Nilesh’s Posterous

This is my fourth and last series of pictures from Burning Man 2009.

In the last 3 pictures, you can see the extremely packed van that Kimo had packed with a lot of patience and effort (Van was packed the the max with all our gear and bicycles and Kimo had come to the city from Dublin to pick our stuff the day before and packed it all on his own so that we could leave promptly on Tuesday afternoon). In the next picture, you can see where I stayed. I stayed in the little yellow tent and next to it, we had the shade structure that Tony and Therese had graciously welcomed me to. The shade structure was a parachute that was set on top of PVC pipes. Tony and Therese had it set up like a home away from home. Under the shade structure, we had carpets, couches, coffee tables, decorations, plants. It was a really nice setup. We spent most of the hottest times of the day in there. Then the last picture is a picture of Phoenix, Kimo, Me, David and Melanie - with whom i came.

Check out part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures

Check out part 2 of my burning man 2009 pictures

Check out part 3 of my burning man 2009 pictures

                     

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The first picture and last picture portrayed in this set is from the Temple at Burning Man. Each year they build a different temple. As read from another blog -- "The temple, which is a giant, elaborate, wooden structure designed to inspire/nudge you towards a solemn/prayerful/meditative/ transformative/grateful/introspective mindset. People leave burnable offerings at the temple, and in a quiet and mindful gathering on Sunday night of the event, the temple (and its offerings) are burned.

Offerings can represent things for which you'd like to give thanks, things you'd like to have burned away, hopes, wishes, ideas, bad habits, good habits, get-well wishes, shout-outs to those who have passed on, inspirational things, questions, requests, whatever."

Upon entering the temple, it's one of these places, that you immediately feel the spirituality and intense atmosphere.Many people are there meditating, reflecting on the people they have loved and lost.

They burn the temple on the night after the burning of the man .i.e Sunday. Unlike the burn of the man, where everybody is partying, celebrating the burn, the Temple burn is very silent and spiritual. With the few ten thousands people gathered for the temple burn, it's just amazing to feel that silence and unity in the air as we watch the temple burn and spirits flying away from it.

Check out part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures

Check out part 2 of my burning man 2009 pictures

                         

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This year, I used/enjoyed a lot of the services that Black Rock City had to offer.

As in any city, Black Rock City has all the services a city should have - Post Office, Hardware Store, Flea Market, Ice Cream Man, Bike Repair Store, Tea House, Diner, Movie Theatre, barber Shop, Massage Place, Waffle Place, Snow Cone Man, Discotheque, Fashion Boutique, Breakfast place, Bars, Pubs, Real Estate etc.. All these services are available within the city and I used quite a few of them this year.

On the second day, I had a flat in my bicycle tire. It was a bummer as without a bicycle, it's pretty hard to do much (there are community bicycles, supposedly 1000 of them, which we should use only one way and then leave it for others to use, but it's very hard to come by). I looked around the city for a bike repair shop and found one at 3:00 and I. They were very nice and they fixed my tire - They replaced the tube with a brand new tube and asked me to spread the good and go and do something good for somebody else, rather than wanting to take anything from me.

Every night, on my way back to my tent from the Esplanade (where all the party were), I'd pass the Black Rock City Diner.. yes a Diner. We'd get in line and they'd seat us in at assigned tables and all and then they'd serve us hot grilled cheese !! Nothing better at 3 o'olock in the morning ! These grill cheese sandwiches are the best ever. Not too far from them, there is the Skinny Kitty TeaHouse. They have a great lounge with live piano performances that you can listen to, while sipping your tea. Usually after the diner, I'd stop by there, have a tea or a home brew and listen to piano laying on their couches before heading home to sleep.

For breakfast, there are quite a few places. There was the shady waffle camp very close to where I stayed that'd serve pancakes everyday, the Cereal Killers, that'd serve cereals all day and then there was a KFC -- they had decorated their booth in KFC colors and all and they served Fried Bologna on a sandwich bread with a shot of Bourbon (From Kentucky :))

For Snacks during the day, I got invited to many camps for food - I had PBJ sandwiches, Vegan Chocolate Coconut Icecream (yeah.. ice cream in the desert.. someone had brought a freezer with a generator), Snow Cones, Fresh Water Melons, Hot Dogs, Laddoos (I somehow found a hippie couple that was serving Indian Laddoos), and of course, all kinds of drinks.

This one evening, while I was walking back , someone invited me to their noodle house. They were serving Japanese Soba Noodles and Sake in a japanese themed camp, with chefs dressed in japanese attire and we were even served in nice bowls with chopsticks and all.

They also have a post office which I did not get to use. The post office would deliver mail to anyone living at an address in Black Rock City.

I heard they also had a shower camp.. where they'd let you take a shower, but I could not find that one and they have a barber shop that specializes in Mohawks.

Another service I used was the Fashion Boutique. Their motto was to dress you in something more questionable :) I did have time to prepare for costumes and all. So I went to the boutique and got all geared up in some costumes. Everything was free, but the catch is after you're dressed, you have to come out of the boutique on their catwalk :)

Check out the part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures.

                               

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This year was my second year to Burning Man. Unlike last year where I decided overnight to just go and went unprepared, this year, I knew from before that I wanted to go I got my ticket for a pretty decent price after I posted on my facebook status that I wanted a ticket. For the ride, I had posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a ride, and I was very lucky to have found a veteran burner - Kimo.

Kimo had been quite a few times and was going again this year with his daughter Kaley and graciously offered to share his ride with me and two other persons (David and Melanie) he found on CL as well. He had a huge truck in which he was able to fit 5 bicycles and all our camping gear and food for the week. We left on Tuesday evening and reached Black Rock City at night.

We met up with Therese and Tony (Kimo's friends from the last Burn) there who had come earlier and had already set up shade structure (an actual parachute supported by PVC pipes) at 4;30 and H. Under the parachute, they had couches, coffee table, plants, carpet, great set up for the playa.

They graciously offered to camp with them. We unloaded the truck and all set up our tents in the dark around the parachute. 4:30 and H was a perfect street location. We were only 1 block from the toilets and we had the PapaLegbar camp set up on the other side of the street which had set up a cellphone tower to offer cell service and internet on the Playa (but which I only found out on the last day), the Shady Waffle camp one block away which was serving pancakes (hence shady) every morning, the free phone camp which allowed us to make calls to the outside world not far away as well. Then there was Camp New Jersey next door, which had allowed us to use their shower tub (if we brought our own water) and use their evaporation system as well.

I've added some pictures in Random Order to this entry. I'll be adding more pictures later in other entries.

Blog and Pictures from last year's burning Man.

http://nileshd.posterous.com/burning-man-2008-part-1

http://nileshd.posterous.com/burning-man-2008-part-2-pics

http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/

                       

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Every last Friday of the month, there's a critical mass event in San Francisco. Many cyclists gather by and we just mass cycle throughout the city.  Lots of fun and good exercise (but many angry motorists) at the blocked traffic and all.

     

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Every month, the city of San Francisco organizes Sunday Streets (http://sundaystreetssf.com/)  in one neighborhood, where they close off the streets and people can just enjoy walking, biking on the streets in 'safer' environment (intro from website :: Sunday Streets creates a safe, fun, car-free place for people to get out and get active in San Francisco neighborhoods.) They also have many activities planned on the streets by different group, free bike rentals, roller skates rentals etc.. pretty fun. This week they had it in the mission district (http://sundaystreetssf.com/?page_id=474). It was awesome. Enjoyed it a lot and disovered many new places in the mission, in places i rarely ventured. After SF streets, we went to Dolores park to a huge crowd, where the SF symphony orchestra was playing for free. Annie had planned a potluck picnic where it was great to meet up and spend the sunday afternoon in great company and great food !

                     

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Yesterday evening, I went to the Fire Arts Festival at the Crucible in Oakland. Lots of fire arts on display, huge structures and sculptures built out of scrap metal. Apart from the sculptures and fire arts, they also had a main stage with various shows with fire and shadows. The main show was an opera - the rootabago opera.

Unfortunately, I did not bring a lot of warm clothes and was very very cold and shivering and had to leave early and missed out on the last few shows.

It's still on till Saturday if you wish to go. Tickets etc.. here ->>http://thecrucible.org/events/fire-arts-festival/157

               

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Last weekend, I did the bay2breakers race again with a few friends. We deciced to be scrabble letters. We bought some plain white t-shirts and had drawn scrabble pieces and their points on it, hoping we'd make words with ourselves along the way, but we did not :) Was much more interesting to watch the other people. Weather was extremely hot that day, but did not prevent any of the crazy people to enjoy the race. The race had its usual quota of naked people, body painted people, huge drink floats, theme floats etc.. Check out the pics for some moments from it.

             

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20/12/2008 - 22/12/2008 : Took the early bus from Vientiane to go to Vang Vieng. Bus ride is about 3 hours. We were supposed to get an air-conditioned bus, but I think what they meant by it, is natural air-conditioning, by opening up the windows. Anyways, ride to Vang Vieng was good. I sat down next to some German Geneticicist working in Australia and we shared travel stories and in less than no time, we were already in Vang Vieng.

Reached Vang Vieng around noon and I met an Israeli guy - Benni, who was in the same bus as me who wanted to go and look for guesthouses together. We took a shared tuk tuk for 5000 Kips/person to drop us in the center of town even though it was walking distance. We checked out about 4 guesthouses and they were so very cheap - in the $4 - $7 range per room with own private bathroom and air-con/fan. Benni picked one and I picked another one. I picked the NguenPhanith Guesthouse and paid 40,000 kips per night for it (about $5 USD). I had a nice clean double bed room with fan, private hot shower bathroom and commode.

The guesthouse had a restaurant downstairs with bed style lounges, where one could lounge, eat and watch 'friends' all day long. Yes, 'friends'. A lot of restaurants/lounges in Vang Vieng play non-stop 'Friends' episodes over episodes on TV all day long. The settings of these restaurants are lounge like.. no chairs.. just cushions with low tables.. such that one could basically lie down full length at each table. Its exactly how the lonely planet guidebook mentionned it - 'VanVieng is just lazy bums watching infinite re-runs of friends drinking 'happy' shakes'.. yes Happy Shakes. So I came down to have lunch and immediately someone came and asked me if I wanted 'special' shakes or 'special' pizza. What it is is just shakes or pizzas, with magic halucinogen mushrooms or marijuana. Had some Lao lunch (non-magic), Watched a couple of episodes of friends and then met up Benni for some sightseeing.

We rented bicyles. These were expensive in Vang Vieng - 20,000 kips vs 10,000 in Vientiane and also had to return them by 7:00p.m, whereas in Vientianne, it was for 24 hours. We biked around the little town that was Vang Vieng. Checked out a few sites and went by the river to watch sunset and watch the returning 'Tubers'.. Vang Vieng is famous for river tubing. They have quite a few riverside bars with bamboo platforms and cushions, where one can lie down, watch the river, have some drinks and enjoy the day. I was looking at their menu and they had magic drinks for about 60,000 kips. Lao Beer is 10,000.

While having some drinks, met up with a local Lao guy who was also vacationing there. He told us of some the cool things to do and things to check at night. Went back to the guesthouse for dinner and later at night came by the riverside. All the bars by the riverside had a bonfire, loud music, cheap drinks and people dancing, partying around the fire. It was nice, but they all close at midnight.

Booked a whole day tour for the next day to do some caving for for the first half of the day and then tubing for the next half. Tuk Tuk came to pick me up and we went off to the Caving place. Our tour group was a varied nice group of people, a couple from Australia, an english dude, a thai lady, a french guy and his philipina wife and two tour guides. The first cave we checked was the Elephant cave where  there were some naturally formed elephant structures. After that, we walked through a Lao traditional village to go to our next cave.

The village was interesting. Lots of free roaming animals - pigs, chickens, cows, calfs, dogs, ducks and roosters. Lots of kids also playing around and people busying themselves at day to day activities such as weaving, farming, napping. We passed through this village to go the next Cave, where we would be tubing it out. We each got a rubber tube (from the inside of truck wheels) and we sat down in it and were to follow the guide into the water cave, each of us armed with a head lamp. There was a guide rope we can use to pull ourselves in the cave and follow the group. For as long as there was the rope, we pulled ourselves in the low caves and admired the various stalactite and stalagmite formations, the different cave insects and other darkness goodies.As we paddles through the caves, it was funny how the water temperature changed from very cold to warm and back and forth. We had a good 30-45 minutes cave visit and then finally got out.

Lunch was provided as part of the trip. The guides grilled some chicken and pineapple kebabs for us and we ate that with fried rice and bananas.

After lunch and chill out in the sun to dry out, we proceeded to our next event - Tubing in the Nam Song River.. Basically what the tubing consists of, is just sitting down in an inner tube and just let it go downstream by paddling with the hands or just letting the current take you down. Along the entire river, there are many bars. So the whole tubing thing is just a big drunk and chilling out festival. From our starting point, its about 4 km downstream. We had the guide come with us in a Kayak in case we needed some help etc.. + he kept our drybags for us. We started the tubing and stopped a few of the bars along the way. Each of the bars have got huge trapeze like structures where one could do some trapeze before jumping into the river. Another bar had a giant water slide, where you'd slide down and land in the middle of the river. I did not do any of these after my water incident the day before. After about half way tubing (2 or so hours), I got bored and was wishing  it would end.. as there was not much current and we had to paddle with our hands.. we did not need to paddle as well.. if we just wanted to chill in the sun and letting the river take us wherever. At some points along the river route, there were rocks and the river was shallow, where the rocks would give the bottoms a very good massage.

We finally reached the ending point for the tubing and we disembarked. Before going back to the hotel, I stopped along the way in a travel agency and bought a bus ticket to go to Luang Prabhan the next morning for 105,000 kips and also bought a plane ticket to go from Luang Prabhan to Hanoi on Lao Airlines for $115, after spending 3 days in Luang Prabhan.

After that, after a good hot shower, had a nice Lao dinner that night and watched maybe some 4 episodes of Friends before going to to the riverside bars to have a chill time. Tomorrow morning, got to catch the early bus to Luang Prabhan. I had a marvelous time in Vang Vieng and good experiences. The one difference here though is the crowd - most of the people were in the 18 - 23 year old age range. It seemed more a like a college spring break town than anything else. Felt kind of OLD but had lots of fun though !!

Pic 1 : Tubing down the Nam Song River
Pic 2 : Many Riverside bars have bamboo louges by the river
Pic 3 : Naturally Formed Elephant Structure in the Elephant Cave
Pic 4 : Me and the group getting reading to tube into the Cave
Pic 5 : Lao Village Home
Pic 6 : Free Roaming Pig enjoying the cool mud
Pic 7 : Streets of Vang Vieng in the morning
Pic 8 : One of the many restaurants/lounge bars having friends re-run
Pic 9 : Smile Bar at night (one of the few riverside bars)
Pic 10 : My $5 room
Pic 11 : Adorable Lao Kids Greeting us as we walk through the village

                     

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