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Car rental in Japan: how to get a translation of your driver’s license?
Since Japan is not like other countries, I made sure to check the conditions required to drive a car during our road trip. Good thing I did! While in the vast majority of countries, an international driver’s permit is sufficient, that’s not the case in Japan! To have the right to drive in Japan, you’ll need your national driver’s license, accompanied by a translation certified by the JAF (Japan Automobile Federation). The translation request can only be made from within Japan and requires a stated processing time of about two weeks. I tried to cheat by connecting to the website with a Japanese VPN , but nothing doing… it’s impossible…
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Itinerary: 8-day road trip in Japan (Spring 2024)
Here’s the itinerary I’ve put together for our upcoming road trip in Japan. If it helps, you can access the itinerary via this link. Note: this road trip is by car, not by train.
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Back on Easter Island in 2024 (Chile)
We went to Easter Island during our first round-the-world trip (gap year), a few days’ stopover between Tahiti and Santiago. We never thought we’d go back a second time, and yet… this year, the opportunity came up, and to make the most of it, we spent a week on the island. Now, the official name of Easter Island is Rapa Nui, no longer “isla de pascua” or “easter island”. Part 1: Travel JournalPart 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Journal Measures against overtourism Even though the island is in the middle of nowhere (between 5 and 6 hours by plane to the nearest destination), it suffered from overtourism in 2018-2019,…
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3 days in the Sud Lipez desert (Bolivia)
I usually write my articles “while the iron is hot.” In this case, I’m writing it three months late. Since I didn’t note down the name of each stop and my memory is far less reliable than Anh’s, this article won’t be very precise. Sorry 😀 While we’re in Uyuni, I finally decide to book a 3-day/2-night tour to discover Sud Lipez. I hesitated a bit because Anh, due to her sensitivity to altitude, doesn’t want to do this tour. So I leave her in Uyuni for 3 days. There’s no shortage of tour agencies in Uyuni; they all offer the same tours at a similar price. We chose one…
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[Behind the Scenes] A blog post translated into Chinese and published in a book!
In the 8 years (!!) this blog has been around, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing it cited in other travel blogs several times. It’s always very rewarding to learn that we’ve indirectly contributed to other travelers’ adventures. The problem is, they never tell us! So I’ve gotten into the habit, every now and then, of doing some research to try to identify new mentions. And today, big surprise! Through Google Books (a service that digitizes physical books), I discovered that our blog is cited in a book. And not just any book: a practical French-Chinese translation manual. It’s “Manuel pratique de traduction chinois-français/français-chinois: B2-C1” by Pascale Elbaz and Linlin…
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eDreams Prime review – The loyalty program
While reading an article in the business press, I read that the booking site eDreams was achieving excellent financial results. The reason highlighted: the popularity of its eDreams Prime loyalty program. I had never heard of it. Always on the lookout for good deals, I wondered if it could be interesting in our context. The pitch is quite simple: you pay €55/year (€10 more to extend the benefits to friends) and you get discounts on hotels, flights, and car rentals. eDreams claims to have 5 million customers enrolled in its loyalty program! After some research, I came across some very negative reviews of this program, with two recurring points: Aside…
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Easter Island: what mobile internet and WiFi in 2024?
Easter Island is the most isolated inhabited area in the world. Tahiti is 4,000 km away, and the Chilean coast is 3,700 km to the east. While Tahiti has been connected to the “rest of the world” via undersea fiber optic since 2010, which is economically justified by its population (200,000), the same is not yet true for Easter Island. There have been several projects in recent years, but none have come to fruition. Few companies are motivated to invest an estimated one billion dollars to sell internet to just 8,000 residents. But in 2024, that’s no longer necessarily essential, and you can get a very good connection on the…
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Prepaid SIM / eSIM in Chile: How much does it cost? Where to buy one? (2024)
Buy an eSIM valid for Chile If you have an eSIM-compatible phone and want one for Chile, you can go through Holafly (read our article on the topic). See eSIM offers for Argentina. Feel free to use the promo code NOMADBENTO Holafly offers plans with unlimited internet. The price varies depending on the number of days you want. In a few clicks, you have internet on your phone! Buying a SIM card at the airport Having landed quite late and still having my Argentine SIM card (which also works in Chile), I didn’t take the time to check the offers available at the airport. If you have any info, feel free to…
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How I got the CompTIA Security+ (701) certification?
As part of a project that is not the subject of this article, I prepared for and obtained the CompTIA Security+ 701 certification. I prepared for the exam over two months. During the first month, I had at most one hour a day to dedicate to preparation. The second month, I did almost nothing else and spent about three hours a day on it. Given that there are very few French-language testimonials, I’d like to share mine. My background I wasn’t starting from scratch, as I have the advantage of having a two-year technical degree in computer science and nearly 15 years of experience in the web field. Not directly…
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Digital Nomads: A Month in Buenos Aires (Argentina)
After a few days of rest in Salta, we take a flight to Buenos Aires. It’s either the plane or a 30-hour bus ride, I think the choice is pretty obvious. We could have chosen Salta or Mendoza, but we really liked Buenos Aires, a city that bears a striking resemblance to Paris, so we wanted to spend a month there. It’s not relaxing at all; JB and I have quite demanding projects that require us to stay put for a while and have a fiber-optic connection. The city is massive, we took a hop-on hop-off bus ($30/person) and with the traffic, it took us forever just to do half…
