Yves' Sock - World Tour '98/'99

Yves' sock has had a busy year. The journey began in June of 1998. Traveling first by air from Brussels to Singapore, on to Melbourne and Wellington. From Wellington via an Embraer EMB-110 "Bandeirante" the sock hopped over the Cook Straight to Belnheim. The route continued via a Holden Commodore down the west side of the South Island through such memorable towns as Westport, Haast, Queenstown, Te Anau and Invircargill. The sock reached its southernmost point in Bluff at approximately 47'S. The trip back to Wellington was via Christchurch. At this point, Yves left the sock in the dryer at Alastair's place and there it sat for several months at 222 The Terrace while Alastair was working in Adelaide. Upon Alastair's return to school in the US, the sock flew to Boston via Auckland and Los Angeles. Then for several months the sock sat in a drawer at Woodbury 311, a dormitory at the Amos Tuck School in Hanover, NH. In December the sock resumed its journey from Boston to Seattle, then to Tokyo and back to Singapore. This is where this photo series begins. Although the sock may not be clearly visible in all the photographs, it does indeed appear in all of them. Back to Boston at the end of the trip, the sock again waited patiently. This time it was back to Brussels in March, but not without a stop first in South Africa. From South Africa the route to Brussels was somewhat circuitous, through Zurich, Paris and finally a high-speed rail ride to Brussels.

The route of the sock from June 1998 to March 1999.

Here we see the sock enjoying the train ride from Singapore to Butterworth. This particular picture was taken shortly after stopping in Kuala Lumpur where Alastair picked up a nice sardine sandwich that he later found out had a cockroach in it. David is enjoying the newspaper, quietly thankful that he did not eat Alastair's sandwich.

Here the sock patiently waits at the ferry terminal on Penang Island in northern Malaysia. After catching the ferry (and whatever germs were lying on that pole), the sock continued north to the Thai border by train.

At the Thai border town of Pedang Basar, everyone had to wait for the slow immigration officials to finish eating lunch before they would begin stamping the passports. The sock, traveling with neither a visa nor a passport, clandestinely snuck into Thailand on the front bumper of the locomotive.

Here we see the sock enjoying the scenery at the ruins in Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand.

After checking out the fake watches and real prostitues on the infamous Patpong Road, Alastair decided to return to the Hyatt via a TukTuk. Although the driver was insistent that Alastair should have a "massage" at one of the houses of ill-repute in the area, Alastair managed to suggest an alternative. For double the fare, Alastair would drive the TukTuk back to the hotel himself. Here we see Alastair (with sock) posing for a picture in front of the Hyatt. Needless to say, the concierge was quite surprised to see a guest driving himself back to the Hyatt on Christmas Eve in a Tuktuk.

The sock enjoying a late afternoon view of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the tallest building in the world. This is the only view that the sock got, because there is no observation deck at the top of the towers. It is private and not open to the public.

No trip to Asia would be complete without a trip to McDonalds for a Samurai Burger. While in Kuala Lumpur the only MacDonalds worthy of a visit by the sock is the "Highest Macdonald's in the World" at the top of the KL tower.

From here, the sock returned to Singapore by bus and then on to Tokyo, Detroit, Boston and Hanover where again it relaxed inside a drawer in Woodbury 311 waiting for its next trip -- to South Africa and back to Brussels.

A quick stop in South Africa on its way back to Brussels suddenly became dangerous when a crazed baboon began to hungrily eye the sock as it sat on a bench in the Western Cape province.

Aaaahh.. The Cape of Good Hope. How many had died in these very waters searching for passage from the South Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

From here the sock took a road-trip to Knysna, flew to Johannesburg and caught the next flight to Zurich. From there a quick hop to Paris and a high-speed rail trip to Brussels on the Eurostar, finally to be reunited with Yves.

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