Photo Roundup: UK, France, Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia [pics]

[quantum-x]

Well, I'm back. We survived. As promised, photos.

From climbing rollercoasters and radio-telescopes in the UK, to turning up for a party in a sewer dressed in tuxedos, push biking across the gobi desert or dropping into soviet-era particle accelerators, the trip delivered.

What follows is going to be a bunch of photos, in rough chronological order.
I'm going to save the best ones to last ;)

This may or may not be an active radio telescope.



Abandoned Firestation. Here's a hint, if you're here, don't yell obscenities at people in apartments, or 6 police vans will arrive.



One of the largest rail bridges in scottland. Rather active. Remember to run from trains.



Rollercoasters!



Hm.



Onto Kiev, Chernobyl rooftops



Kiev Chemical Plants


Moscow, touristy



Moscow, underground. Strange edibles.



Frieght Trains in Moscow




Next posts - The jewel of russia.. mongolia.. and more

[A-n-D-r-E-S]

Wow, nice pics!

[- Jesus Christ -]

Great photo skills here.

[DateDoc]

awesome pics!

[Catalyst]

I always love your pics..

[thaifan99]

fokk - you have some head for heights!

[majortom]

Tres belles photos.

But between Chernobyl, the derelict chemical plans and the Radio telescopes...I hope your are wearing your lead jockstrap...

Anyway, you might not need it, looks like you got balls made of steel.

[pornask]

Great photo skills here.

Photo skill = mediocre. Photoshop skill = great.

[Torn Rose]

Welcome back.

Hit me up sometime soon, need a questioned answered.

[Toni KatVixen]

I always love seeing your pictures. Stunning.

[quantum-x]

Welcome back.

Hit me up sometime soon, need a questioned answered.

I'll pop you a message in the AM

[quantum-x]

Photo skill = mediocre. Photoshop skill = great.

So if I didn't use photoshop, what does it make the photos?

[quantum-x]

OK, here we go..

Russian Particle Collider.....






Soviet Warrior in Mongolia


Panoramic photos...... [all film - sorry, no chop ;)]

And chernobyl again



Trans mongolian...




and to finish, my favourites

Mongolian... wow

[crockett]

nice pictures as always man

[quantum-x]

Oops, the board scaled them now:
Fullscale: http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2009-09-12-PANO/
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/2009-09-12/

[Don-Antonio]

ok, I wanna know all about the journey and stuff that's on the pictures. I'm gonna hit you up on ICQ about that. BTW I'm going skydiving today for the 1st time, I'm gonna post some pictures soon

[papill0n]

Fucking fantastic pics as always mate. Fuck you have some great adventures

[L-Pink]

Wonderful photos ..... I really admire your travels.

[martinsc]

awesome pics

[BlueDesignStudios]

cool photos, thanks for sharing

[Shoehorn!]

Holy shit man, those pictures are fucking amazing. And I am really jealous, I've been trying to find someone to head over to Chernobyl with me for years.

[borked]

Damn awesome pics - thanks for making my weekend. I really enjoyed them

[quantum-x]

ok, I wanna know all about the journey and stuff that's on the pictures. I'm gonna hit you up on ICQ about that. BTW I'm going skydiving today for the 1st time, I'm gonna post some pictures soon

I'm going to get everything written up and placed online soon. We have about 6 pages of notes from the trip, these photos really are a cursorary glance over everything.
I've yet to skydive. I'd love to get a license, but that would mean basejumping, and a significantly shorter lifespan

Holy shit man, those pictures are fucking amazing. And I am really jealous, I've been trying to find someone to head over to Chernobyl with me for years.

Chernobyl was interesting [and also one of the easiest places / things to do].
Book a flight to Kiev, grab a visa [they're issued the same day normally], and then there are multiple places that arrange tours. The tours generally take all day, with a ~2 hour bus ride either way.

You get close, pass the first checkpoint, and then pause at the second.
From here, you drive the outskirts of chernobyl, working your way to the station itself, and then on to Pripyat.

I found the organisation of the trip a little frustrating - we spent so much time dawdling around at useless stops, that we didn't have much time a Pripyat. The station itself is interesting to see, for sure, but I found the real interest was Pripyat.

The one thing that did strike me about the station itself: as a human, you normally expect to be able to sense when you are in peril - so standing next to the station that looks, for all intents and purposes, completely harmless, with a geiger counters going nuts, is quite the experience.

If you do go, the head's up is that they seem fairly lax on watching people in Pripyat. The instant they turned away, we scampered off to play on rooftops and check out as many other buildings as we possibly could.

Finally, as a side note: If you go, take a friend. Not only will it drop your booking cost, but this tour really seems to attract weirdos [hey, we went ] - so having a friend would boost your experience significantly, I'd say.

Damn awesome pics - thanks for making my weekend. I really enjoyed them

No problems, I've been eager to share these - thank you for taking the time to reply

I actually shot a bunch of photos on a tiny lomo camera too, which actually tell the story of the trip rather well.

If you've got 5 minutes to burn, check out:
http://ninjito.com/dump/world-trip-r...golia-ukraine/

The quality of photos from the lomo is a lot lower, but its size means that I can shoot more quickly, so you get a lot of 'human interest' photos.

Taster:

[Scott McD]

How the hell did you get access to go up those steps on the Pepsi Max ???
And the rail bridge here in Scotland ?

Nice shots !!!

[DarkJedi]

freight trains


you guys are crazy

[quantum-x]

How the hell did you get access to go up those steps on the Pepsi Max ???
And the rail bridge here in Scotland ?

Nice shots !!!

Hey, you know the Pepsi Max ;) Sadly, there was no vending machine at the top.
Access was fairly straightforward - jump fence, dodge security patrols

The Fourth was similar, but there's a hitch: because the bridge is under constant repair, 5 minutes after the last train has rolled through, the workers [who live below] come up and begin works, which last all night.

So essentially, you've got a window from around sunset until 11:30 or so. As you may know if you've rolled through there a few times, the run-up onto the bridge is rather long. We learnt that you can't trust the timetimes - on the run-on, and the run-off, we had trains hammering down on us. The climb is most exhilarating, and the view isn't that bad either. If you're ever board and out that way....

[quantum-x]

freight trains


you guys are crazy

Freights are probably one of my most favourite things to do.
We've got a bit of a plan sketched out that in the next summer, take a few days off just to hop freights from Paris and see which country we end up in.

Trust me, if you've ever looked at a slow-rolling freight, and was curious to hopping it - next time, jump on - even if it's for a few hundred meters, you'll understand everything

[DWB]

Freights are probably one of my most favourite things to do.
We've got a bit of a plan sketched out that in the next summer, take a few days off just to hop freights from Paris and see which country we end up in.

Trust me, if you've ever looked at a slow-rolling freight, and was curious to hopping it - next time, jump on - even if it's for a few hundred meters, you'll understand everything

Wicked pics!

We used to hop trains as kids and ride them around Ohio. I've always wanted to do it on a grand scale as an adult and cover some serious ground. Love the train pics!

[quantum-x]

Wicked pics!

We used to hop trains as kids and ride them around Ohio. I've always wanted to do it on a grand scale as an adult and cover some serious ground. Love the train pics!

Hey mate
I actually did my first train hop in Ohio. We've got rough plans to drop off the grid for 6 - 12 months, become hobos, jump freights. I think the appeal is the freedom from being able to go anywhere without knowing the destination, without an agenda....

[GetSCORECash]

Those are some great pics...

[Scott McD]

Hey, you know the Pepsi Max ;) Sadly, there was no vending machine at the top.
Access was fairly straightforward - jump fence, dodge security patrols

The Fourth was similar, but there's a hitch: because the bridge is under constant repair, 5 minutes after the last train has rolled through, the workers [who live below] come up and begin works, which last all night.

So essentially, you've got a window from around sunset until 11:30 or so. As you may know if you've rolled through there a few times, the run-up onto the bridge is rather long. We learnt that you can't trust the timetimes - on the run-on, and the run-off, we had trains hammering down on us. The climb is most exhilarating, and the view isn't that bad either. If you're ever board and out that way....

Seriously ?? You're fucking crazy...

[quantum-x]

Seriously ?? You're fucking crazy...

What's crazy is how I spelled 'bored'. I'm seriously embarrassed:|

[Chosen]

Great pics, thanks for sharing

[MaDalton]

i am waiting for the book

[quantum-x]

i am waiting for the book

This trip would definitely bring it closer....

[cherrylula]

awesome pics! the photoshop accusations are always funny in your threads.

[StariaDaniel]

Amazing photos oO You truly got some skills

[3xTom]

Simon,
Well what can I say,
Your first train hop was in my back yard
and well the first time i shattered my hand was climbing onto a roof top with you...

But awesome job here ......
Looks as the though the trip was fully worth it

[Michaelious]

They are all very cool photos!!

[quantum-x]

Simon,
Well what can I say,
Your first train hop was in my back yard
and well the first time i shattered my hand was climbing onto a roof top with you...

But awesome job here ......
Looks as the though the trip was fully worth it

I still feel bad about your thumb

But not so bad about running out of staff meetings yelling 'There's a freight train coming.. I'll be back later!'

[YDG]

Those are incredible pics, not only the quality, but also, how you managed to get into the positions to take them! Very well done man!

[DaSandyMan]

roxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

yay thats amazing as usual ... great shots and the real life WOW like warrior is so impressive :-) and for those thinking u sux at photography ... well ppl u obviously need to think again about your own skills lolol

[yuu.design]

cool pics!

[newbreed]

I still feel bad about your thumb

But not so bad about running out of staff meetings yelling 'There's a freight train coming.. I'll be back later!'

haha I remember this quite well. Didn't we have video of one of your famous run-ups? I'm sure one of us took pics or video of that, I'll have to go dig...

[abyss_al]

amazing amazing amazing!!

[Sid70]

scary ukrainian shit. I was 16 when it blew up. Now this is funny, i just passed this stage in CallOfDuty 4

[Pete-KT]

Damm very nice pics as ALWAYS

[kaktuz]

crazy pics man, wow! what camera do you use? amazing photo skills!

[The Ghost]

Great pics. Very happy to see you home safe and sound

[Sunny]

its really a very very nice collection thanks for share this