VLAN specifically for the AppleTVs for each of our two campuses. I search out any new AppleTVs, using the two commands above, pull out the various unique attributes and create my 2 dns-sd commands. Since we have a VLAN specific to students vrs staff for each campus we can limit what group sees which AppleTVs. Instead of the Windows machine, we have a couple Mac Minis which we simply place onto each VLAN - 1 per VLAN, and create a batch with all the advertisements I wish to broadcast and viola - AppleTV adverts specific to each VLAN. We have also enabled pins as to prevent miscellaneous connections from people not in the room. As for our printers, we have been using a software product called PaperCut, which has introduced a App/AirPrint capabilities to our network printers. So we have not pursued manual artificial advertisements since this does all of this for us.

Grand Cayman, Isla Roatan, Belize & Cozumel Cruise

contact@danieljchu.com — 10/31/2010 11:12:28 AM

Trip:
The nice thing about a cruise - hotel, travel and food is all taken care of and included (minus the flight to and from the departure point). Even excursions are waiting for you at the port of calls, for an additional fee of course. This was my first cruise were I actually participated in doing some on shore excursions. I have been on several - Alaskan, New England, Mexican & NASSAU; however, taking it that one step further really made a difference.

Action (Sunday, October 31, 2010):
Some sample illustrations of the Cruise are shown below.

Suggestions:
Many of my family joined in for this opportunity - my grandfather who was 94 years old, grandmother, parents and some extended family/friends embarked on this adventure together - we left in October out of Miami on the Carnival Cruise ship Valor. Now I have cruised with two companies - Carnival and Norwegian. I personally prefer Carnival - I like the structure that goes with an assigned dining time & room - always having the same waiter/housekeeping staff etc. adds a personal touch which I felt was lost with the freestyle cruise we experienced on Norwegian. If you have ever been on a cruise, you will know the food is amazing - and we always prepare by gorging ourselves before we board the boat. On-board and between ports - there is plenty to occupy yourself with. from great shows in the theatre, swimming pools, water slides, ice carving, karaoke, kid activities, gym, topless deck, casino, shops to even bingo! Our first port was the Grand Caymans, a beautiful place full of shops and food close by at the port. The next port was Isla Roatan, right off the port was Mahogany Bay where there was a number of shops; however, we continued by hiring a driver to take us around the area. We played with monkeys, had ourselves lunch out and returned to the ship. Our third stop was my first on shore excursion in Belize. This was my first time doing Zip Lining, actually they called this type a Canopy Tour. This was very cool, I went with a group to glide from tree to tree and repel back down. I would highly recommend this as I had a blast! Our final stop was Cozumel, Mexico - at this port my mom and others from our group went on the excursion to see the Tulum Mayan Ruins. Now I was planning a trip to Machu Picchu later that year, and having now been to both - they each offered a very different view - and both are worth seeing. These ruins are well kept, right next to the water as compared to Machu Picchu which is high up in the mountains with no water in sight. Over all this was a really great trip and - Carnival really does a good job at ensuring you have a good time.

Isla de Pascua - Easter Island

contact@danieljchu.com — 6/22/2010 3:27:38 PM

Trip:
This was likely one of my most favorite ventures. Easter Island is an amazing - remote - and beautiful destination. We traveled as part of a bigger trip to see South America for our first time. Easter Island is part of Chile and as part of any trip into Chile there is a Reciprocity fee of about $140 USD to enter Chile. This fee is a one-time only, for the life of your passport requirement. You obtain this at the airport where you enter into Chile, in our case, in Santiago.

Action (Tuesday, June 22, 2010):
Some sample illustrations of Easter Island are shown below.

Suggestions:
As a group of four, we continued as part of a larger journey out of Santiago on a flight to "Isla de Pascua" or Easter Island. Because of how the flights work, we spent about 4 days touring this small island. What amazed me was how small this island is. The airport's runway extends from one side and by the time you land you are on the other side of the island. We split our trip into spending one day checking out the craters/volcanos, the next driving around the island to see the Moai's (the head statues) and a final day horseback riding up a mountain where you can see a 360 view of the entire island. The restaurants and food on the island is very expensive - so we sucked it up and packed lunches and enjoyed some of the local delicacies. There was a fishing boat permanently out at sea close by the island which I assume much of their food came from. It was neat to see wild horses roaming, the landscape had few trees and the village was peaceful and pleasant. The Moai's were an amazing site, there is a quarry where many of the statues originated from, here there are heads peeking out all around this hill. From a satellite view there are these craters at points on the island, these are volcanos and in themselves a pretty cool site to see. Near one of them "Mirador Rano Kau" is "Orongo" a preserved stone village. We were able to achieve travel by using British Airway miles through their partner carrier American airlines. For our larger trip, we used 40,000 British Airway points to fly from Detroit down to Buenos Aires and Santiago back to Detroit. We used 20,000 additional British Airway points to fly from Santiago round trip to and back from Easter Island. We later learned we could have achieved this entire trip using just the original 40,000 as the British air miles are pretty flexible so long as you use the same carrier through the entire journey.

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine

contact@danieljchu.com — 8/1/2011 1:34:15 PM

Trip:
On the southernmost tip of Chile - exists a national park named Torres Del Paine. A beautiful and huge natural reserve that offers an abundant number of different activities to keep you satisfied and exhausted.

Action (Monday, August 1, 2011):
Some sample illustrations of Patagonia Trip are shown below.

Suggestions:
Two of us embarked to this far reaching trek using British Airways award travel through their partner with LAN airways. We began our trip in Lima and ended in Punta Arenas. Flights through LAN airways travel connecting to this region through Santiago. Upon arrival, we picked up our car rental and proceeded from Punta Arenas up the single road path out to Puerto Natales. Here we stayed at the bed and breakfast "Keokan" where the couple which owns it provided us with so much information about where and what to do during our stay. For our first of two days we travelled along the "New" road into the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine - this road enters the park from the south, taking you right past a neat cave named "Cueva del Milodon" which we explored the day we arrived. I would recommend a 4x4 vehicle if travelling along the "New" road as this road is comprised of pot holes and is incredibly bumpy. We stopped by a beach along Lago Grey where off in the distance is a glacier with parts of this glacier broken off and floating in the lake and some that drifted to shore. We then continued up along the driving path through the park, seeing the hotel on the island in Lago Pehoe, the "Salto Grande" a water fall between Lago Pehoe and Lago Nordenskjold and met the most friendly bird I have ever seen in the wild. We continued through the park and exited along the "Old" road which we both agreed was a much smoother ride. The next day we decided to test out our limits on a hiking trail which takes you to the three peeks the park is known for. This trek is the right leg of the "W" trail. After driving along the Old road, we entered the park, passed over a very narrow bridge (which required us to pull in the rear view mirrors to pass over it) and parked at the entrance of this trail. We took with us lunch, bottled water and warm clothing. The part of the trail we were trekking was about 11 km and suggested about 3 to 4 hours. Our care takers informed us no matter where we were to turn around at 2pm to have sufficient daylight to get back. The trail was beautiful; we stopped for lunch in the middle at a cabin and continued until we reached the very last leg of the trail; however, even with the end in sight, the snow was 3 to 4 feet, literally waist high. My alarm for 2pm began to sound and rather than struggle up the last stretch - not knowing what was under this deep snow - streams, rocks, ice - we decided it was best to turn around since we were so far from help and surprisingly hot, soaking wet and exhausted from what was actually a short distance. We had run out of water so we filled our bottles with crystal clear streams and followed the puma tracks back to our car. On a nice spring, summer or fall day - this trail would be a breeze, but with the elements of their winter against us, the trail had become impassable - but provided us with a beautiful landscape - I was eager to stand between grass and snow - I had gotten more then I bargained for when I could swim to the top submerged in the white cloud. The next morning we returned to Punta Arenas where we spent the last night of our stay - and enjoyed a nice time exploring this harbor town before boarding our plane for our long journey back home.

Egyptian Wonders

contact@danieljchu.com — 6/7/2008 11:06:44 AM

Trip:
A word of warning about Egypt, we travelled a while back, long before the current status of Egypt, so perhaps much has changed, but during our trek to these dessert like cities, we learned a few things that might make a trip to Cairo or Luxor a little more comfortable. Apart from the sand, undrinkable water, constant bartering, surreal broadcasted chants and "dry" heat. Egypt was an amazing experience. One I do not wish to repeat, but never the less a truly once in my lifetime opportunity.

Action (Saturday, June 7, 2008):
Some sample illustrations of Egypt Trip are shown below.

Suggestions:
Two of us went, without a tour, on our own. perhaps this was our first mistake. This was our first experience in a Muslim culture - it was like a whole new world to us. Things I would recommend to anyone taking a trip to this dry - dessert culture, would be to do this as a tour. We hired a driver who picked us up at the airport, obtained our visa's and remained our companion for our entire visit of Cairo. Again, things may have changed and perhaps the surrounding population may be different now as it was compared to then - but I would not recommend doing this trip as a do-it-yourself type of trip. We have trekked into a lot of different places, this was by far the most intimidating culture we have ever experienced. Having a driver or a tour to watch out for you, really makes a difference. The driver recommended various sites which aligned well with our Lonely Planet guide - Got us into the Pyramids after hours on a horseback ride tour, we got to experience this while no one else was present and watch the laser show from on top of an adjacent hill top, this was a neat opportunity - he helped us explore the best and also unknown parts of the city - while also staying with us to ensure we boarded the right train to Luxor. In Luxor, we were on our own; however, this city was less intimidating then Cairo. At the Valley of the Kings, store your camera away - if the "Tourist Police" even catch you with a camera while in a tomb - regardless if you snapped a photo (which I did, a lousy one at that), they will check. You can buy your way out of anything or pretend all you speak is Chinese. Beware of train station taxi approachers (in Cairo or Luxor) - they will claim they have a taxi waiting for you; however, they won't and will try to claim your hotel reservation is at a hotel that is out of business. When barters chase you down with a sale or a taxi stops traffic to pursues you for a ride - our best bargaining chip was to announce we would report them to a travelers police and instantly they would leave us alone. While at a site, avoid the Traveler Police at all cost - if they approach, they will point to a hieroglyphic which clearly resembles a chair and say "chair" - then extend their hand for payment. The list can go on and on, but I don't want to discourage anyone from embarking on this opportunity, perhaps now is not the time with Egypt in their present state and perhaps the events occurring there will eliminate the extreme poor conditions of this region improving the travel conditions we experienced - overall, as I would recommend anywhere - be alert and aware. Proceed with a group or a tour and do your research beforehand.

Entrance to Macchu Picchu

contact@danieljchu.com — 7/29/2011 11:06:44 AM

Problem:
Upon arrival to Machu Picchu, we quickly were informed that entrance is now limited to 2,500 visitors a day. This new rule, implemented 1 week before we arrived, made obtaining tickets that next day - near impossible. They had already sold out on their (often not working) website http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/ (or goto http://200.37.108.103/ because the DNS does not always resolve correctly), local ticket vendors in Cusco or Urubamba had no availability, we already had our train tickets from Urubamba to the Machu Picchu village. So we decided to take our chances.

Action (Friday, July 29, 2011):
Some sample illustrations of Machu Picchu are shown below.

Resolution:
On arrival to the Machu Picchu village, we proceeded to the "Centro Cultural MachuPicchu" building, next to a church across the bridge from the train station. There we were told we could acquire tickets for that Sunday (we were there on Friday) and they would be accepted at the gate. Hesitantly we proceeded to buy the tickets, which required a passport number and S/.148 (~ $55 USD) - and walked our way up the mountain. Now let me tell you, that is no walk for the faint of heart. It's straight up - not sure the distance, but I would say it took us about an hour and half to make it to the top, though it felt never ending. In our group some took the bus up, but we all took the bus back down! The day before we had seen some of the ruins in Urubamba, all very remarkable; however, nothing really compares to Machu Picchu, it truly was a beautiful site. Make sure to obtain your tickets ahead of time, the path to Machu Picchu for us was a flight into Lima, Peru, connect to a flight from Lima to Cusco, we had a driver then take us from Cusco out to Urubamba where we stayed at a Starwood Luxury Collection hotel using $60 + 4,000 SPG points a day - that truly was an amazing hotel - this hotel, was also the location to pick up the train which is what took us to Machu Picchu village. The train trip took about 3 hours I think, for some reason the return took longer than the outbound trip. Had we planned better, we would have also spent some time In Cusco, our limited glimpse of this city showed some beautiful architecture and I am sure some fascinating ruins outside the city. But Urubamba was pretty remarkable on its own.