Category: San Francisco

not much happening

arggghh. ever since Ethiopia, I’ve been so behind with my blog. I still haven’t been able to catch up. damn. anyways, after the 2nd safari, there were several days when not much happened. here’s a quick summary:

8/25/05 continued..

after returning from the safari, we treated ourselves to a more expensive room w/ a TV and everything. we went out to eat at an indian/italian restaurant (weird combination, eh?) across the way which was very good. at night, Joey and I went to the hotel bar and had some drinks, and by the time we got back to our rooms, we were too tired to take advantage of the TV. doh.

8/26/05

we spent the day in moshi, a small town near the base of Kilimanjaro. our main priority was to figure out what we would do about climbing Kilimanjaro. what company would we go with? what route would we take? how would we get our gear? well, in the end, the more research we did, the more we realized that kili would be an impossible undertaking for us. the cheapest route, Marangu, was 700$ and this exhausting strenuous 4 day climb turned out to have an only 10% success rate!! everyone else ended up giving up due to the extreme altitude. the next easiest route, one where we would actually have a good chance to get to the top was over $1000. OUCH! we just couldn’t afford that kind of money. there was the possibility of trying to go w/ some cheap independent operator, but we read a bunch of horror stories about that. apparently, sometimes these guys take you up the mountain, and then just ditch you!! you wake up, crawl out of your tent, and there you are all alone with no guide, gear, or porters!! also, a lot of the cheaper companies give you total crappy gear that doesn’t fit, sleeping bags that are too small, etc etc. climbing Africa’s tallest mountain was a serious undertaking, so we decided we just couldn’t risk this. so we gave up. it really sucks cause we were actually really excited about climbing. I had wanted to climb the mountain for months now. *sigh*. oh well… maybe some other year.

for a funny account of someone’s climb on the mountain, check this out: http://gorp.away.com/gorp/location/humor/lansky_kilimanjaro.htm

Moshi, the town we were in, would almost be a pleasant place, except for the millions of touts. every person in town works for a safari company, a climbing company, or another tourist agency. every step you take in town, you are bugged by people who want to sell you tours. it drives you crazy after a while.

other than being really depressed by our decision regarding Kilimanjaro, we didn’t do much that day. ate at the Indian restaurant, twice I think! and ended the night in the hotel bar, drinking our troubles away. we heard about some club in town which sounded interesting, but were too afraid to go there in case it would be swamped w/ hookers.

8/27/05

since we weren’t climbing Kilimanjaro, we decided to do a quick hike around the area just for fun. we made an arrangement to hire a guide, but he ended up trying to rip us off, so we backed out. in the end, we decided to just do it ourselves. we took a taxi to this hotel that was several kilometers out of town, and then just started walking. it actually turned out to be a pretty fun hike. we had no clue where the hell we were headed, so it was kind of like an adventure. we walked and walked. we passed coffee plantations, and then eventually got to a more jungleish are where we walked through large banana trees. we found a small village and walked through that, waving at children and other people who lived there. eventually, we ended up walking by more coffee bushes, and then out of nowhere we saw this huge compound in the distance.

at first we thought this place was a hotel. we thought we’d go there, have a drink, and then make our way back. as we got closer though, we noticed that this definitely didn’t look like a hotel. instead, it was all surrounded by barbed wire, had lookout towers, and looked more like a prison than anything. we thought about turning back, but we were now curious, so we walked closer. after getting through all the trees, we got to the front of the compound and saw a girl sitting on the porch. she yelled out “karibu” (meaning “welcome” in Swahili). I yelled out “do you speak English” and she answered in Swahili, though I don’t know what she said. she yelled out a few m ore things, and then as Joey and I approached the place closer, she yelled out something that sounded like “please, no!” and grabbed a rifle that had been sitting behind her. oh crap! we decided to not stick around and see what she meant to do w/ the rifle. we turned around quickly and got the hell out of there. we still have no idea what that place was. prison? military camp? al-queda?!

we returned back to town, ate at the Indian place again, and went to sleep.

8/28/05

the next morning, we took a bus to Dar Essalam. it was a 7 hour bus ride, but the roads were paved, so it wasn’t that bad. actually, this bus ride was really cool cause they gave everyone on the bus free sodas. at one point, we stopped for the usual bathroom break where everyone, both men and women, scrambled into the bushes. it’s funny how I’ve gotten totally used to this and it’s totally the norm for me now. what’s the big deal, right? but then I was thinking, could you imagine if this happened back home? if a greyhound bus just stopped in a field and told people to go to the bathroom behind bushes?! people would be so angry! eventually we had a lunch stop. we asked how long it would be and it turned out to be only 10 minutes!! everyone had to get there chicken and fries in a sack, and then squirted tons of hot sauce on it and ran back on the bus. the whole bus slowly munched their chicken and fries on the bus.

hours later, we got to dar Essalam. we had dinner at a hamburger place called Steers where we had eaten in Kenya. the one in Kenya had been so damn good!! this one sucked though, and I had lots of bone chunks in my burger and the whole thing was just nasty.

8/29/05

didn’t do too much today. had breakfast in a tasty cafe. across the street they sold t-shirts that said “mzungu” on them. we had no clue what that meant, so we asked our waitress and she started giggling and then said she didn’t know. well, it was obvious she knew but wouldn’t tell us. later we found out that it means something like “white man” or “foreigner” or something. it’s not meant to be an offensive term either, I guess that’s just what we are called.

Joey and I spent the rest of the afternoon running errands. we went to the post office. we got a bunch of money from an atm, since we were going to Zanzibar the next day and there would be no atms there. we bought ferry tickets. we exchanged money for dollars (on Zanzibar you have to pay for hotels rooms in dollars, not sure why.). eventually, when joey and i were ready to leave the post office, it started pouring like crazy.we decided to run for it. we ran full speed through the downpour, jumping over puddles and dodging cars that gor in our way. we got lots of funny looks by everyone else who stoff under overhangs keeping dry. we got so totally soaked, but it was all kind of funny. later on we went to a bookstore. big mistake. we left there $100 dollars poorer with 6 new books. we unsuccessfully shopped for shoes. we eventually ate dinner, did more internet, and went to sleep.

8/30/05

in the morning we took the ferry to Zanzibar. 3 hour trip. the ride was hell. probably one of the most rocky ferry rides ever. caryn came really close to vomiting and Joey and I felt awful as well. luckily, we survived the trip since the sea settled down eventually.

there’s this tribe that lives here in east Africa called the Masai. they are very recognizable because they still wear their traditional red checkered robes and loads of silver dangly jewelry. it’s pretty crazy that we can just be sitting on this ferry, and there will be a few Masai tribesmen just chilling on deck talking to each other. we randomly here and there see them in the city as well, walking down the street and whatnot. it’s pretty cool that these guys have preserved their own unique heritage, even when they live amongst the much more modern dressed Tanzanians. later, on Zanzibar, we would even see these guys in bars and clubs. so funny. a huge dancefloor full of tourists and locals, and then you’ll see these dudes in tribal robes totally rocking out to American pop songs.

… so that’s it for those several days. yeah, yeah, I know this is kind of a boring entry, but not that much happened on those days, so what can ya do?

*v

Nairobbery

8/15/05-8/18/05

after the difficult conditions, lack of showers, and dusty roads of Ethiopia, we were really excited to arrive in a much more modern country. we spent 4 days relaxing and recuperating in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Nairobi from everything we’ve heard, seems to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and because of this it’s earned itself the nickname “Nairobbery”. according to the guidebooks, other travelers, and the internet, this town should be avoided like the plague. crime is rampant, people get mugged, cars get carjacked, hotel rooms are broken into, etc etc. according to a recent survey, 37% of the people living in Nairobi say that they have been mugged in the last year! the guidebook warns to exercise extreme caution, even during the day, and says that under no circumstances should you walk around at night.. even if you are only going a few blocks.

any business in this town that is larger than a tiny convenience store, has armed security. every bank, mall, movie theater, hotel, office building, and even many cafes and restaurants have watchmen patrolling around. when leaving our hotel in the dark, the security would always offer to come with us… even if we were walking just across the street to catch a cab. with all of this, it’s pretty easy to be paranoid.. but to be honest, after a few days in the city, I really got the feeling that a lot of these warnings and precautions were a little over the top. of course, we spent all of our time in the center of town, and I’m sure the situation is completely different on the outskirts and in the shanty areas, but I never really felt in danger, and it didn’t seem like there were tons of sketchy characters about. overall, I definitely wasn’t ecstatic about Nairobi or anything, but I really would say it was horrible and I think that some of its bad reputation may be undeserved.

Nairobi is a really modern city. well, ok, I don’t mean really modern as in Tokyo or even London, but it is pretty modern compared to other cities in Africa and most of Asia. there are lots of skyscrapers, and most of the architecture in town seems fairly current. in some ways, just looking at the buildings, streets etc, it almost could be any medium sized town in America. after being in Ethiopia, it was really exciting to be in a town like this. we could get online! there was a variety of restaurants.. even with international cuisine! hot water ion the showers! and we were shocked to see that there was even a large supermarket! this was something super exciting and out of the ordinary for us. other than Japan, we really haven’t seen a modern supermarket since back home. even in Europe, people do most of their grocery shopping in small little corner stores, so to see a huge store w/ tons and tons of different groceries to choose from was exciting!

the one annoying thing about Nairobi was the touts. there are so many of them!! ugh. almost everyone who comes to Kenya is planning on taking a safari at some point, and safaris are big business here.. lots of profit to be made. because of this, every random guy on the street has a safari to sell. actually they have multiple safaris to sell, so if you turn down one, they will just try to sell you more. this makes it virtually impossible to walk through town. anywhere you go, you will be followed by people who badger you about safaris, and don’t leave you alone till you say no about 1 billion times. of course, as soon as they leave, another one will come up. it never ends. people literally just sit there and wait in front of your hotel, and then follow you from the instant you leave. sometimes, we’ve been followed, told the person to leave… and then after walking many blocks, and looking our shoulder to make sure the person is really gone, they’ll pop up later and you realize they’ve been stealthily following you. arrrggghhh!!

a couple of other things about town: traffic is insane and people drive like mad; it is much more expensive than we imagined it would be… not as pricey as Europe by any means, but definitely a step up from Asia; broiled chicken is *everywhere*; it seems like secretarial services are in high demand for some reason; English is the official language here, so it’s really easy to get by even if you don’t know any Swahili.

during our first day in Nairobi, I realized that my stomach was not yet fully ok. it would hurt on and off throughout the day and that night a had a fever. caryn also had been experiencing stomach issues since Ethiopia. so, our second day in Nairobi we saw a doctor. the visit was really quick. just a description of our symptoms, blood pressure and temperature check. that’s it. we were prescribed a bunch of medication that we had to take for 5 days, twice per day. the medication actually really sucked, and for the next several days, I felt all gross every time I took mine. ugh. at least it worked though, and five days later I felt good as new.

the best part of being in Nairobi though, was that on the 17th Joey arrived. Joey’s gonna be touring Africa with us for about a month which is a pretty good chunk of time! I actually was really surprised when he told us he’d be coming to Africa to visit. we’ve had a few people meet us on our trip, but I really didn’t think anyone would come meet us in Africa since it was fairly expensive to fly there from home. but he decided to come visit, and after spending a week in Egypt, he flew in to Nairobi. his flight arrived at 4:30 AM which really was the worst possible time to go pick someone up from the airport, but we were really psyched to be seeing him so we went down there. we hadn’t seen him in about 11 months by then, so it was really exciting and we spent a bunch of time catching up on what was going on back home and in each other’s lives.

another cool thing was that Joey brought me a bunch of cards and presents from home. it had been my birthday a few days before (aug 13th) and since we were in Moyale, a town with not all that much going for it, it was definitely an uneventful birthday. also, I didn’t have internet or phone access, so I couldn’t really talk to anyone from back home on my bday which sucked. well, several days later, when Joey arrived, he handed me a bunch of stuff that people from home had sent. it was *so* great to sit there and get to actually read birthday cards from people and open presents. it actually felt like a real birthday, and I was really really touched. also, all of it had been a total surprise… Jamie had told me that she was sending a care package, and I had been really looking forward to it, but I had no clue how elaborate and dope the package would be, nor that anyone else would be sending me anything, so when Joey dumped out a big pile of stuff on my bed, I was totally shocked. there’s something really cool about things that are handwritten, and although I’ve gotten emails from people while on the road, it was especially cool to get real cards, and see what people had written… and all of it definitely made me miss home… a lot.

after Joey arrived, we spent much of our time in Nairobi running errands and figuring out our safari situation. other than that, we went to the movies (Fantastic 4, which wasn’t all that). before the movie started , it said on the screen for everyone to stand while Kenya’s national anthem played… with large letters underneath saying that this “IS MANDATORY!”. I wonder if this kind of thing would go over in the US? also, we went out to Carnivore restaurant. this is supposed to be one of the highlights on Nairobi. it’s a huge restaurant, a little out of town, and their thing is that it’s all you can eat meat. we took a taxi to the restaurant, and it was guarded by tons of people with large guns… we began to wonder whether this place was likely to be attacked by terrorists.. or maybe by PETA. inside, you sit at your table, and after soup and salad, they just start bringing huge slabs of meat skewered on large swords to your table. they keep bringing it until you “surrender” and put down the little flag on your table. they had the usual suspects: beef, chicken, pork, lamb but also had more unusual things like ostrich, crocodile, and even camel! the crocodile wasn’t too good (tasted like fish), and the camel wasn’t great, but the ostrich was really delicious. surprisingly, despite the large variety, the beef was actually the best. go figure. although the food was pretty good, I cant say that it was the best meal ever. the sauces for the meats weren’t all that great… maybe that was my main issue. we had come there planning to eat until we were literally ready to explode, but ended up in the end only eating till we were full. all in all, it was good, but kinda pricey for what it was.

after 4 days in Nairobi, we were definitely ready to get a move on. the town wasn’t as bad as people said, but at the same time, it really didn’t have much to keep us wanting to be there either.

*v

drinking beer in the hot sun..

went up to sf for erica’s bday yesterday. all of a sudden SF is not my home any more an di’m just visiting. we went to zeitgeist for some drinks and then continued drinking in dolores park. man, drinking during the day is really fun. everyone got really rowdy and everything was pretty hillarious.

i went over to the 1230 house afterwards. *sigh*. so weird that my room is not my room!! i’m so gonna miss it!!

*v

bman 2k4

i went to bman last weekend. for a long time i was really unsure whether or not to go this year. last year, i didn’t particularly have the greatest time, and there was just so much stuff i need to do before my RTW, that i wasn’t sure if i could muster up the time or energy to go. but i went anyways, and I’m really glad i did. i ended up having a much better time this year than last year. caryn and i caravanned up there w/ natasha, her friend megan, and a bunch of megan’s friends who were all pretty cool and we got along w/ them really well… until the last day when there ended up being hellza drama. we camped w/ liv and a bunch of other people who were spinning fire w/ the south bay conclave.

the weather this year was pretty cool and not too hot, but we had *tons* of crazy dust storms. much of the time was spent w/ goggles on and still unable to see anything through the intense dust. one of the highlights this year was the pagoda burn. the pagoda was this large 32 foot high structure that they burned on thursday night. caryn and the other south bay fire people got to spin fire before the burn and i did fire safety for them. when the pagoda went up in flames, it burned hella fast w/ a bunch of cool dust tornados coming out of it. also, the pagoda had a propeller on top, so when it burned, the propeller spun around and these two flaming comet shaped things circled around the pagoda.

also, the burning of the man was spectacular. utterly incredible. this year, to do something different, all 600 fire spinners did a synchronized routine right before the burn. i did fire safety for it, and because of that got to sit in the inner circle w/ the fire spinners when the man burned. we were *so* close. so close that you had to cover your face cause it hurt from the intense heat of the flames. i couldn’t believe that we basically had the best seats in the house out of 35,000 or so spectators!!

one last cool thing I’ll mention is the maze. they had this cool maze that was actually really tricky to get through. it had all sorts of secret panels, revolving trapdoors, and other crafty things to make it really confusing.

the one thing that really sucked about bman though this year was the lack of large scale art. where was it?? in the past years there were always tons of huge art pieces around the playa that totally left you in awe. this year, other than the temple, there really weren’t any. sure there was some cool stuff here and there, but nothing that really really stood out.

anyways, I’m really glad that i ended up going. especially since next year i wont be around to go…

I can’t upload photos right now, so that’ll be in a separate entry

*v

dont ever rent from uhaul

for the last month, i’ve been slowly but surely getting ready to move out of my place. moving is always hectic and a major pain, so this time, i decided to get all of my stuff done way in advance so that the final day of the move would be a breeze. unfortunately, it didn’t end up like that. the whole day ended up being a total nightmare because:

uhaul never called us on saturday to notify us when our pick-up time would be. when we called them to find out, it turns out we can only find out from the SF regional office which is closed. we have to call the next day, set up a pickup time, and then drive to uhaul… to find a line w/ 50 people in it. the line takes 2 hours. after waiting in line, we get sent to the outside where someone is supposed to hook up the trailer we are renting to our truck. no one is there. we can’t find anyone to help us for the next half hour.

eventually, when someone does help us, we are told our truck doesnt have the right connectors for the blinkers and we have to go buy one… but no one assists us to tell us which connectors we might need. then, it turns out that only one employee in the whole place knows how to install said connector… but he is nowhere to be found. when we find him, he keeps avoiding us and walking away for another half hour. finally he says he can install it… for an extra 20$. ugh. we end up installing it ourselves, but now there is once again no one around to connect the trailer to our truck and we have to waste more time finding someone.

total time spent at uhaul: 3.5 hours.

after getting lost on the way home and stuck in traffic, i get home, we load the truck/trailer as fast as possible, and speed off to the storage place in Fremont. after a few minutes, caryn’s car starts dying. she has to pull over part way to Fremont at li’s house and ask for a ride. when we get to Fremont, it turns out the lady incorrectly wrote down when we needed to access our unit, and the box is buried somewhere in the warehouse with no access to it. after begging, the employee reluctantly gets our unit. we spend another couple hours trying to figure out how the heck to fit everything into the unit.

after that we dropped the trailer off at uhaul after hours (which you arent allowed to do since it might get stolen). this is now 5 hours from when we left the uhaul place. we still have no car since i just sold mine and caryn’s is broken so we have to get a rental.

finally, at 9pm… 12 hours after starting moving, we were done.. although there are still some odds and ends we want to pick up from SF. *sigh*. whatever you do, dont ever rent from uhaul!!

on a brighter note though, it’s now only 14 days till i take off on my trip!! tomorrow is my last day of work, plus, i get to go to burning man the day after tomorrow!!

*v

trolley

erica suggested that i rent a party trolley for my birthday this year, and that ended up being one of the funnest things yu could possibly do on your birthday. basically, it’s this huge san francisco cable car on wheels, and you can have it drive you anywhere you want to go in Sf while you get your drink on. you can have up to 35 people on that thing!! let me tell ya, driving all around the city in basically what amounts to a mobile party on wheels is such a blast!! seriously, it’s amazing that this kind of thing can be legal!

we first drove to twin peaks and checked out an awesome view of the city and we ended up blowing up a large firework up there. luckily the cops didnt bust us and the other tourists up there were startled, but not pissed off. after that we drove to the mission and went to Kilowatt. by this point pretty much everyone on board was super drunk. the last stop on our ride was this small bar in north beach, where we accidenatlly ended up leaving poor erica behind. oops!! i guess she ended up getting a drinking in public ticket too! a cop asked her what was in her cup, and she, to be sneaky, spilled it out on the ground and said “water”. unfortunately the cop didnt fall for it. doh!

all in all the night was a ridiculous amount of fun.

here are some photos of the party trolley night

*v

another birthday down

last friday i turned 28. surprisingly, this year i really couldn’t care less about my bday. back when i was younger, i looked forward to my birthdays like crazy, then as i got older, i kinda started dreading them… but this year, i just didn’t really care one way or the other. birthdays are just weird. you’re taught from a very young age that your birthday is your own little special day and that it’s so important and a huge deal, but as the birthdays lose their significance. sometimes you dont really do anything to celebrate, while other times you try to go all out, but you can never recapture that incredible feeling you had when you were little and your birthday came. i did want to do at least something though, so this year Elena and i decided to have a trolley party for our bdays. i’ll post about that in a separate entry though…

anyways, my birthday started off pretty mellow, just hung around the house and packed. eventually, caryn came home and we went to lunch at Ebisu. i wanted to try something new since it was my birthday so i tried the amaebi. it’s raw shrimp, and they server the shrimp heads deep fried on the side. honestly, i can’t really say that i liked them all that much… they were ok, but kinda weird. i think w/ the heads you’re supposed to eat the whole thing including the little eyeballs, but i just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

after stopping by the health dept to get more vaccines for our trip (fun!), we drove down to mountain view to have thai food w/ my family. my family isn’t very adventurous w/ food, yet they agreed to go to thai food because i wanted to. they also drove to Max’s to buy me a low-carb cheesecake because that’s the only desert i could have. it never ceases to amaze me how my family is totally willing to go so out of it’s way to make me happy all the time. it really means a lot to me how they try so hard. my mom is so distressed about the fact that i’m leaving and it really sucks to make her so upset, but i think she understands that going on my trip is something i really really want to do.

one of the highlights of my bday was on the next day actually. caryn got us a reservation at this high-end Vietnamese place called the Slanted Door. i’ve wanted to go there forever, but you can’t go unless you make reservations some time in advance. after eating there, i can totally see why that places has such a good reputation. the food was sooooo good. every little thing we ordered was incredibly delicious and the presentation was really cool too. i was so glad to finally go there!!

*v