So photography is important to me. I take a lot of photographs, and I feel that I'm getting better and better at being a photographer. I've been looking forward to getting a new camera for a while... one with more manual controls and better performance. I want to learn more of that neat professional stuff. However, since I'm backpacking for an extended period of time, I'm very conscious of my payload. I'm trying to travel light and I'm very reluctant to get a big, proper, digital SLR camera. The cost does not bother me so much (they're not really THAT expensive), but the size and the fragility of such a device is somewhat intimidating to me given my current mode of travel. If I wasn't on this trip right now, I'm very sure that I would go and buy a digital SLR camera straight away.
But, I'm not. It's been a difficult decision for me, but I finally found a camera that falls in between the two extremes. It's bigger than your regular ultra compacts, but still much smaller than digital SLRs. It provides many of the features and manual controls of digital SLRs. It's something I feel I can really learn and expand my skills with. I bought myself a Canon Powershot G10.
There was a review posted to the Digital Photography Review website recently. It's very favourable. The Panasonic LX3 got higher reviews, however (I think this is the camera that Will Chau is eyeing right now). I think the Canon has more manual controls and that's what I'm looking for right now, so I don't regret my decision.
Hopefully, in the upcoming months, you can see the results being posted here. I know my photographs are already pretty "good" so far. Hopefully, they can now be "better".
--
Rob Szumlakowski
The Beachouse, Fiji
Saturday, November 29, 2008
New Photos Posted: Los Angeles
Hi! I've posted a nine new photos to my existing Los Angeles photo album. These nine new photos are from my eleven-hour layover on November 18, 2008. I didn't feel like creating a brand new album for only nine photos when I already have a small photo album for Los Angeles.
Enjoy!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
The Beachouse, Fiji
Enjoy!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
The Beachouse, Fiji
Departure
November 18, 2008
With the last of the weddings wrapped up, it was time to depart again.
My flight from Toronto was at 8 in the morning, so I had to get up very early. I was up at 5. Being the independent traveler that I am, I didn’t wake my sister or Hass to get a ride to the airport and took good old bus 58A down Lawrence Avenue to get there instead. It was a cold morning and I was wearing lots of layers to stay warm, including my blue and white AU$1 scarf from the Blue Mountains of Australia. On this upcoming trip, I didn’t expect to spend any prolonged times in any cold places (unlike the last one), so I gave the scarf away to some Spanish speaking lady who was sitting beside me on the bus.
I landed in Los Angeles ahead of schedule, around 10:30 AM. I had many, many, many hours to kill here. Los Angeles Airport (LAX) is a pretty boring airport (much more boring than your average airport), and Los Angeles itself is a pretty uninteresting city to me. Why did I set myself up with an eleven hour layover here?
There are a couple reasons, unlike my last Toronto-to-Los Angeles-to-the-South-Pacific flight attempt on February 1, I didn’t want unforeseen problems to make me miss my connecting flight from Los Angeles. Also, that 8 AM flight on Air Canada was the cheapest flight I could find, costing me only CA$11 (one-way, of course). How did I get such a dirt-cheap flight? I took advantage of my TD Travel Rewards Visa. Yes, the same credit card that cause me so much annoyance earlier in the year helped me save CA$200 on that flight. Yippee!
I had an excellent plan to advantage of my lengthy layover. On the advice of the Traveler’s Aid office in LAX, I took one of the free hotel transfer shuttles to the Radison hotel near the airport and checked my big backpack into their storage room, giving the bellhop a tip for his troubles. The hotel was only a two block walk to the bus stop where I was able to catch a ride on The Big Blue Bus (Santa Monica public transit) to Santa Monica, where I would have lunch, roam around, and play with my new camera.
The bus ride was about forty minutes long and only cost US$0.75, which doesn’t seem like much. Given the current exchange rates, that’s like CA$42we374t72364, though. At least I got to see lots of interesting people. I didn’t talk to any though. My spanish skills aren’t that good, after all.
I walked down the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, the ritzy pedestrian-only shopping street, where I was accosted by at least a dozen solicitors requesting my support for at least as many different charities. The shrubberies and fountains in the shapes of dinosaurs were pretty cool, though.
After enjoying some cheap and spicy Mexican food I continued my wanders down to the beach. I walked down the beach promenade and watched people enjoying the lovely weather (sunny and about 20ºC). There were people biking, roller blading and taking strolls (just like me!). I wandered past Muscle Beach where there were many very fit people swinging on gymnastics equipment, contorting themselves, and spinning around on the ground. Overall though, the cast of characters on the beachfront in Santa Monica was not as interesting as the colourful folk I saw at neighbouring Venice Beach back in February.
My final destination was the long pier with the big ferris wheel. There was actually a full blown amusement park on the pier with maybe half-a-dozen rides, though they mostly seemed to be shut down. The ferris wheel was running though, and I enjoyed a ride on it. It was pretty cheap (US$2.50, I think). The views from it were pretty cool.
I walked to the end of the pier and gazed out at the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. I felt like I was at the extreme end of North America. Somewhere over watery horizon were the distant places that had held so much of my fascination over the year and continue to hold me in thrall. Oh well, it was time for me to go back to the airport so I could hop that puddle!
I got back to LAX around sunset and still had about five hours to kill before my flight. I walked back from the Radison to the airport (it was ridiculously close) and continued playing with my new camera. I took some shots that I’m pretty sure I couldn’t pull off with my old one. The “sunset mode” on my camera was pretty sweet. You can probably expect many more glorious sunset pictures in the upcoming months, my friends.
My flight that night was a 10.5 hour jump on an Air Pacific 747 to Nadi on the main island of Fiji. I had two empty seats beside me took advantage of it by stretching out and lying flat to sleep. I’m usually not very successful at sleeping on airplanes. On past overnight flights I had attempted to help the process by taking a Gravol pill or an herbal sleeping pill. These attempts had limited success. I wasn’t goofing around anymore. I took two proper sleeping pills before my dinner of mundane airplane food, laid down, and passed out. It was excellent.
November 19, 2008
For me, this day did not exist. Since I was flying west across the International Date Line, I would be skipping this day.
I’ll take advantage of this small space, however, to boast about my air fare. My one-way transpacific flight on Air Pacific from Los Angeles to Fiji then, two weeks later, onward to Brisbane, Australia only cost me US$777 (my lucky number?). That seems pretty good to me. It also had the advantage of breaking up the ordeal of a thirteen hour flight and hopefully cutting up the jet lag a bit.
November 20, 2008
Welcome to Fiji! I landed at about 5:30 AM, just after sunrise, at Nadi (pronounced “nandi”). Nadi is not the capital of Fiji (the city of Suva is), but it is where the main international airport is located.
I’ll tell you more about Fiji in a later post, though. I’m still there right now. It’s a sunny day (which is actually kind of rare here, I’ve discovered), so I’m going to go lie in a hammock and read for a few hours, suckahs!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
The Beachouse, Fiji
With the last of the weddings wrapped up, it was time to depart again.
My flight from Toronto was at 8 in the morning, so I had to get up very early. I was up at 5. Being the independent traveler that I am, I didn’t wake my sister or Hass to get a ride to the airport and took good old bus 58A down Lawrence Avenue to get there instead. It was a cold morning and I was wearing lots of layers to stay warm, including my blue and white AU$1 scarf from the Blue Mountains of Australia. On this upcoming trip, I didn’t expect to spend any prolonged times in any cold places (unlike the last one), so I gave the scarf away to some Spanish speaking lady who was sitting beside me on the bus.
I landed in Los Angeles ahead of schedule, around 10:30 AM. I had many, many, many hours to kill here. Los Angeles Airport (LAX) is a pretty boring airport (much more boring than your average airport), and Los Angeles itself is a pretty uninteresting city to me. Why did I set myself up with an eleven hour layover here?
There are a couple reasons, unlike my last Toronto-to-Los Angeles-to-the-South-Pacific flight attempt on February 1, I didn’t want unforeseen problems to make me miss my connecting flight from Los Angeles. Also, that 8 AM flight on Air Canada was the cheapest flight I could find, costing me only CA$11 (one-way, of course). How did I get such a dirt-cheap flight? I took advantage of my TD Travel Rewards Visa. Yes, the same credit card that cause me so much annoyance earlier in the year helped me save CA$200 on that flight. Yippee!
I had an excellent plan to advantage of my lengthy layover. On the advice of the Traveler’s Aid office in LAX, I took one of the free hotel transfer shuttles to the Radison hotel near the airport and checked my big backpack into their storage room, giving the bellhop a tip for his troubles. The hotel was only a two block walk to the bus stop where I was able to catch a ride on The Big Blue Bus (Santa Monica public transit) to Santa Monica, where I would have lunch, roam around, and play with my new camera.
The bus ride was about forty minutes long and only cost US$0.75, which doesn’t seem like much. Given the current exchange rates, that’s like CA$42we374t72364, though. At least I got to see lots of interesting people. I didn’t talk to any though. My spanish skills aren’t that good, after all.
I walked down the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, the ritzy pedestrian-only shopping street, where I was accosted by at least a dozen solicitors requesting my support for at least as many different charities. The shrubberies and fountains in the shapes of dinosaurs were pretty cool, though.
After enjoying some cheap and spicy Mexican food I continued my wanders down to the beach. I walked down the beach promenade and watched people enjoying the lovely weather (sunny and about 20ºC). There were people biking, roller blading and taking strolls (just like me!). I wandered past Muscle Beach where there were many very fit people swinging on gymnastics equipment, contorting themselves, and spinning around on the ground. Overall though, the cast of characters on the beachfront in Santa Monica was not as interesting as the colourful folk I saw at neighbouring Venice Beach back in February.
My final destination was the long pier with the big ferris wheel. There was actually a full blown amusement park on the pier with maybe half-a-dozen rides, though they mostly seemed to be shut down. The ferris wheel was running though, and I enjoyed a ride on it. It was pretty cheap (US$2.50, I think). The views from it were pretty cool.
I walked to the end of the pier and gazed out at the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. I felt like I was at the extreme end of North America. Somewhere over watery horizon were the distant places that had held so much of my fascination over the year and continue to hold me in thrall. Oh well, it was time for me to go back to the airport so I could hop that puddle!
I got back to LAX around sunset and still had about five hours to kill before my flight. I walked back from the Radison to the airport (it was ridiculously close) and continued playing with my new camera. I took some shots that I’m pretty sure I couldn’t pull off with my old one. The “sunset mode” on my camera was pretty sweet. You can probably expect many more glorious sunset pictures in the upcoming months, my friends.
My flight that night was a 10.5 hour jump on an Air Pacific 747 to Nadi on the main island of Fiji. I had two empty seats beside me took advantage of it by stretching out and lying flat to sleep. I’m usually not very successful at sleeping on airplanes. On past overnight flights I had attempted to help the process by taking a Gravol pill or an herbal sleeping pill. These attempts had limited success. I wasn’t goofing around anymore. I took two proper sleeping pills before my dinner of mundane airplane food, laid down, and passed out. It was excellent.
November 19, 2008
For me, this day did not exist. Since I was flying west across the International Date Line, I would be skipping this day.
I’ll take advantage of this small space, however, to boast about my air fare. My one-way transpacific flight on Air Pacific from Los Angeles to Fiji then, two weeks later, onward to Brisbane, Australia only cost me US$777 (my lucky number?). That seems pretty good to me. It also had the advantage of breaking up the ordeal of a thirteen hour flight and hopefully cutting up the jet lag a bit.
November 20, 2008
Welcome to Fiji! I landed at about 5:30 AM, just after sunrise, at Nadi (pronounced “nandi”). Nadi is not the capital of Fiji (the city of Suva is), but it is where the main international airport is located.
I’ll tell you more about Fiji in a later post, though. I’m still there right now. It’s a sunny day (which is actually kind of rare here, I’ve discovered), so I’m going to go lie in a hammock and read for a few hours, suckahs!
--
Rob Szumlakowski
The Beachouse, Fiji
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Interim
I’ll try to use this post to report on some of the stuff that happened on the two-and-a-half months that I was back in Canada. I returned on September 3. I left again on November 18.
Why did I come back for such a short time? There’s a few reasons. My cousin Marta Rybak (now Shoemaker) was getting married. My friend Susie Ma (now Severence) was getting married. The weddings were only two weeks apart, so it would feasible to go to both. While I was back, I learned about two more weddings, Mike Henhoeffer and Naina, and went to those, too! Yeah, crazy... four weddings in two months. I guess I’ve reached that age where everyone else is getting married. Next year is more of the same... But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, of course.
I didn’t want to miss Thanksgiving. I missed Easter, and I was going to miss Christmas. I had to make sure I went to Thanksgiving, at least. I missed my family a lot and it was really good to see all them again.
I also missed my friends a lot, too, and it was great to see them again. I made a point to see as many of them as I could while I was back. I saw lots of people from Toronto, Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock and Ottawa. It was good to reconnect with so many people again. I even made some new friends, too.
I was very fortunate and thankful that I was able to return to my old workplace in Toronto, NeoEdge, and work for five weeks. My coworkers there are brilliant and so very fun. While I was gone, some people had left. Some people came back. Some people moved. Some people changed positions. It was good to catch up with the changes (money is nice, too).
I also really needed a break from traveling for a while. I was definitely feeling travel fatigue. Too much moving around. Too much packing. Too much unpacking. Too many friends made for a short time, only to say goodbye over and over. It was a cycle that I needed a break from. It’s strange to say that going back home to work was a break from traveling, but it really seemed that way to me.
I think, on my next trip, I will try to take go at a slower pace. I’ll also be gone less time (it should only be four and half months, not seven). I have every intent of coming back to Canada for Easter. Mostly, I just want to skip the winter while I still have the chance.
The day I left Canada was the first day of permanent snow. Sure, there had been a few days where scattered flakes drifted from the skies in little flurries, but the snow never lingered long enough to matter. On November 18, though, as I was flying out of Toronto, there was snow all over the place. It makes me feel like, unlike last time, I definitely beat winter.
In short, my break from travel was very very appreciated. I saw so many people. So many great things happened. Thank you for reminding me of the great and amazing things I have in Canada. I love you all and will see you in a few months.
This is hardly a goodbye, of course. I’ll continue updating this blog while I’m away, and I’ll be back before you know it (four months really isn’t a very long time...).
For those of you that don’t know yet, here are my approximate plans:
November: 2 weeks in Fiji
December: in Australia (including Christmas and New Years)
January to the middle of March: New Zealand
Second Half of March: Cook Islands, if possible. Maybe somewhere else. Still not really decided.
April: BACK IN CANADA! Yay Easter!
May: Ireland for a bit to see Patrick and Toni get married. This should be FANTASTIC and I am extremely looking forward to it, for lots of reasons.
June: BACK IN CANADA again. Depending on how things go, this may be the end of my long-term travels. It’s still many months away, so let’s wait and see, eh?
As always, people are free (and encouraged) to send me emails and text messages. I’ll probably reply to text messages more rapidly than emails, for obvious reasons. Unlike the last trip, I will always try and have a local mobile phone number (unless I’m stuck somewhere without reception). My current phone number should usually be posted on Facebook. Maybe I’ll start posting it on here, too.
--
Rob Szumlakowski
The Beachouse, Viti Levu, Fiji
Why did I come back for such a short time? There’s a few reasons. My cousin Marta Rybak (now Shoemaker) was getting married. My friend Susie Ma (now Severence) was getting married. The weddings were only two weeks apart, so it would feasible to go to both. While I was back, I learned about two more weddings, Mike Henhoeffer and Naina, and went to those, too! Yeah, crazy... four weddings in two months. I guess I’ve reached that age where everyone else is getting married. Next year is more of the same... But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, of course.
I didn’t want to miss Thanksgiving. I missed Easter, and I was going to miss Christmas. I had to make sure I went to Thanksgiving, at least. I missed my family a lot and it was really good to see all them again.
I also missed my friends a lot, too, and it was great to see them again. I made a point to see as many of them as I could while I was back. I saw lots of people from Toronto, Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock and Ottawa. It was good to reconnect with so many people again. I even made some new friends, too.
I was very fortunate and thankful that I was able to return to my old workplace in Toronto, NeoEdge, and work for five weeks. My coworkers there are brilliant and so very fun. While I was gone, some people had left. Some people came back. Some people moved. Some people changed positions. It was good to catch up with the changes (money is nice, too).
I also really needed a break from traveling for a while. I was definitely feeling travel fatigue. Too much moving around. Too much packing. Too much unpacking. Too many friends made for a short time, only to say goodbye over and over. It was a cycle that I needed a break from. It’s strange to say that going back home to work was a break from traveling, but it really seemed that way to me.
I think, on my next trip, I will try to take go at a slower pace. I’ll also be gone less time (it should only be four and half months, not seven). I have every intent of coming back to Canada for Easter. Mostly, I just want to skip the winter while I still have the chance.
The day I left Canada was the first day of permanent snow. Sure, there had been a few days where scattered flakes drifted from the skies in little flurries, but the snow never lingered long enough to matter. On November 18, though, as I was flying out of Toronto, there was snow all over the place. It makes me feel like, unlike last time, I definitely beat winter.
In short, my break from travel was very very appreciated. I saw so many people. So many great things happened. Thank you for reminding me of the great and amazing things I have in Canada. I love you all and will see you in a few months.
This is hardly a goodbye, of course. I’ll continue updating this blog while I’m away, and I’ll be back before you know it (four months really isn’t a very long time...).
For those of you that don’t know yet, here are my approximate plans:
November: 2 weeks in Fiji
December: in Australia (including Christmas and New Years)
January to the middle of March: New Zealand
Second Half of March: Cook Islands, if possible. Maybe somewhere else. Still not really decided.
April: BACK IN CANADA! Yay Easter!
May: Ireland for a bit to see Patrick and Toni get married. This should be FANTASTIC and I am extremely looking forward to it, for lots of reasons.
June: BACK IN CANADA again. Depending on how things go, this may be the end of my long-term travels. It’s still many months away, so let’s wait and see, eh?
As always, people are free (and encouraged) to send me emails and text messages. I’ll probably reply to text messages more rapidly than emails, for obvious reasons. Unlike the last trip, I will always try and have a local mobile phone number (unless I’m stuck somewhere without reception). My current phone number should usually be posted on Facebook. Maybe I’ll start posting it on here, too.
--
Rob Szumlakowski
The Beachouse, Viti Levu, Fiji
Friday, November 21, 2008
A Man Burns! An Ending?
Saturday August 30, 2008
I went on a good bicycle cruise this morning (like many mornings in Black Rock City, in fact). Today, I cycled far: across the playa to the Tower of Babylon (a huge 10 story tall tower with a big American flag hanging off the side. I climbed the tower, took some photos, and continued on to The Temple of Forgiveness.
The Temple truly is a special place. Like everything else in Black Rock City, it’s a temporary structure that was constructed specifically for this event by volunteers. It’s an art object, too, but, more so than any of the other art objects, the Temple has a special meaning and purpose. It’s supposed to be the centre for religious worship and spiritual well-being for all people in Black Rock City. Additionally, it’s the place where people can go to heal themselves of negative aspects of their lives, or say goodbye to past loved ones and hopefully attain a feeling of catharsis. Many people leave notes, letters, signs, shrines, artifacts, whatever, to parents, children, pets, spouses, whoever, who have passed on. It’s a very emotional place and after walking around and reading the notes, it was hard to keep the tears back.
Here’s a message left by someone who must have had problems controlling their temper, and hoped that the temple would help them move past it. It says “GOODBYE ANGER”
I didn’t take pictures of many of the notes. They felt too personal.
The temple, itself, is a very intricate and beautiful construction. It’s hard to conceive how much work has gone into the place.
How does the temple help people achieve catharsis (a feeling of emotional release, purification, or cleansing)? After everyone who wants to leaves a piece of something in the temple, the whole place is burned to the ground. More on that later, though.
I spent most of the afternoon at my camp hanging out with my fellow campers. It was amazing how crowded Black Rock City was by now. I had been here for a week now, and the place was very empty at the start. Now, I was one of 49,000 people here. Tonight was the night of the main event! The big wooden statue of The Man in the centre of Black Rock City would be set alight while thousands of people danced and cheered it on.
The actual burn was preceded by an impressive fireworks display!
Then, there was a huge fireball!
Then, the whole thing was burning, punctuated by more random fireworks.
After maybe half of an hour, the structure was consumed and collapsed to the ground. Everyone cheered! It was great! It was glorious! What a spectacle!
For many of the people there, that was the start of a huge all night party all over Black Rock City. Not for me though. I was supremely tired (too many late nights... not enough sleep.. it was all adding up). I went to sleep.
Sunday August 31, 2008
It was another day of enjoying the company of my fellow campers. Erikas and Catie left in the morning (Erikas was not feeling well). In fact, many people seemed to be abandoning Black Rock City. The day of the Burn was the peak. Now, many people were leaving to try and beat the rush of the official Exodus day (Monday September 1). There were legends of being stuck in traffic for many many hours on the one, long, two-lane road from the Playa back to Interstate 80. Our plan, though, for avoiding the traffic was to leave on the day AFTER exodus. So, even though many people were leaving Black Rock City today, I still had a while to go.
I seemed to have taken very few photos during the day, today, so I assume that I had had done very little, other than chill out (which is perfectly acceptable!)
That night, was when the temple burned. It was a completely different atmosphere compared to the man burn the night before. Whereas the man burn was a party with cheering, celebration, and joy, the temple burn was a solemn occasion. It was very quiet was we watched the beautiful structure burn. There was far fewer people there, too.
It was an intense inferno that generated a lot of heat. So much so, that it created whirlwinds of smoke and ash that migrated downwind.
As soon as the temple structure collapsed, an uncanny thing happened. An enveloping dust storm whipped out of the desert and obscured everything with a biting wind. David and I had to bike back across one mile of open playa in white-out conditions in the middle of the night to reach our camp. It’s a good thing that I have a good sense of direction and had a good feel for the place after being there for more than a week.
That night, I huddled in my tent while the wind and dust howled around me. It was creepy.
Monday September 1, 2008
Today was the official Exodus day. Thousands and thousands of people were leaving Black Rock City today. We said goodbye to many of our neighbours. David left today, too. He’s a really cool guy, and I enjoyed hanging out with him for the past few days. He hitched a ride back to Oakland. After David left, our camp was back to it’s original three people: me, Brent, and Wendy.
From left to right, me, Wendy, David, and Brent.
Brent and Wendy spent much of the day helping collect donations at the exit of Black Rock City. There would still be a small contingent of people living in Black Rock City for about a month. They were responsible for cleaning up every speck of litter and waste, tearing everything down, and returning the playa to its pristine state (or as close as possible). They needed donations of non-perishable food, treats, and beer (especially beer), to keep them going.
I was doing something different that day, though. Even though I had a ride back to San Francisco with Brent and Wendy, and I had a flight booked back to Toronto, I was willing to see if I could get back to Canada in a more glorious manner. I spent some time near the Exodus gate holding up a sign that said “TORONTO” in big letters and “Detroit, Buffalo, Montreal” in somewhat smaller ones. I was seriously trying to see if I could hitchhike home. I’ve never driven across North America before. It would be legendary. Many people managed to get home from Black Rock City that way (especially since a large proportion of the population lived in the Bay Area). I spent some time biking around and asking random Canadians if they were going back to Toronto. I actually found a school bus that was going to drive back to Ottawa (via Toronto), but it was completely full and wouldn’t be able to take me. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
Brent and Wendy were busy for a long time, so I spent much of the afternoon in my camp by myself. I cleaned up and packed a bit. I walked around on MOOP patrols (Matter Out of Place) to see if I could find litter. I helped some of our few remaining neighbours disassemble their art car. I talked to another of my few remaining neighbours. We discussed photography and I attempted to play my didgeridoo for him. I didn’t do so well though. i need practice.
Tuesday September 2, 2008
We spent much of the day packing and loading our truck. It took a long time since we had lots of stuff. We didn’t leave until 3 PM.
It was a long way back. We stopped for ice cream at the first store (LUXURY!). We stopped for Indian Tacos (apparently a popular tradition along the long dusty highway). We stopped at In-N-Out Burger for dinner (OH SO yummy). We dropped Wendy off and unloaded her stuff in Oakland before Brent and I made the rest of the drive back to Sunnyvale. We got back late.
Wednesday September 3, 2008
In the morning I said goodbye to Brent and his parents. He was an excellent host and really showed me many amazing and excellent things at Burning Man. Conversely, after talking to me, he is now thinking of taking a long-term backpacking trip much like mine. I hope he does. It’s really very rewarding.
I got a ride to the Caltrain station in Sunnyvale and took the train to San Francisco airport. From there, I flew to Los Angeles and then back to Toronto.
On the flight back to Toronto, I was sitting beside a man who was on the crew for a Hollywood show. He, and some of his coworkers, was traveling to Canada for he first time to cover the Toronto International Film Festival. Since it was his first time in Canada, I told him what to expect about the weather (no, it won’t be as cold as you think), and where to go and drink, party, and shop. He was astonished when I told him about my seven month trip. How could a person travel for so long? He was one of many in a long line of people I had met on my trip who thought this way. Is it really so astonishing?
I guess it is. Sometimes I can hardly believe what I had just done. I think back to some of my crazy times in Asia and Australia and can barely believe what happened. Much of it was a blur. I’m so thankful I took so many photographs and wrote this blog. I don’t want to lose my accomplishments.
As I exited the plane and entered Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson Airport, I was euphoric. I had an amazing trip. Ups. Down. Good times. Bad times. I met so many people. I did so many things. But, I was back. It was good. I raced through the terminal to reach immigration before the crowd from the plane. Above the entrance to the big immigration room, there was a huge sign that said “WELCOME TO CANADA”. I know I had seen the exact same sign before... but it was completely different now.
Of course, I had to show the silly customs people my didgeridoo and the crazy mask I bought in Tonga. Quarantine, pests, all that. The customs lady was surprised to hear about my trip. I guess, in the grand scheme of things, very few people do what I did. Which still seems surprising to me, since I met many people when I was gone who were on long term trips, too. Many of them were Canadians (there were definitely more Canadian backpackers than American). I did, realize, though, that my trip was somewhat longer than most peoples’. And there’s more to go...
I exited the secure area of the terminal and met my sister and Hass. They were there to pick me up. It was a happy moment.
I was home.
NOT THE END.
I went on a good bicycle cruise this morning (like many mornings in Black Rock City, in fact). Today, I cycled far: across the playa to the Tower of Babylon (a huge 10 story tall tower with a big American flag hanging off the side. I climbed the tower, took some photos, and continued on to The Temple of Forgiveness.
The Temple truly is a special place. Like everything else in Black Rock City, it’s a temporary structure that was constructed specifically for this event by volunteers. It’s an art object, too, but, more so than any of the other art objects, the Temple has a special meaning and purpose. It’s supposed to be the centre for religious worship and spiritual well-being for all people in Black Rock City. Additionally, it’s the place where people can go to heal themselves of negative aspects of their lives, or say goodbye to past loved ones and hopefully attain a feeling of catharsis. Many people leave notes, letters, signs, shrines, artifacts, whatever, to parents, children, pets, spouses, whoever, who have passed on. It’s a very emotional place and after walking around and reading the notes, it was hard to keep the tears back.
Here’s a message left by someone who must have had problems controlling their temper, and hoped that the temple would help them move past it. It says “GOODBYE ANGER”
I didn’t take pictures of many of the notes. They felt too personal.The temple, itself, is a very intricate and beautiful construction. It’s hard to conceive how much work has gone into the place.
How does the temple help people achieve catharsis (a feeling of emotional release, purification, or cleansing)? After everyone who wants to leaves a piece of something in the temple, the whole place is burned to the ground. More on that later, though.I spent most of the afternoon at my camp hanging out with my fellow campers. It was amazing how crowded Black Rock City was by now. I had been here for a week now, and the place was very empty at the start. Now, I was one of 49,000 people here. Tonight was the night of the main event! The big wooden statue of The Man in the centre of Black Rock City would be set alight while thousands of people danced and cheered it on.
The actual burn was preceded by an impressive fireworks display!
Then, there was a huge fireball!
Then, the whole thing was burning, punctuated by more random fireworks.
After maybe half of an hour, the structure was consumed and collapsed to the ground. Everyone cheered! It was great! It was glorious! What a spectacle!
For many of the people there, that was the start of a huge all night party all over Black Rock City. Not for me though. I was supremely tired (too many late nights... not enough sleep.. it was all adding up). I went to sleep.
Sunday August 31, 2008
It was another day of enjoying the company of my fellow campers. Erikas and Catie left in the morning (Erikas was not feeling well). In fact, many people seemed to be abandoning Black Rock City. The day of the Burn was the peak. Now, many people were leaving to try and beat the rush of the official Exodus day (Monday September 1). There were legends of being stuck in traffic for many many hours on the one, long, two-lane road from the Playa back to Interstate 80. Our plan, though, for avoiding the traffic was to leave on the day AFTER exodus. So, even though many people were leaving Black Rock City today, I still had a while to go.
I seemed to have taken very few photos during the day, today, so I assume that I had had done very little, other than chill out (which is perfectly acceptable!)
That night, was when the temple burned. It was a completely different atmosphere compared to the man burn the night before. Whereas the man burn was a party with cheering, celebration, and joy, the temple burn was a solemn occasion. It was very quiet was we watched the beautiful structure burn. There was far fewer people there, too.
It was an intense inferno that generated a lot of heat. So much so, that it created whirlwinds of smoke and ash that migrated downwind.
As soon as the temple structure collapsed, an uncanny thing happened. An enveloping dust storm whipped out of the desert and obscured everything with a biting wind. David and I had to bike back across one mile of open playa in white-out conditions in the middle of the night to reach our camp. It’s a good thing that I have a good sense of direction and had a good feel for the place after being there for more than a week.
That night, I huddled in my tent while the wind and dust howled around me. It was creepy.
Monday September 1, 2008
Today was the official Exodus day. Thousands and thousands of people were leaving Black Rock City today. We said goodbye to many of our neighbours. David left today, too. He’s a really cool guy, and I enjoyed hanging out with him for the past few days. He hitched a ride back to Oakland. After David left, our camp was back to it’s original three people: me, Brent, and Wendy.
From left to right, me, Wendy, David, and Brent.
Brent and Wendy spent much of the day helping collect donations at the exit of Black Rock City. There would still be a small contingent of people living in Black Rock City for about a month. They were responsible for cleaning up every speck of litter and waste, tearing everything down, and returning the playa to its pristine state (or as close as possible). They needed donations of non-perishable food, treats, and beer (especially beer), to keep them going.
I was doing something different that day, though. Even though I had a ride back to San Francisco with Brent and Wendy, and I had a flight booked back to Toronto, I was willing to see if I could get back to Canada in a more glorious manner. I spent some time near the Exodus gate holding up a sign that said “TORONTO” in big letters and “Detroit, Buffalo, Montreal” in somewhat smaller ones. I was seriously trying to see if I could hitchhike home. I’ve never driven across North America before. It would be legendary. Many people managed to get home from Black Rock City that way (especially since a large proportion of the population lived in the Bay Area). I spent some time biking around and asking random Canadians if they were going back to Toronto. I actually found a school bus that was going to drive back to Ottawa (via Toronto), but it was completely full and wouldn’t be able to take me. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
Brent and Wendy were busy for a long time, so I spent much of the afternoon in my camp by myself. I cleaned up and packed a bit. I walked around on MOOP patrols (Matter Out of Place) to see if I could find litter. I helped some of our few remaining neighbours disassemble their art car. I talked to another of my few remaining neighbours. We discussed photography and I attempted to play my didgeridoo for him. I didn’t do so well though. i need practice.
Tuesday September 2, 2008
We spent much of the day packing and loading our truck. It took a long time since we had lots of stuff. We didn’t leave until 3 PM.
It was a long way back. We stopped for ice cream at the first store (LUXURY!). We stopped for Indian Tacos (apparently a popular tradition along the long dusty highway). We stopped at In-N-Out Burger for dinner (OH SO yummy). We dropped Wendy off and unloaded her stuff in Oakland before Brent and I made the rest of the drive back to Sunnyvale. We got back late.
Wednesday September 3, 2008
In the morning I said goodbye to Brent and his parents. He was an excellent host and really showed me many amazing and excellent things at Burning Man. Conversely, after talking to me, he is now thinking of taking a long-term backpacking trip much like mine. I hope he does. It’s really very rewarding.
I got a ride to the Caltrain station in Sunnyvale and took the train to San Francisco airport. From there, I flew to Los Angeles and then back to Toronto.
On the flight back to Toronto, I was sitting beside a man who was on the crew for a Hollywood show. He, and some of his coworkers, was traveling to Canada for he first time to cover the Toronto International Film Festival. Since it was his first time in Canada, I told him what to expect about the weather (no, it won’t be as cold as you think), and where to go and drink, party, and shop. He was astonished when I told him about my seven month trip. How could a person travel for so long? He was one of many in a long line of people I had met on my trip who thought this way. Is it really so astonishing?
I guess it is. Sometimes I can hardly believe what I had just done. I think back to some of my crazy times in Asia and Australia and can barely believe what happened. Much of it was a blur. I’m so thankful I took so many photographs and wrote this blog. I don’t want to lose my accomplishments.
As I exited the plane and entered Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson Airport, I was euphoric. I had an amazing trip. Ups. Down. Good times. Bad times. I met so many people. I did so many things. But, I was back. It was good. I raced through the terminal to reach immigration before the crowd from the plane. Above the entrance to the big immigration room, there was a huge sign that said “WELCOME TO CANADA”. I know I had seen the exact same sign before... but it was completely different now.
Of course, I had to show the silly customs people my didgeridoo and the crazy mask I bought in Tonga. Quarantine, pests, all that. The customs lady was surprised to hear about my trip. I guess, in the grand scheme of things, very few people do what I did. Which still seems surprising to me, since I met many people when I was gone who were on long term trips, too. Many of them were Canadians (there were definitely more Canadian backpackers than American). I did, realize, though, that my trip was somewhat longer than most peoples’. And there’s more to go...
I exited the secure area of the terminal and met my sister and Hass. They were there to pick me up. It was a happy moment.
I was home.
NOT THE END.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Some More Burning Man
Thursday August 28, 2008
So, today involved a lot more wandering and being driven by distraction. I visited the nearby Potato Camp to play with the potato cannons for a while. The cannon would be loaded with a potato, primed with hair spray and fired with a button. That hair spray must have burned something fierce, since the potato was ejected from the barrel with a significant kick, only to splatter on a big billboard (assuming you didn’t have terrible aim). The billboard had a killer robot, killer dwarf, and killer dinosaur on it. Given the splatter patterns, it seemed that almost everyone aimed at the dwarf (especially its crotch). I was the ONE AND ONLY person to aim at the killer robot. Personally, I really feared it. I didn’t want it to use poisonous gases to poison our asses. I’m proud to say I hit the robot right in its evil robo-neck!
I attended a lecture that afternoon about the biology of the playa. Even though it looks like a dry, dusty, and inert place, the dust is filled with tiny eggs that spring to life once every few years when the lake floods. For about a month until the lake dries again, there is a flurry of activity and a crazy short-lived ecosystem springs to life, composed mostly of tiny shrimp-like creatures and birds. After the lake dries, everything goes dormant again.
That evening, there was a significantly different ecosystem that evolved in Black Rock City.
First, I’ll tell you about two of my awesome camp mates, Catie and Erikas. They arrived a few days after I did, and are friends of Wendy’s. They were virgin burners, just like me. They were really fun to hang out with. I enjoyed spending time with Brent and Wendy, but they were frequently busy with responsibilities for the Flaming Lotus Girls. Catie and Erikas has significantly more time to hang out, and since they were virgins burners, too, they had a closer point-of-view to me regarding the whole event. We quickly formed a new “Comedic Trio” (just like the Comedic Trio that was formed in Laos with Alex and Chris and I).
Anyways, that night, the three of us took part in the Billion Bunny March. We showed up at a specific camp, took the Bunny Oath, and received bunny ears, face paint, some carrot juice and vodka.
The Bunny Oath
I freely and hoppily renounce my dirty stinking messed up carcass of failed and foibled humanity in order to evolve as a sentient, furry being. I hereby come over to the bunny side. I will hop. I will wiggle my tail. I will deliver colorful eggs to the masses and support a universal campaign of fluffy goodness a jellybeans for all. HOORAY!!!
I know that sounds very much like the ridiculous sort of thing I would come up with myself, but I am very serious. That is what the oath really said, and I am not exaggerating one bit!
After what I estimate to be several hundred bunnies (not really a billion), had gathered, a parade was begun through Black Rock City. There was a Bunny Ringleader with a megaphone to lead us on. There was a Bunny Marching band to play some tunes. It was all very VERY silly.
We temporarily swarmed the centre camp to assert our dominance before marching towards The Man statue itself. There was a brief run-in with the Animal Control folks who tried to capture some bunnies. It was all a joke, of course!
Once we were at the man, I took the opportunity to climb the tower, since I hadn’t done it yet, and it was basically taken over by the bunnies by this point anyways.
It was definitely one of the craziest and most random experiences in my whole life.
That night, Catie, Erikas and I visited the Flaming Lotus Girls art work. I had seen it before it was finished, but not in action yet. During the night, with the fire burning and shooting out violently, it was an impressive and awe-inspring sight. The place was packed with people visiting the art work, too. It was definitely one of the biggest draws there. Everyone said it was one of the best artworks at Burning Man.
Friday August 29, 2008
In the morning, I visited a cafe looking for Kona coffee (from Hawaii), and ended up having masala tea and playing an impromptu game of Scrabble instead. The best word that I spelled was “vexed”. I did not win, but it was close all around. I spent most of the rest of the morning hanging out with one of the other players, Twirls. She was a virgin burner, too! We went to another cafe camp called Hippocampus. The staff there was very entertaining. One man asked us if we were enjoying the morning and if we needed anything. I declared that I wanted a “cup of sunshine.” He held up my coffee cup and aimed it at the sun so that it was lit up inside with sun rays. He said, “Here is a cup of sunshine for you.” I would then try to look in the cup, but my head would, of course, block the sun and I would only see a cup filled with shadow. We repeated this game a few times. It was all very amusing. Twirls and I enjoyed some waffles at the waffle house, too, before we had to go back to our own camps.
I spent a lot of the rest of the day sitting around my camp, rather than exploring and being driven by distraction. I was chatting with my camp mates and neighbours when I heard a very alarming announcement from the street in front of our camp.
ICY COLD HANDS ON YOUR GENITALIA! COME GET ICY COLD HANDS ON YOUR GENITALIA!
Oh my. I know the weather is extremely hot, and some people might consider that refreshing, but it still seemed rather extreme. The people in my camp turned our chairs around and faced the street to watch the show. With stuff like this going on right in front of you, who needs television?
The campers across the street from us had dressed up as hot cops and set up a road block across our street. They stopped people for extremely trivial infractions like, “Illegal flag placement on bicycle”. To “punish” people, they could be subject to either the icy-cold-hands-on-their-genitalia, or subject them to ‘capital punishment’. The punishment was pretty tame. Usually they would make you get on your knees and the two female hot cops would stand in front of you and bounce your face around between their boobs. Hilarious. It’s random stuff like this that makes Burning Man so fun and unpredictable.
Sitting and watching the show was pretty fun, but I decided that I could help, too. Since I had taken whip-cracking lessons the day before and got a free whip, I figured it was an excellent opportunity to help enforce the road block. I got out there and cracked my whip a lot. Eventually, though, the hot cops declared me a vigilante and confiscated my whip. They felt it was necessary to punish me, too. I was innocent, I swear it! At least they made good use of the whip and used it to spank people.
That night, we got dressed up in our best light-up gear and did a lot of exploring. Again, it was the Comedic Trio who were out and about. We watched a bit of the circus act before heading back to the Flaming Lotus Girls artwork to see the huge fireworks and liquid fire show they put on. It was absolutely nuts. It’s astonishing how much work goes into something like this... and it is completely done by volunteers who pay for it themselves. Amazing stuff like this happens all over Burning Man. I don’t think there’s anything else like it really on Earth.
Hopefully I can get the rest of this blogged in one more post. Maybe in a few days? *crossing fingers*
So, today involved a lot more wandering and being driven by distraction. I visited the nearby Potato Camp to play with the potato cannons for a while. The cannon would be loaded with a potato, primed with hair spray and fired with a button. That hair spray must have burned something fierce, since the potato was ejected from the barrel with a significant kick, only to splatter on a big billboard (assuming you didn’t have terrible aim). The billboard had a killer robot, killer dwarf, and killer dinosaur on it. Given the splatter patterns, it seemed that almost everyone aimed at the dwarf (especially its crotch). I was the ONE AND ONLY person to aim at the killer robot. Personally, I really feared it. I didn’t want it to use poisonous gases to poison our asses. I’m proud to say I hit the robot right in its evil robo-neck!
I attended a lecture that afternoon about the biology of the playa. Even though it looks like a dry, dusty, and inert place, the dust is filled with tiny eggs that spring to life once every few years when the lake floods. For about a month until the lake dries again, there is a flurry of activity and a crazy short-lived ecosystem springs to life, composed mostly of tiny shrimp-like creatures and birds. After the lake dries, everything goes dormant again.
That evening, there was a significantly different ecosystem that evolved in Black Rock City.
First, I’ll tell you about two of my awesome camp mates, Catie and Erikas. They arrived a few days after I did, and are friends of Wendy’s. They were virgin burners, just like me. They were really fun to hang out with. I enjoyed spending time with Brent and Wendy, but they were frequently busy with responsibilities for the Flaming Lotus Girls. Catie and Erikas has significantly more time to hang out, and since they were virgins burners, too, they had a closer point-of-view to me regarding the whole event. We quickly formed a new “Comedic Trio” (just like the Comedic Trio that was formed in Laos with Alex and Chris and I).
Anyways, that night, the three of us took part in the Billion Bunny March. We showed up at a specific camp, took the Bunny Oath, and received bunny ears, face paint, some carrot juice and vodka.
The Bunny Oath
I freely and hoppily renounce my dirty stinking messed up carcass of failed and foibled humanity in order to evolve as a sentient, furry being. I hereby come over to the bunny side. I will hop. I will wiggle my tail. I will deliver colorful eggs to the masses and support a universal campaign of fluffy goodness a jellybeans for all. HOORAY!!!
I know that sounds very much like the ridiculous sort of thing I would come up with myself, but I am very serious. That is what the oath really said, and I am not exaggerating one bit!
After what I estimate to be several hundred bunnies (not really a billion), had gathered, a parade was begun through Black Rock City. There was a Bunny Ringleader with a megaphone to lead us on. There was a Bunny Marching band to play some tunes. It was all very VERY silly.
We temporarily swarmed the centre camp to assert our dominance before marching towards The Man statue itself. There was a brief run-in with the Animal Control folks who tried to capture some bunnies. It was all a joke, of course!
Once we were at the man, I took the opportunity to climb the tower, since I hadn’t done it yet, and it was basically taken over by the bunnies by this point anyways.
It was definitely one of the craziest and most random experiences in my whole life.
That night, Catie, Erikas and I visited the Flaming Lotus Girls art work. I had seen it before it was finished, but not in action yet. During the night, with the fire burning and shooting out violently, it was an impressive and awe-inspring sight. The place was packed with people visiting the art work, too. It was definitely one of the biggest draws there. Everyone said it was one of the best artworks at Burning Man.
Friday August 29, 2008
In the morning, I visited a cafe looking for Kona coffee (from Hawaii), and ended up having masala tea and playing an impromptu game of Scrabble instead. The best word that I spelled was “vexed”. I did not win, but it was close all around. I spent most of the rest of the morning hanging out with one of the other players, Twirls. She was a virgin burner, too! We went to another cafe camp called Hippocampus. The staff there was very entertaining. One man asked us if we were enjoying the morning and if we needed anything. I declared that I wanted a “cup of sunshine.” He held up my coffee cup and aimed it at the sun so that it was lit up inside with sun rays. He said, “Here is a cup of sunshine for you.” I would then try to look in the cup, but my head would, of course, block the sun and I would only see a cup filled with shadow. We repeated this game a few times. It was all very amusing. Twirls and I enjoyed some waffles at the waffle house, too, before we had to go back to our own camps.
I spent a lot of the rest of the day sitting around my camp, rather than exploring and being driven by distraction. I was chatting with my camp mates and neighbours when I heard a very alarming announcement from the street in front of our camp.
ICY COLD HANDS ON YOUR GENITALIA! COME GET ICY COLD HANDS ON YOUR GENITALIA!
Oh my. I know the weather is extremely hot, and some people might consider that refreshing, but it still seemed rather extreme. The people in my camp turned our chairs around and faced the street to watch the show. With stuff like this going on right in front of you, who needs television?
The campers across the street from us had dressed up as hot cops and set up a road block across our street. They stopped people for extremely trivial infractions like, “Illegal flag placement on bicycle”. To “punish” people, they could be subject to either the icy-cold-hands-on-their-genitalia, or subject them to ‘capital punishment’. The punishment was pretty tame. Usually they would make you get on your knees and the two female hot cops would stand in front of you and bounce your face around between their boobs. Hilarious. It’s random stuff like this that makes Burning Man so fun and unpredictable.
Sitting and watching the show was pretty fun, but I decided that I could help, too. Since I had taken whip-cracking lessons the day before and got a free whip, I figured it was an excellent opportunity to help enforce the road block. I got out there and cracked my whip a lot. Eventually, though, the hot cops declared me a vigilante and confiscated my whip. They felt it was necessary to punish me, too. I was innocent, I swear it! At least they made good use of the whip and used it to spank people.
That night, we got dressed up in our best light-up gear and did a lot of exploring. Again, it was the Comedic Trio who were out and about. We watched a bit of the circus act before heading back to the Flaming Lotus Girls artwork to see the huge fireworks and liquid fire show they put on. It was absolutely nuts. It’s astonishing how much work goes into something like this... and it is completely done by volunteers who pay for it themselves. Amazing stuff like this happens all over Burning Man. I don’t think there’s anything else like it really on Earth.
Hopefully I can get the rest of this blogged in one more post. Maybe in a few days? *crossing fingers*
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Recipe: Pad Thai
Being that I've cooked pad thai for so many people during my current two month stay in Canada, I've decided to post the recipe here. It's very similar to the recipe that I followed when I learned how to make it in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Here's the website for the particular cooking class I went to in Thailand. It was really good!
Ingredients
The quantities of ingredients are approximate since I generally add ingredients in an approximate way.
eggs - 1 per person
rice stick noodles - Should be the kind that are flat, white, and translucent. One package of noodles serves about five or six people.
small red chilies - Most people prefer “1 chili” of spiciness. the “Rob” level of spiciness is about “3 chilis”. Ensure the chili is chopped up into tiny pieces.
tamarind sauce - About 3 big spoolfuls per serving. If tamarind sauce is not available, then you can substitute with white vinegar and lemon juice
soy sauce
bean sprouts
green onions - Chopped up
extra firm tofu - Cut into small cubes. One standard sized block of tofu serves about four people.
crushed peanuts or cashews - About one handful per serving
garlic - About one clove per person (to taste). Cut up very finely.
cooking oil
You’ll also need a big wok and spatula for stir frying, a bowl to soak noodles in, and some method of crushing the nuts (mortar and pestle / bag and hammer).
This recipe can be made vegan by removing the eggs. I’m not sure of a good substitute for them.
The tofu could be replaced with chicken or shrimp, if desired.
Instructions
Before Cooking
1. Soak the noodles in warm water to soften then.
2. Heat up oil in wok on medium heat.
Preparing Each Serving - each serving is made individually
1. Fry tofu cubes until each cube is brown and crunchy on the outside
2. Add garlic and chili and fry a bit.
3. Make space in wok, add an egg, scramble and mix.
4. Add a handful or two of noodles.
5. Pour tamarind sauce and soy sauce on noodles and mix it all up and fry for a bit. Depending on the saltiness of the soy sauce, you can add some salt as well.
6. Add green onions, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts and mix up and fry for a short bit.
7. You’re done! Serve the food.
Ingredients
The quantities of ingredients are approximate since I generally add ingredients in an approximate way.
eggs - 1 per person
rice stick noodles - Should be the kind that are flat, white, and translucent. One package of noodles serves about five or six people.
small red chilies - Most people prefer “1 chili” of spiciness. the “Rob” level of spiciness is about “3 chilis”. Ensure the chili is chopped up into tiny pieces.
tamarind sauce - About 3 big spoolfuls per serving. If tamarind sauce is not available, then you can substitute with white vinegar and lemon juice
soy sauce
bean sprouts
green onions - Chopped up
extra firm tofu - Cut into small cubes. One standard sized block of tofu serves about four people.
crushed peanuts or cashews - About one handful per serving
garlic - About one clove per person (to taste). Cut up very finely.
cooking oil
You’ll also need a big wok and spatula for stir frying, a bowl to soak noodles in, and some method of crushing the nuts (mortar and pestle / bag and hammer).
This recipe can be made vegan by removing the eggs. I’m not sure of a good substitute for them.
The tofu could be replaced with chicken or shrimp, if desired.
Instructions
Before Cooking
1. Soak the noodles in warm water to soften then.
2. Heat up oil in wok on medium heat.
Preparing Each Serving - each serving is made individually
1. Fry tofu cubes until each cube is brown and crunchy on the outside
2. Add garlic and chili and fry a bit.
3. Make space in wok, add an egg, scramble and mix.
4. Add a handful or two of noodles.
5. Pour tamarind sauce and soy sauce on noodles and mix it all up and fry for a bit. Depending on the saltiness of the soy sauce, you can add some salt as well.
6. Add green onions, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts and mix up and fry for a short bit.
7. You’re done! Serve the food.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
First Days in Black Rock City
August 23, 2008
...continued
So, I had finally reached Black Rock City: the location of the Burning Man festival. What was the big deal? Wasn’t this just supposed to be camping in the desert? It’s really so much more than that!
There’s not really any central theme to the festival. It’s so big and there are so many things going on that you it’s hard to pin anything specific down as a central theme. From what I had been told, read, or observed for myself while I was there, the festival’s approximate themes were as such (their website may list different things, but I’m putting down MY observations):
1. Celebration of Creativity: From the huge art installations, to the custom designed art-vehicles... from the costumes people wear, to the silly activities they do everyday, the Burning Man festival is a place where all forms of creativity are actively encouraged and celebrated. This is the aspect of Burning Man that I enjoyed the most.
2. Radical Inclusion: No matter who you are, you have a place in Burning Man, and you are welcome here.
3. Generosity: Black Rock City runs on a “gift economy”. There are few rules here, but one of the main ones is that very little may be bought or sold with money, or even barter. You gives gifts to people: drinks, food, souvenirs, shelter, hugs, whatever. You don’t need to expect anything in return, other than the sense of well being you get for being a generous person.
4. Survivalism: Living in open desert for more than a week is an exercise in logistics and endurance. Sure, you could rely on the generosity of others and live on handouts of food and sleep around (and I’m sure some people do), it’s wise to bring enough food and water and shelter for the whole time you are there.
5. Revelry: Life is short. Enjoy! There’s always a party, happy hour, rave, circus, parade, game, cruise, SOMETHING going on SOMEWHERE. On top of that, there’s more of everything than you could possibly take in. So get out there and have fun!
6. Environment: The desert may look empty, but it’s still a sensitive ecosystem. Although there is a fully functioning city with tens of thousands of inhabitants during the week of the event, within one month of the end of festivities, EVERYTHING has been cleaned up: every scrap of paper, sequin from a costume, or empty beer bottle. Everyone is encouraged to clean up their camp of all “MOOP” (“Matter Out Of Place”) frequently to keep litter from blowing away across the desert. This philosophy is summed up in the often-repeated mantra, “Leave No Trace.”
Let’s get some terminology out of the way, too. The name of the festival is “Burning Man”. It’s location is the temporary “Black Rock City” located on a playa in the permanent “Black Rock Desert”. A person in attendance of the festival is called a “burner”.
A “playa” is a dried flat lake bed. The playa that Black Rock City is built on is 100 miles long and super flat. It will be submerged with water about one winter out of three or four. Otherwise it will be super dry and dusty. Sometimes the dust is very hard-packed and provides a fantastic surface for biking or driving. This year, however, the dust was not so hard. It was piled up and fluffy in many places, making for bumpy roads or places where you could easily wipe out when biking.
So as the three of us pulled up to the Greeter’s Gate in our 16-foot Budget rental truck it was quickly realized that, as a “Virgin Burner” (i.e.: this was my first time at Burning Man), I should undergo the initiation ceremony. Since you’re going to be in the desert for more than a week and taking a bath is difficult and there’s going to be dust storms, it’s expected that you’re going to get very dusty. You might as well get it out of the way and embrace the dust! The typical initiation is to get down flat on the ground and make “playa angels” (like snow angels, just in the dust). No one is going to MAKE you do it, but it’s fun.
After getting dusty and some chit chat we drove out to our campsite. We set up camp a little bit before heading out. Brent and Wendy were part of an art group called the Flaming Lotus Girls (yes, boys are still allowed in the group!) and needed to go and help their fellow artists work on their massive art work, called Mutopia.
Technically, the official opening date for Burning Man was Monday August 25. If you wanted to arrive before that, you had to be associated with one of the art projects or special theme camps and had to get an early entry pass. Brent and Wendy had secured these passes, so it was important to get out there and be arty!
We worked for a few hours, mostly cleaning up around their site. I wasn’t qualified to do any welding, after all! We got back late and exhausted. We set up the bare minimum of our camp and went to bed in our tents.
Sunday August 24, 2008
It was windy in the morning. Brent and Wendy went off to the port-o-potties. While they were gone, a fierce gust nearly took away our partly-secured tents . I had to chase some of them down and get help from some of our neighbours to hold them down. It was unfortunate that we didn’t finish the job of setting up our camp last night, and we were immediately reminded that the desert is not forgiving of mistakes!
We did get more or our camp set up today, though. Brent’s plan for the camp was pretty good. It was his third burn (i.e.: it was the third time he had attended the Burning Man festival), so he had some experience. He bought a couple big carports from CostCo. A carport is like a tent big enough for a car. One car port was designated to cover our tents (it could contain three tents). The other car port had the top and only two sides put on to provide a communal shaded area. Putting the tents inside a carport was smart since it shaded the tents and helped keep the dust off of them. Protection from the harsh desert sun was important.
We went to help out the Flaming Lotus Girls construct Mutopia a bit more during the day. At night, we met some of our neighbours. I visited one neighbour (“Martini Village”) for some happy hour cocktails. After that, we took a ride on another neighbour’s art car.
Driving mundane cars, vans, or trucks around Black Rock City is very discouraged. Yes, you can drive your boring rented truck to your camp site. After it gets there, though, you should leave it there. However, many people decorate or modify their vehicles in artistic ways to create art cars (or “mutant vehicles”). Some of these constructions could get very elaborate. These you could drive as much as you like, as long as you observed the 5 MPH speed limit. The speed limit was set so low so that dust would not be kicked up and cover up other people’s camps.
Cruising in art cars was FUN. It was a moving party. Since they cruised so slowly, it was easy to run up to one and hop a ride, assuming they weren’t full (which, sadly, happened too often). There was rarely a set destination... people would just cruise for fun... usually with lots of drinks.
Monday August 25, 2008
It was the official opening day. Since midnight, people had been streaming in and populating the playa all around us. After being awake for a short time though, a really fierce dust storm kicked up out of the playa and engulfed the playa.
Observe the carnage wreaked on our camp!
Some of our stuff was blown over and pushed around, but the carports held this time. They were posted into the ground with three-foot pieces of steel rebars and bungee cords. It would take a LOT of wind to blow those away.
But it was still unpleasant. You needed a dust mask and goggles before you could survive outside. We spent most of the day bunkered down in the back of our truck, though we did go for a short bike ride in the dust to check out centre camp.
The dust storm blew all afternoon, punctuated by many periods of whiteouts.
It only faded out shortly before sunset. We felt bad for all the people who arrived that day during the crazy storm and tried to set up camp. We were happy we got it done the day before. SO LUCKY!
That night we went out to party. We looked for places to dance and people to party with. We didn’t dance much. Brent and Wendy always seemed indecisive about where to go, since there were always so many choices, which got somewhat frustrating for me since I preferred doing something to aimless wandering. Eventually we randomly found people to hang out with that served us very special liquor that made me feel very weird, if you know what I mean. One girl there told me I had a “very safe aura” which seemed very confusing to me. I wasn’t thinking very clearly at the time.
Tuesday August 26, 2008
I felt very bad this morning. The special liquor I had the night before did wonky things to me. To be honest, I don’t even remember getting home. Yeah, let’s be more careful before experimenting with special liquors next time, mmmkay?
It took me a long time to get started. I think I spent most of the day wandering around my neighbourhood of Black Rock City. There are so many random happenings occurring around you at all time that you can just ramble around and get “driven by distraction”. You can intend to go to a certain event at a certain time, but never make it since you get distracted all the time by random things you see. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing. It’s a wonderful thing that really thrives on in special places in the world like Black Rock City (or maybe Akihabara).
I did take myself to the steam bath that afternoon. Such luxury!! Some people had constructed a small dome with a hot steam generator. About ten people (naked, of course) could fit inside the dome at once and enjoy the steam. There was a small spray gun that you could use to squirt a bit of water on yourself. There wasn’t enough water to get properly clean, but it felt really nice. I went to the steam bath two or three times while I was in Black Rock City since it was such a luxury. There often seemed to be a long line to get in there, but I often managed to show up when the line was short. It helped that the steam bath was located very close to my camp and I could poll the length of its line easily.
I think I went cruising in our neighbour’s art car again that night without any of my campmates. I wasn’t up to partying like they were and was content just to sit in there for a few hours and chat with whomever hopped on for a ride. You get to talk to a lot of interesting people that way.
Wednesday August 27, 2008
Did a lot of wandering today. I went to a nearby cafe that served coffee and pastries. Delightful! Old habits die hard of course. I had really learned how to enjoy just “hanging out at the cafe” while I was gone and hoped that I would be successful integrating regular cafe visits until my busy busy normal life when I started living a normal life again.
I randomly went by the Kostume Kamp, went to one of the girls who was working there and said, “Dress me any way you want.” She picked out a tiny miniskirt, big round sunglasses, an open-front biker vest, and a matching swami hat. The pieces certainly matched themselves, but were certainly not very flattering, so there are no pictures of the whole outfit that I’m posting on here, suckers. I learned that day that biking without underwear while wearing a miniskirt is a very ventilating experience. Of course, since Black Rock City is a clothing-optional location populated with a lot of hippies, many people wore much less than that!
I also saw a camp with a big sign out front that said “BACON WITHOUT BORDERS” and had a flying pig windmill, which was amusing enough on its own. I noticed a lot of people inside a neighbouring tent so I wandered inside to see what the fuss was about. Inside I found a group of people crowded around a bar cluttered with assorted bottles. One guy behind the bar was reading a letter that was written to him by a friend in England. What made the letter interesting was that it was addressed to his camp in Black Rock City, not his real address in the real world (although Black Rock City has a functioning post office, it barely qualifies as the real world). The letter said something to the effect of “I’ll be impressed if this letter arrives to you in time to be delivered to you at Burning Man, and if it does, you all need to have a Toblerone Vodka shot for me!” Indeed, one of the bottles on the bar was filled with Vodka that had Toblerone chocolates dissolved in it. I had showed up at the right time for a shot of something yummy! Yay me! Some of the other vodkas did not seem so good. I did not enjoy the Cheetos Vodka. I did not want to try the “Pastrami on Rye Vodka”. Urp.
Many people at Burning Man seem to have obtained “Burner Names” -- nicknames that they only use when in Black Rock City. Wendy’s was “Haven”. Brent’s was “Fantastic”. Like all good nicknames, you generally don’t get to choose your own and you must wait until one is assigned to you. While I was in that Bacon Without Borders tent digesting my nasty shot of Cheetos Vodka I was talking was these two topless girls. Since I didn’t have a burner name yet, they took it upon themselves to assign me one. They looked deep into my eyes, whispered to each other and finally announced that I would be “Sultan Sphinx” (or just “Sphinx”) for short. I assume they chose that name partly because I was wearing a swami hat! I didn’t think it was a great name, and no one really used it very much, except for my two new campmates Erikas and Catie. More about them later. They’re fun!
...continued
So, I had finally reached Black Rock City: the location of the Burning Man festival. What was the big deal? Wasn’t this just supposed to be camping in the desert? It’s really so much more than that!
There’s not really any central theme to the festival. It’s so big and there are so many things going on that you it’s hard to pin anything specific down as a central theme. From what I had been told, read, or observed for myself while I was there, the festival’s approximate themes were as such (their website may list different things, but I’m putting down MY observations):
1. Celebration of Creativity: From the huge art installations, to the custom designed art-vehicles... from the costumes people wear, to the silly activities they do everyday, the Burning Man festival is a place where all forms of creativity are actively encouraged and celebrated. This is the aspect of Burning Man that I enjoyed the most.
2. Radical Inclusion: No matter who you are, you have a place in Burning Man, and you are welcome here.
3. Generosity: Black Rock City runs on a “gift economy”. There are few rules here, but one of the main ones is that very little may be bought or sold with money, or even barter. You gives gifts to people: drinks, food, souvenirs, shelter, hugs, whatever. You don’t need to expect anything in return, other than the sense of well being you get for being a generous person.
4. Survivalism: Living in open desert for more than a week is an exercise in logistics and endurance. Sure, you could rely on the generosity of others and live on handouts of food and sleep around (and I’m sure some people do), it’s wise to bring enough food and water and shelter for the whole time you are there.
5. Revelry: Life is short. Enjoy! There’s always a party, happy hour, rave, circus, parade, game, cruise, SOMETHING going on SOMEWHERE. On top of that, there’s more of everything than you could possibly take in. So get out there and have fun!
6. Environment: The desert may look empty, but it’s still a sensitive ecosystem. Although there is a fully functioning city with tens of thousands of inhabitants during the week of the event, within one month of the end of festivities, EVERYTHING has been cleaned up: every scrap of paper, sequin from a costume, or empty beer bottle. Everyone is encouraged to clean up their camp of all “MOOP” (“Matter Out Of Place”) frequently to keep litter from blowing away across the desert. This philosophy is summed up in the often-repeated mantra, “Leave No Trace.”
Let’s get some terminology out of the way, too. The name of the festival is “Burning Man”. It’s location is the temporary “Black Rock City” located on a playa in the permanent “Black Rock Desert”. A person in attendance of the festival is called a “burner”.
A “playa” is a dried flat lake bed. The playa that Black Rock City is built on is 100 miles long and super flat. It will be submerged with water about one winter out of three or four. Otherwise it will be super dry and dusty. Sometimes the dust is very hard-packed and provides a fantastic surface for biking or driving. This year, however, the dust was not so hard. It was piled up and fluffy in many places, making for bumpy roads or places where you could easily wipe out when biking.
So as the three of us pulled up to the Greeter’s Gate in our 16-foot Budget rental truck it was quickly realized that, as a “Virgin Burner” (i.e.: this was my first time at Burning Man), I should undergo the initiation ceremony. Since you’re going to be in the desert for more than a week and taking a bath is difficult and there’s going to be dust storms, it’s expected that you’re going to get very dusty. You might as well get it out of the way and embrace the dust! The typical initiation is to get down flat on the ground and make “playa angels” (like snow angels, just in the dust). No one is going to MAKE you do it, but it’s fun.
After getting dusty and some chit chat we drove out to our campsite. We set up camp a little bit before heading out. Brent and Wendy were part of an art group called the Flaming Lotus Girls (yes, boys are still allowed in the group!) and needed to go and help their fellow artists work on their massive art work, called Mutopia.Technically, the official opening date for Burning Man was Monday August 25. If you wanted to arrive before that, you had to be associated with one of the art projects or special theme camps and had to get an early entry pass. Brent and Wendy had secured these passes, so it was important to get out there and be arty!
We worked for a few hours, mostly cleaning up around their site. I wasn’t qualified to do any welding, after all! We got back late and exhausted. We set up the bare minimum of our camp and went to bed in our tents.
Sunday August 24, 2008
It was windy in the morning. Brent and Wendy went off to the port-o-potties. While they were gone, a fierce gust nearly took away our partly-secured tents . I had to chase some of them down and get help from some of our neighbours to hold them down. It was unfortunate that we didn’t finish the job of setting up our camp last night, and we were immediately reminded that the desert is not forgiving of mistakes!
We did get more or our camp set up today, though. Brent’s plan for the camp was pretty good. It was his third burn (i.e.: it was the third time he had attended the Burning Man festival), so he had some experience. He bought a couple big carports from CostCo. A carport is like a tent big enough for a car. One car port was designated to cover our tents (it could contain three tents). The other car port had the top and only two sides put on to provide a communal shaded area. Putting the tents inside a carport was smart since it shaded the tents and helped keep the dust off of them. Protection from the harsh desert sun was important.
We went to help out the Flaming Lotus Girls construct Mutopia a bit more during the day. At night, we met some of our neighbours. I visited one neighbour (“Martini Village”) for some happy hour cocktails. After that, we took a ride on another neighbour’s art car.
Driving mundane cars, vans, or trucks around Black Rock City is very discouraged. Yes, you can drive your boring rented truck to your camp site. After it gets there, though, you should leave it there. However, many people decorate or modify their vehicles in artistic ways to create art cars (or “mutant vehicles”). Some of these constructions could get very elaborate. These you could drive as much as you like, as long as you observed the 5 MPH speed limit. The speed limit was set so low so that dust would not be kicked up and cover up other people’s camps.
Cruising in art cars was FUN. It was a moving party. Since they cruised so slowly, it was easy to run up to one and hop a ride, assuming they weren’t full (which, sadly, happened too often). There was rarely a set destination... people would just cruise for fun... usually with lots of drinks.
Monday August 25, 2008
It was the official opening day. Since midnight, people had been streaming in and populating the playa all around us. After being awake for a short time though, a really fierce dust storm kicked up out of the playa and engulfed the playa.
Observe the carnage wreaked on our camp!
Some of our stuff was blown over and pushed around, but the carports held this time. They were posted into the ground with three-foot pieces of steel rebars and bungee cords. It would take a LOT of wind to blow those away.But it was still unpleasant. You needed a dust mask and goggles before you could survive outside. We spent most of the day bunkered down in the back of our truck, though we did go for a short bike ride in the dust to check out centre camp.
The dust storm blew all afternoon, punctuated by many periods of whiteouts.
It only faded out shortly before sunset. We felt bad for all the people who arrived that day during the crazy storm and tried to set up camp. We were happy we got it done the day before. SO LUCKY!That night we went out to party. We looked for places to dance and people to party with. We didn’t dance much. Brent and Wendy always seemed indecisive about where to go, since there were always so many choices, which got somewhat frustrating for me since I preferred doing something to aimless wandering. Eventually we randomly found people to hang out with that served us very special liquor that made me feel very weird, if you know what I mean. One girl there told me I had a “very safe aura” which seemed very confusing to me. I wasn’t thinking very clearly at the time.
Tuesday August 26, 2008
I felt very bad this morning. The special liquor I had the night before did wonky things to me. To be honest, I don’t even remember getting home. Yeah, let’s be more careful before experimenting with special liquors next time, mmmkay?
It took me a long time to get started. I think I spent most of the day wandering around my neighbourhood of Black Rock City. There are so many random happenings occurring around you at all time that you can just ramble around and get “driven by distraction”. You can intend to go to a certain event at a certain time, but never make it since you get distracted all the time by random things you see. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing. It’s a wonderful thing that really thrives on in special places in the world like Black Rock City (or maybe Akihabara).
I did take myself to the steam bath that afternoon. Such luxury!! Some people had constructed a small dome with a hot steam generator. About ten people (naked, of course) could fit inside the dome at once and enjoy the steam. There was a small spray gun that you could use to squirt a bit of water on yourself. There wasn’t enough water to get properly clean, but it felt really nice. I went to the steam bath two or three times while I was in Black Rock City since it was such a luxury. There often seemed to be a long line to get in there, but I often managed to show up when the line was short. It helped that the steam bath was located very close to my camp and I could poll the length of its line easily.
I think I went cruising in our neighbour’s art car again that night without any of my campmates. I wasn’t up to partying like they were and was content just to sit in there for a few hours and chat with whomever hopped on for a ride. You get to talk to a lot of interesting people that way.
Wednesday August 27, 2008
Did a lot of wandering today. I went to a nearby cafe that served coffee and pastries. Delightful! Old habits die hard of course. I had really learned how to enjoy just “hanging out at the cafe” while I was gone and hoped that I would be successful integrating regular cafe visits until my busy busy normal life when I started living a normal life again.
I randomly went by the Kostume Kamp, went to one of the girls who was working there and said, “Dress me any way you want.” She picked out a tiny miniskirt, big round sunglasses, an open-front biker vest, and a matching swami hat. The pieces certainly matched themselves, but were certainly not very flattering, so there are no pictures of the whole outfit that I’m posting on here, suckers. I learned that day that biking without underwear while wearing a miniskirt is a very ventilating experience. Of course, since Black Rock City is a clothing-optional location populated with a lot of hippies, many people wore much less than that!
I also saw a camp with a big sign out front that said “BACON WITHOUT BORDERS” and had a flying pig windmill, which was amusing enough on its own. I noticed a lot of people inside a neighbouring tent so I wandered inside to see what the fuss was about. Inside I found a group of people crowded around a bar cluttered with assorted bottles. One guy behind the bar was reading a letter that was written to him by a friend in England. What made the letter interesting was that it was addressed to his camp in Black Rock City, not his real address in the real world (although Black Rock City has a functioning post office, it barely qualifies as the real world). The letter said something to the effect of “I’ll be impressed if this letter arrives to you in time to be delivered to you at Burning Man, and if it does, you all need to have a Toblerone Vodka shot for me!” Indeed, one of the bottles on the bar was filled with Vodka that had Toblerone chocolates dissolved in it. I had showed up at the right time for a shot of something yummy! Yay me! Some of the other vodkas did not seem so good. I did not enjoy the Cheetos Vodka. I did not want to try the “Pastrami on Rye Vodka”. Urp.Many people at Burning Man seem to have obtained “Burner Names” -- nicknames that they only use when in Black Rock City. Wendy’s was “Haven”. Brent’s was “Fantastic”. Like all good nicknames, you generally don’t get to choose your own and you must wait until one is assigned to you. While I was in that Bacon Without Borders tent digesting my nasty shot of Cheetos Vodka I was talking was these two topless girls. Since I didn’t have a burner name yet, they took it upon themselves to assign me one. They looked deep into my eyes, whispered to each other and finally announced that I would be “Sultan Sphinx” (or just “Sphinx”) for short. I assume they chose that name partly because I was wearing a swami hat! I didn’t think it was a great name, and no one really used it very much, except for my two new campmates Erikas and Catie. More about them later. They’re fun!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Back to America
My apologies for the long delay in updating. I should have written and posted this two months ago, but my time back in Canada has been very busy. A lot of things have happened, and since I haven’t been traveling, per se, I haven’t devoted enough time to keeping this travel blog up to date. Hopefully, I can get caught up soon. I’m almost there!
Wednesday August 20, 2008
Not much to say here. I took a 13 hour and 30 minute flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. My didgeridoo was considered a “weapon” and I had to check it in as a fragile, odd-sized item. Bastards. I know for sure that the airline would find someway to destroy it while it was in their clumsy hands. I still have yet to remove it from its bubble wrap, so I’m not sure if it has suffered any damage or not. The vendor who sold me the didgeridoo said I should be able to carry it onto the plane. I guess the terrorists have changed that, too. Sigh.
It was an overnight flight, but I had trouble sleeping. I left Sydney in the afternoon of August 20, flew through the night, and landed in Los Angeles on my second iteration of August 20. Getting two August 20ths makes up for never experiencing February 3rd at all. My second August 20 was mostly spend sitting around extremely boring LAX while tired. Why can’t all airports be as awesome as Singapore’s?
That afternoon I took another short hop to San Francisco and was picked up at the airport terminal by Brent Haas. Brent, whom I had met at the famous Spicythai Backpacker’s in Chiang Mai, Thailand was going to be my host for my two weeks in the USA. He lived in Sunnyvale. That night we had Ethiopian food (oh so good...) for dinner with his friend Kate and her boyfriend.
Thursday August 21, 2008
In the morning, Brent and I went for coffee at his favourite coffee shop. He knows his coffee; the place was fantastic. After that, he dropped me off at the NeoEdge office in Mountain View. Yes, I was going back to work for the first time in almost seven months.
Does it sound crazy? Of course it does, since it was! It had been so long... And I was jet lagged, and sleep deprived (I slept okay the night at Brent’s, but very little on the long flight the night before). Thankfully, there weren’t many requirements on me during the first day back. I spent a lot of time chatting and catching up with people (since I hadn’t seen most of the people in the California office since April 2007).
That night I went for drinks with my coworkers. In particular, my coworker Craig Medland stayed out later with me, after everyone else left. Craig used to work in the Toronto office with me, and it wasn’t the first time we went out for drinks after work, believe me. This night, though, things got messy. Poor jet-lagged and sleep-deprived me drank too much beer, vodka, and tequila (a lethal combination). I didn’t go back to Brent’s in Sunnyvale last night, but crashed at Craig’s condo in Mountain View (within walking distance... though I don’t remember most of the walk home).
Friday August 22, 2008
It was a very rough night. The day would be rough, too. I wasn’t feeling well. I squeaked out one more day of work at NeoEdge before taking the bus back to Brent’s place.
I was only working two days during this pass through California. The real destination for me was the Burning Man Festival at Black Rock City in Nevada. That’s where we were going tonight. Brent had rented a 16-foot Budget truck and we spent a few hours loading it with stuff. We then drove to Oakland to pick up Brent’s friend Wendy where we took on more supplies. It wasn’t until 11 PM until we left Oakland and started driving up Interstate 80 towards Nevada.
Saturday August 23, 2008
Since we left Oakland at 11 PM the night before, Saturday naturally started only an hour later while we were still on the road. We stopped at an In ‘N’ Out Burger (YAY! I’m happy that Brent and Wendy were as stuck on In ‘N’ Out as I was) at 12:30 AM for our dinner, finally. We stayed awake by listening (and singing to!) to Flight of the Conchords on the truck’s stereo. After driving a bit more, we crashed at a motel on the other side of Sacramento.
Sleep sleep sleep.
We slept in a bit in the morning (we all needed it) before claiming our free continental breakfast at the motel and continuing the drive up Interstate 80 towards Nevada. It’s about an eight hour drive, at least, to get from the Bay Area of California to Black Rock City, Nevada (about two hours north of Reno).
Brent’s original plan was to drive all night to get there as soon as possible. We didn’t have the stamina to do that, though, so most of the drive was during the day. I wasn’t complaining, though. I had never seen much of the American West, and the drive through the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and the Basin and Range province (i.e.: deserts and mountains) of Nevada was pretty.
The Sierra Nevada mountains and Interstate-80:
We stopped in Reno for lunch and to pick up more water and beer. We would be camping in the desert for ten days and had to bring ALL of our supplies with us, including food, water, shelter, and beer. This was serious stuff.
One fun thing about driving to Burning Man was that it was usually pretty obvious what OTHER people on the road were on their way to the same place. Gaudily painted buses, trucks with beat-up old bicycles on racks, or trailers with bizarre art pieces proceeded in a Nevada-bound parade along side of us.
As we left the interstate highway after Reno and puttered up towards the small towns of Nixon, Empire and Gerlach, we felt like we were getting farther and farther into the frontier. Each town seemed more isolated and remote than the last. Soon, cell phone reception died out and we were surrounded by deserts and long parallel lines of mountains. The countryside was beautiful. I had been through desert-like landscape in Australia, but it didn’t look anything like this. The world continues to be filled with surprises.
Eventually, in the late afternoon, we finally reached our destination: BURNING MAN
To be continued...
Wednesday August 20, 2008
Not much to say here. I took a 13 hour and 30 minute flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. My didgeridoo was considered a “weapon” and I had to check it in as a fragile, odd-sized item. Bastards. I know for sure that the airline would find someway to destroy it while it was in their clumsy hands. I still have yet to remove it from its bubble wrap, so I’m not sure if it has suffered any damage or not. The vendor who sold me the didgeridoo said I should be able to carry it onto the plane. I guess the terrorists have changed that, too. Sigh.
It was an overnight flight, but I had trouble sleeping. I left Sydney in the afternoon of August 20, flew through the night, and landed in Los Angeles on my second iteration of August 20. Getting two August 20ths makes up for never experiencing February 3rd at all. My second August 20 was mostly spend sitting around extremely boring LAX while tired. Why can’t all airports be as awesome as Singapore’s?
That afternoon I took another short hop to San Francisco and was picked up at the airport terminal by Brent Haas. Brent, whom I had met at the famous Spicythai Backpacker’s in Chiang Mai, Thailand was going to be my host for my two weeks in the USA. He lived in Sunnyvale. That night we had Ethiopian food (oh so good...) for dinner with his friend Kate and her boyfriend.
Thursday August 21, 2008
In the morning, Brent and I went for coffee at his favourite coffee shop. He knows his coffee; the place was fantastic. After that, he dropped me off at the NeoEdge office in Mountain View. Yes, I was going back to work for the first time in almost seven months.
Does it sound crazy? Of course it does, since it was! It had been so long... And I was jet lagged, and sleep deprived (I slept okay the night at Brent’s, but very little on the long flight the night before). Thankfully, there weren’t many requirements on me during the first day back. I spent a lot of time chatting and catching up with people (since I hadn’t seen most of the people in the California office since April 2007).
That night I went for drinks with my coworkers. In particular, my coworker Craig Medland stayed out later with me, after everyone else left. Craig used to work in the Toronto office with me, and it wasn’t the first time we went out for drinks after work, believe me. This night, though, things got messy. Poor jet-lagged and sleep-deprived me drank too much beer, vodka, and tequila (a lethal combination). I didn’t go back to Brent’s in Sunnyvale last night, but crashed at Craig’s condo in Mountain View (within walking distance... though I don’t remember most of the walk home).
Friday August 22, 2008
It was a very rough night. The day would be rough, too. I wasn’t feeling well. I squeaked out one more day of work at NeoEdge before taking the bus back to Brent’s place.
I was only working two days during this pass through California. The real destination for me was the Burning Man Festival at Black Rock City in Nevada. That’s where we were going tonight. Brent had rented a 16-foot Budget truck and we spent a few hours loading it with stuff. We then drove to Oakland to pick up Brent’s friend Wendy where we took on more supplies. It wasn’t until 11 PM until we left Oakland and started driving up Interstate 80 towards Nevada.
Saturday August 23, 2008
Since we left Oakland at 11 PM the night before, Saturday naturally started only an hour later while we were still on the road. We stopped at an In ‘N’ Out Burger (YAY! I’m happy that Brent and Wendy were as stuck on In ‘N’ Out as I was) at 12:30 AM for our dinner, finally. We stayed awake by listening (and singing to!) to Flight of the Conchords on the truck’s stereo. After driving a bit more, we crashed at a motel on the other side of Sacramento.
Sleep sleep sleep.
We slept in a bit in the morning (we all needed it) before claiming our free continental breakfast at the motel and continuing the drive up Interstate 80 towards Nevada. It’s about an eight hour drive, at least, to get from the Bay Area of California to Black Rock City, Nevada (about two hours north of Reno).
Brent’s original plan was to drive all night to get there as soon as possible. We didn’t have the stamina to do that, though, so most of the drive was during the day. I wasn’t complaining, though. I had never seen much of the American West, and the drive through the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and the Basin and Range province (i.e.: deserts and mountains) of Nevada was pretty.
The Sierra Nevada mountains and Interstate-80:
We stopped in Reno for lunch and to pick up more water and beer. We would be camping in the desert for ten days and had to bring ALL of our supplies with us, including food, water, shelter, and beer. This was serious stuff.
One fun thing about driving to Burning Man was that it was usually pretty obvious what OTHER people on the road were on their way to the same place. Gaudily painted buses, trucks with beat-up old bicycles on racks, or trailers with bizarre art pieces proceeded in a Nevada-bound parade along side of us.
As we left the interstate highway after Reno and puttered up towards the small towns of Nixon, Empire and Gerlach, we felt like we were getting farther and farther into the frontier. Each town seemed more isolated and remote than the last. Soon, cell phone reception died out and we were surrounded by deserts and long parallel lines of mountains. The countryside was beautiful. I had been through desert-like landscape in Australia, but it didn’t look anything like this. The world continues to be filled with surprises.
Eventually, in the late afternoon, we finally reached our destination: BURNING MAN
To be continued...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
