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!