Monstermoon #6: Snow White misbehaves + Why drive when you can fly... a spaceship?

It turns out you can rent spaceships in an industrial park by the Christchurch Airport.

Yep, the gimmicky branding war between RV companies in New Zealand has driven Spaceship Rentals to name itself Spaceship Rentals. Interestingly, it has also driven the camper company Wicked to paint Snow White being corrupted on the side of a van (link).

Upon landing, we proceeded to the "landing pad" where the "Front Line Lieutenant" helped us understand the features of our new craft. We were pleased to discover that it has all the features required to explore the galaxy.

For escaping intergalactic sand flies while sleeping comfortably, it has a tent attachment that extends out of the back of the minivan hatch. It has an electronic cooler just behind the passenger seat that allows the crew to easily serve each other snacks. Unlike many of the huge camper vans we see tooling around, it’s quick and nimble and uses way less rocket fuel than bigger ships.

During the planning phase of our New Zealand mission, we first thought we might need a full blown RV, but it turns out what we needed instead was some cheesy marketing and a little converted right-hand-drive Toyota Siena minivan with a big jug of water strapped behind the drivers seat.

Our little ship even has a DVD player for wiling away the hours in New Zealand’s classy RV parks while our laundry dries. Seriously, New Zealand’s RV parks are legitimately classy. Some even offer spas and a concierge to help you choose the adrenaline sport/jet boat trip/Sauvignon Blanc tasting you’ll be participating in.

For two people planning an RV tour of New Zealand, we’d definitely recommend going with a conversion van from Spaceship, Jucy, Escape, etc rather than a full blown RV. 

They'll make it easier to see the sheep:

and the vistas:

and to be "extreme" by dropping yourself off things (even though it's safer than biking on market st... which maybe isn't saying much):

Monstermoon #5: Skiing with Penguins and Drinking Coffee with Cats

Since our last update from Porto, Portugal, we’ve covered hundreds of kilometers walking and thousands in planes and busses. We've been short on internet and time but we finally we find ourselves connected and with time to burn. To lubricate the development of our prose we have delicious coffee to drink, Balinese rice paddies to gaze over, and torrential rain keeping us indoors and focused on blogging. 

Sometime in early November, we flew from Portugal to Dubai for a 24 hour stop (which deserves it’s own post) and promptly wandered into a nightclub where men outnumbered women 5 to 1. This ratio was reminiscent of Jackson Hole which was fitting because the next morning we met our friend Dale who lived with Matt in Jackson. Dale appreciates good powder and decided to chase an epic November storm across Saudi Arabia to  Ski Dubai (Ski Dubai Website... note the penguins) in the Mall of the Emirates.  The refrigerated storm served up by fossil fuels delivered and we had an epic "powder" day that included real penguins in the base village, women in burkas and parkas, and little rippers grinding rails. 

As our 24 hours in Dubai expired, we bid Dale and his friends farewell at the Dubai River Walk (a quaint name for complex of concrete towers above a concrete channel cut inland from the Persian Gulf) and hopped on a plane to Kathmandu. 

We landed at a lovely hotel in the backpacker neighborhood of Thamel where fake North Face jackets outnumber backpackers 10 to 1. Backpackers in turn outnumber Nepalis in Thamel 3 to 1. After a haircut and some shopping for nuts, chocolate, and unicorn/giraffe hats, we headed to Besi Sehar, the start of the Annapurna trek. The trek was beautiful... stunning... unlike anywhere we have ever been...  with unrivaled natural beauty stocked with amazing and friendly Nepali/Tibetan tea house owners and monks. On November 22 we crossed 17,700-foot Thorung La pass with a group of great San Franciscans we met along the way .

It’s worth noting that the Annapurna Circuit is where one of Nepal’s worst mountain disasters recently took place (which surprisingly didn’t involve mountaineering). The trek itself, and the state of trekking in Nepal after the disaster probably deserves it’s own post - hopefully coming in the next few days). 

Due to time constraints, we switched to mountain bikes and busses once we crossed Thorung-La pass to complete the circuit and return to the Nepali town of Pokhara where backpackers party by a lake while bragging about living on $10/day (if you exclude the $20/day they spend on alcohol). 

Cloud Comet on the last day of the Annapurna Trek

From Pokhara we returned to Kathmandu to explore the nearby town of Bahktapur before grabbing a flight to check out Everest and flying to Tokyo. 

Tokyo (also deserving of its own post, but unlikely to get one) was 3 days of metro-awesome. We started by seeking out the best sushi (which was delicious but also left us proud of SF’s sushi options). We spent a “night” in the commercial/clubbing district of Shibuya. We bathed in a traditional bath (onsen) where women come to gossip while bathing and men come to sit stoically while their business soaks, then watch golf on the TV mounted INSIDE the sauna. We rode the metro all over town and marveled at how flawlessly Japanese infrastructure (and society for that matter) functions... at least on the surface. To top it off, we had a truly AMAZING traditional thanksgiving turkey dinner prepared by old/new friends from Burning Man Camp Krusty days (huuuge thanks Jake, Nik, and Dana!). 

Sadly, we didn’t have time to go to a cat-cafe (Tokyo Cat Cafe Guide), visit Kyoto, ski in Hoakkaido, or do any of the amazing things we are now dying to do in Japan... so we’ll have to go back soon. Also, if you’d like to invest in our cat-cafe concept for San Francisco please contact us. 

After 4 days in Tokyo, we packed our bags and, after a small hiccup at the airport -- don’t try to go to Indonesia without an email confirming you have a booked onward flight, or without taking the 5 minutes that would be required to create a fake email “confirming” such a flight -- we flew to Bali. 

This post was written in Ubud, Bali which was a burgeoning hippy tourist town when I (Matt) was here last in 2006. Now, it is a burgeoning Mecca for 30-something-single-women-on-a-journey-of-self-discovery thanks to the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’” which popularized both Ubud and flings with older Italian men.  

Devoted readers of this blog may remember that in each place we go we pick one thing that seems a bit rare, then punch each other in the arm when we spot it. It’s like slug-a-bug but played with objections other than VW bugs. In Bali played Slug-a-woman-on-a-journey-of-self-discovery-in-yoga-pants. My arm hurts. To clarify, we are slugging each other, not the women in Yoga pants... though Carson is currently wearing those. 

Please stay tuned for future posts as we launch our eagerly anticipated Travel Advice Series: Futuristic Travel Advice... for people traveling anytime in the future. Also, coming soon, an update from New Zealand!

Exerseeing: The Next Ultimate Frisbee (Monstermoon #4)

by Matt

Exerseeing in Porto, Portugal 

Anyone who watches ESPN 3 at 2am knows that the sport of ultimate frisbee has come out of nowhere to replace the Scottish games and competitive eating as a featured sport on late late sports television.

Why the dazzling rise in ultimate frisbee's popularity? Because it combines the heroic diving catches and burst athleticism of football with fluid action more like soccer. Throw in the rugby tradition of drinking out of a piece of your sporting equipment (rugby: your boot, ultimate: a frisbee) and it's clear that ultimate is headed for prime time.

Inspired by ultimate frisbee, Carson and I have melded two activities into one to create the next great sport: Exerseeing. 

The idea struck us while looking at old buildings in Dubrovnik. While old buildings can be important vehicles for learning about history, they typically just sit there and look impressive, yet impassive. They don't insult each other, hook up, or brawl, making them less appealing to the youth (aka thirty-somethings) of today. They also start to blend together in the old-stone-building section of the brain. Sightseeing could stand to be more interesting.

At the same time, on vacation--especially vacations where time is spent gawking at old buildings--it is difficult to get exercise. 

In response to these challenges, we developed the sport of Exerseeing through a process we are calling athletotouristic syncretism. Exerseeing makes it possible to exercise while viewing old buildings and improves memories of each building  viewed by associating it with a specific physical activity. 

Exerseeing is like the decathlon in that players compete in multiple events. It's also like Calvin Ball in that events are made up and require only whatever you have on hand and your imagination.

A few examples of events from the global inaugural exerseeeing competition:

Running ancient stone stairs, with hand weights:

Buildering on weird communist sarcophagi

*extra view points were awarded here, points deducted because there was no actual climbing, just gaping

Upright crunches with a view:

*Points awarded for number of crunches, and for the quality of the view

Stonewall Yoga

*Think yoga isn't a competitive sport?  Check this. Weird.

Gaper Diving:

*similar to leisure diving (don't miss awesome link) Gaper Diving is inspired by Ultimate. Competitors dive or "layout" while gaping at major sites and beautiful scenery. 

A Note on Officiating

*regarding the officiating of an Exerseeing competition: Ultimate Frisbee seeks to contain the Big Refereeing industry by having players call their own fouls, then resolve the inevitable disputes with long discussions and incredulous gestures.

Ultimate players making their sport unwatchable

Similarly, Exerseeing also eschews official referees. Only if there is a dispute that can't be resolved by 5 minutes of kvetching amongst players, can a referee be sought. In this case, players must find the closest German or Swiss tourist, explain the infraction, and ask for him/her to make a call, in German, or Switzerdeutch. Instant replay from the German's hiking pole mounted Go-Pro is admissible.

Monstermoon Dispatch #3: Ostrich Video and Election Edition

by Matt

Hopefully these seconds-long videos give a window into our ~20 mile days pilgriming through the Spanish countryside on the Camino de Santiago.

If you aren't interested in rural Spain, but are sad about recent election results, this will remind you that ostriches are ridiculous birds, which will distract you, which is good. 

After 6 or 7 hours of walking on the Camino in a day, we usually start up an audiobook. Last week's book was The Omnivore's Dilemma. In a ridiculous moment in our 9th hour of walking last Friday, we were listening to the book and just as Michael Pollen agonizes over the morality of meat eating, we rounded a corner and walked right through a herd of animals likely to become someone's dinner. Mooooo. This won't be interesting without the audio. 

Should you seek to escape the more partisan atmosphere and big money serving/climate change denying nonsense of the new congress, you could do this for a living in rural Spain:

Finally, crosswalk signals in Galicia, Spain are pretty funny. Instead of showing a flashing red hand when it's time time speed your slow self up and get across the street, the green human walking figuring starts running/forward moonwalking to let you know you are dragging *ss. 

Sorry for the wrong orientation of this video. If anyone knows of an easy/small video editing program that works on an Ipad (or a Mac) let us know!

For us, short videos from home (like this only-in-SF video of a woman whining about her Uber as police try to create order during the Giants victory celebration) (link) help us feel connected, so please share all the youtube meme's you are willing to share!

Thanks for watching.

Minor political aside to peg this post to its politico click-bait title:

As we sit in a Portuguese cafe, reviewing election results, it's a little sad to reflect on how influential money has become in politics. It now seems necessary for ordinary people (like us) to donate to political causes that favor almost everyone, just to balance out spending by a few rich people.  European reporting on the money in our political system highlights how ridiculous a lack of strong political donation controls makes US democracy look. Hopefully this is something that can change in future elections. For now, an ostrich video, and a few glasses of port in Porto, Portugal should cheer us right up. 

Monstermoon Dispatch #2: High Speed Puppy Chase

by Carson

The scene: a drizzly, quiet day in the lakeside town of Virpazar, Montenegro. The town's handful of residents are milling about, seemingly unsure what to do with themselves now that the tourist season is over. Matt and I have a little time to explore before heading to the airport, so we wander into the tourist office, which happens to occupy the largest building in “town.”

In proper Evastiano fashion: 

Carson: we have only a short time in Virpazar and want to see things. Should we go by kayak or by bike?

Lady: how long do you have? One day? Two days?

Matt: we have one hour.

Lady: (laughs) ok... you better hurry!

Deciding the river looks a little murky, we grab some bikes and head up a winding road along the water that extends into Lake Skadar National Park. Soon we are cruising past old stone farmhouses and tiny vineyards that look like test plots compared to the vast expanses of grapes we're used to in Sonoma. Roadside stands, unattended in the off-season, display bottles of "wine," "honey," and something that could be oil, vinegar, or some type of Montenegrin love potion. 

At this point, only the addition of adorable puppies could make this place any cuter.

Suddenly, two bundles of fur tumble out of a bush along the road, eager to play. They pounce and wiggle and bow their noses to the pavement, darting in periodically for a soft lick. Matt assumes his usual dog-greeting position, scratching ears and tummies and offering a few “hey sweeeeties” while I attempt to capture the cuteness on camera. After a few minutes, we continue to ride, and the pups follow--determined to stick with their adoring new friends as long as possible.

The only problem: we're on a narrow road, between two towns, with occasional traffic that most certainly does *not* yield to cute puppies. Concerned, we let them follow us into the next town, hoping they'll return to the safety of their homes and live long, healthy puppy lives. 

Realizing we're almost halfway through our precious hour of exploration, we take a quick look around the “town”--which is really just a few vine-covered houses clustered around a stone memorial--and turn back up the hill towards Virpazar. We don’t see the puppies and agree it’s for the best--we couldn’t bear the thought of them being left out on the road again. As the drizzle turns to rain, we settle into the long, slow  climb separating us from our rental car. We note how good the moisture feels on our bodies, which are now heating up from the exertion.

We glance back. The puppies have spotted us, and are racing to catch up. 

“Gooooo!!!” Matt shouts. I know we have to bike faster than they can run, so they’ll stay close to home. Fighting our deeply seeded instincts to go towards adorable puppies and not away from them, we look straight ahead, lean over our handlebars, and start pedaling as fast as we can up the hill.

The puppies accelerate behind us, thrilled by the chase. 

We shift gears, put our heads down, and pedal harder. Matt is at least a full turn ahead of me, shouting back words of encouragement as if I was competing in a high-stakes triathlon (which is frankly what it feels like at this point). We round one turn after the next, each time hoping the puppies will lose sight of us and retreat to their warm, safe home. We stand up on our pedals for an extra boost. 

I sense my physical limit, gasping for air, and slow a bit. After a while I look back--no puppies!--relieved. After recovering from a wobbly pivot, I take a few deep breaths and pedal a few more times to be sure I've lost them. Then I look back again. 

There they are, rounding the corner like furry, miniature greyhounds with tails wagging and tongues flopping out, completely undeterred by the rain or our attempts to lose them. And... they’re gaining on us! The scene is simultaneously desperate and hilarious. 

I yell an update to Matt and resolve to lose those darn puppies once and for all. Imagining myself in full view of the triathlon finish line, I take a deep breath, collect my energy, and ride like never before....

Near the top of the hill, we look back, and have never been so happy to see cute puppies retreating from our field of view. 

Lessons: 1) Montenegrin puppies are cute; and 2) the next time I enter a triathlon, the thought of saving puppies by out-biking them will definitely make me ride faster. 

Monstermoon Dispatch #1: Bey-Jay, Man Purses, and Taciturn Turks

Unsurprisingly, we underestimated the impact of getting married, wrapping up work, and packing backpacks for four months of living on four continents in at least as many climates. We finished packing and without a moment to process, turned our place over to a kind couple from Minnesota and their dog Milo who will be filling in for Tulsa as chief couch warmer and house protector. We scrambled to a waiting Lyft and a waiting flight to Paris. On the plane, after a flurry of activity, we began to process the whirlwind that was our last month in SF. 

We are now 2 weeks into the trip and we are still processing things like: our wedding (verdict: a tornado of fun and friends); final work items (not as fun, but satisfying to wrap up); and the stark transition from real life to Monstermoon (which we'll give more airtime to in the pages of this very blog).

But, this is a travel blog. And, we don't have much time before our flight to Madrid from Turkey's Turquoise Coast, so a quick travel summary, with an anticlimactic Beyonce anecdote, is in order. 

The city of light... in the dark

We landed in Paris to a light rain and an AirBnb host who hadn't left the key at the restaurant downstairs as promised. Luckily, Carson's friends Celine and Renaud swooped us off to dinner and tracked down our hosts. 

Paris was just a stopover but thanks to friends Whitney, Matt, Bri, Carlos, and Mados, our second night in Paris was the classiest and tastiest of our trip. Huge thanks for the 9 course meal at Verjus! Haven't heard of Verjus? Imagine you are Beyonce and Jay-Z and your mom comes to town to watch Blue Ivy so you can sneak away to Paris for a night. Where do you get dinner? Verjus (click here).  Unfortunately Bey-Jay visited the night after we devoured hors de oeuvres in the same seats. 

In Paris, we invented a game to keep ourselves both occupied and observant of our surroundings. The game is a modified version of slug-a-bug (the game where you hit the person you are with if see a VW bug).  In each country, we pick a unique "thing" that seems like it will be rare, but not too rare that the game will be boring.... and  then we slug each other lovingly when we see it. 

In Paris we played slug-a-baguette whenever we saw a frenchman or woman fulfilling our Parisian stereotype by bustling somewhere with a baguette. A baguette with a bite out of it was worth two slugs. 

Your view from work, if you were an archer
for the city of Dubrovnik

From Paris we flew to Dubrovnik Croatia where there is an apparent national obsession with topiary which we slugged each other for as we biked around small islands in the Adriatic Sea. Topiary slugging lasted until we got to Montenegro and quickly identified the Montenegrin affection for the Murse. Montenegrins have a warlike reputation but that doesn't stop most men from proudly sporting man-purses which we slugged each other for in as warlike a manner as we could muster. 

From Montenegro we flew to Istanbul where we walked around bazaars, mosques, Turkish bath houses, random suburbs, just for fun. We played slug-a-ruin which caused a proliferation of slugging because the Romans, Greeks, and Ottomans loved building things so their distant descendants would have interesting decaying buildings to one day wander around. These descendants return on busses to photograph themselves in front ruins with iphones extended on little poles which we are calling selfie-sticks. Of course, we are also playing slug-a-selfie-stick.

From Istanbul, we flew to Fethiye on the Mediterranean for a 3 day Gulet trip. Gulet is the Turkish word for 'locally made slightly janky sailboat sailed by a taciturn Turkish man who refuses to use the sail and instead motors around and complains of the high cost of diesel." Basically, we went Yachting in the Turkish Agean Sea and it was amazing. 

From here on, expect more frequent blog updates as we walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

Walls'n water - Kotor, Montenegro

Frolicking with fall foliage - Montenegrin Mountains

Let me introduce myself, I'm a blog

Well how rude of us to not introduce our blog. 

This is a blog about life right now... as lived by two people wandering through that life with generally sunny dispositions, lots of questions, and maybe a few observations and concerns. Hopefully friends and family find this interesting enough to follow our random thoughts. 

If we had to guess, we'll wander through life stages that will include a wedding which we are calling a love party, a remodel, an extended honeymoon, and the things that come after. 

If we stay at it, we'll probably also address our love of all things rural, and the urban lives we live to be close to work, friends, tasty food, interesting people, good music, and most things urban. We might even touch on mountain adventuring, poverty and climate cause that's what we do during the day, and behavioral psychology cause that's fun also. Oh, and succulents, one of us looooves succulents. You'll definitely see some of those. Hope you enjoy. 

We are on twitter @thebrightnow where posts here will likely be tweeted if we can figure out how to use the social medias. Babe, anything else?