The rest of the week flew by, I couldn’t believe it. After the Wednesday bar crawl, we saw less of our VICE friends but hung out with Matt and a bunch of fellow Big Girthians at their various camps many times. We had a couple of more chill art exploration nights, and a couple of good long nights of dancing and excitement till after sunrise. It was a great mix with minimal stress. If only every year could be like that!
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The part of my Burning Man I spent the most time preparing for by far was the Burning Man Ultramarathon. I had run the race six times before, so I knew I could finish it without dying. But I knew from past years my training rigor correlated strongly with how painful the race would be, and how long it would take me to recover. There’s little sense in putting in all the effort of getting to Burning Man only to spend several days of it barely able to move — though it would still be worth it if that were the only option!
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We had a pretty chill Sunday and Monday as I mentally prepared for the race. We climbed a scary tower, then a less scary tower. We magically ran into Rob and Omar in deep playa, and then made a bunch of friends at a camp called VICE. The week was off to a great start!
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Alan and I made the journey to return Burning Man this year. We were prepared for a low key year in open camping, but it turned out wonderfully! We happened upon Rob in deep playa the first day, leading to a bunch of plans and connections right off the bat. We hung out at VICE and made many friends whom we’d see throughout the week. And I ran my fastest 50K and wasn’t dead afterward.
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At the start of this trip almost month prior, it felt like there was so much time ahead. I couldn’t believe only a few days had passed and we had done so much. It was so refreshing to be traveling again, and getting to know Patton on a’ whole ‘nother level was great. Returning to Japan briefly on our way back from Vietnam was a somewhat hectic but actually very rewarding conclusion to our trip. The juxtaposition of the two countries made me better appreciate Japan’s development but also Vietnam’s freewheeling excitement.
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We spent 2 nights in Hanoi and went on one day drip. Unfortunately I am running out of steam posting all these blogs from the trip, so this is going to be mostly photos!
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During our few days in Hanoi, we went on a day tour to the Ninh Binh area about two hours north of the city. I continue to be amazed in the amount of stuff these companies can pack into a day for less than $50 all included. It was a pretty fun trip and included a very nice hour-long boat tour through some interesting caves.
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The time on this trip has been flying recently. We finished our last few days in Saigon by getting me a tattoo, getting some art for Patton’s friend, and going to a big gay party. It was a great time, and then I was sad to be leaving Saigon come Sunday morning!
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Tuesday was a chill day, in which I ran 16 miles and then Patton and I got dinner with David. Wednesday we did another tour, this time a half day one to the Cu Chi tunnels north of Ho Chi Minh City. We ended up with the same guide, Jack, somewhat by design. Then we got dinner with him and said goodbye!
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Monday we went to the Mekong Delta with a tour group. We got to explore a bit the region called My Tho, including a well known Buddhist temple site called Vinh Trang. We took several boat rides, including one on a small boat called a sampan down a canal through some coconut trees. It was a pretty nice excursion!
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We planned to spend about a week in Saigon staying with Patton’s cousin David, who graciously let us use his guest room. In our first couple of days, we had dinner with more than a dozen of their relatives, went out to Bui Vien Walking Street and a nearby gay bar and then explored some shopping and downtown areas.
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Having spent 10 days in Japan, Patton and I left Osaka and embarked on our Vietnam adventure. I last entered the country 10 years ago. I loved my time there and was excited to see more cities there, and to hear my friend Patton speak Vietnamese! Our first stop was in the southern island of Phú Quốc. We spent three nights there.
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On a similar note as last time, we’re again leaving with the sense of having seen so much but barely scratching the surface. We spent our last day in Osaka taking a day trip over to Kobe to try the famous beef. We also tried to check out another festival at a nearby shrine, but it ended up being misinformation! But that concludes this segment of our trip in Japan. Now Vietnam awaits!
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There is so much more to do in Kyoto, but yesterday was our last day there, and we spent Monday checking out a few areas of Osaka. We started with Osaka Castle right across from our hotel. Then we went to two temples, Shitenno-ji and Isshin-ji, before going down to Shinsekai and back up to the Kita district, where we ended at some gay bars.
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Yesterday was an adventure of several cities including Nara and Uji. Today we planned to check out Nanzenji and area temples, but it turned into a different kind of adventure, as we trekked from Kyoto to the neighboring Shiga Prefecture and Lake Biwa mostly by foot.
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After our day at Arashiyama, we spent July 27 exploring several cities along the Nara line: Nara itself, where we played with deer and visited a large temple; Uji, famous for matcha; and another famous place called Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto. We could have easily spent a full day or more at each place!
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Back in Kyoto after the Osaka Tenjin Matsuri, we planned to spend the day checking out Arashiyama, a mountain area famous for its bamboo forest.
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The day after the Kyoto Gion Matsuri, Patton and I traveled to Osaka for another festival, the Tenjin Matsuri, and to meet up with my friend Chakib, who is from France but who lived in Japan when I did in 2014. Getting to Osaka from Kyoto takes about 30 minutes by train. Man do I love that about Japan.
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Patton and I left Tokyo July 24 and went to Kyoto, where we stayed about five days aside from a side trip to Osaka. We happened to be in Kyoto for Gion Matsuri, one of many festivals around Japan during these months. Then I did my first training run in Kyoto the next morning before we departed for Osaka for the evening.
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I just came back from a refreshingly packed trip abroad with my friend Patton. We visited several cities each in Japan and Vietnam. I took way too many photos, and given Burning Man is less than a week away now, I’ll post these entries as quickly as I can but likely won’t finish until September. This first one covers Tokyo, the city in which I lived for a year back in 2014, and didn’t realize how much I missed.
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I squeezed in another backpacking trip, again with Andrew and Ruffie. Having one less night than our three at Lake Aloha last month and even less time to reserve permits, we decided Thursday to check out a place not requiring reservations and settled on Gianelli Trail in the Stanislaus National Forest. We visited several lakes and hiked about 18.5 miles and 3800 feet of elevation across two days. I also got to experience locking my keys in my car for the first time, in a remote location. It was a great weekend!
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Yesterday I did a fairly long run in downtown and west Oakland past some slightly taller buildings than in my first set of GPS comparison tests last month. I’m glad I had the Garmin 67i for this one, not only because its track logs were the cleanest overall, but because both my Fitbit Charge 6 and Pixel 6 Pro Runkeeper app had problems preventing me from having a complete tracklog. At least this put me over 55 percent completion for Oakland for my running every street project!
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I recently picked up a Garmin GPSMAP 67i off eBay to compare the GPS accuracy to that of my phone and my Fitbit Charge 6. Long story short, the results have been so wonderful I will henceforth carry an extra device heavier than my phone on every run and hike.
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In a massive improvement to my time between backpacking trips, I managed another just nine months after going to Deafy Glade in Mendocino. This time Ruffie and I went with our friend Andrew to Lake Aloha in the Desolation Wilderness in the Sierras. We spent three nights, enough time for strenuous hikes, changes of plans, plenty of relaxation and even some animal food theft. I hiked 23 miles and 4,100 feet of elevation across four days.
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This week Monday I went back to Yosemite for a night, with Beam, Natt and Chris. It was a quick trip, but we got one good 10 mile day hike in, up 3700 feet to Glacier Point. I saw my first rattlesnake, a few other creatures, and many beautiful views. I definitely need to get back and do some more hikes!
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Sunday was our last opportunity for a hike while Vera was staying with us for a couple of weeks. Alan suggested Berkeley, so I made a plan to hike up to Wildcat Peak and also to check out an old missile launch site in the Berkeley Hills. Because we hiked near there with Remi before, I didn’t think to confirm whether dogs were allowed. Needless to say, we found “No dogs” signs upon entering Tilden Nature Preserve, which is the subset of Tilden Regional Park we hoped to hike through. We thus diverted back to the Meadows Canyon Trail we hiked a year or two before with Ricky, and had a fine time. I attempted to take some photos of plants while we were there. I need to practice more.
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In an effort to make the best use of my fairly small master bedroom, I designed and built a king size loft bed. It was a few months in the making and took far longer to build and puzzle together than I expected, but I’m glad I did it. The original need was to accommodate two dog crates underneath, and while I was at it I wanted to make space for a small couch to allow for a few more people to watch a movie if the opportunity arises. Maybe some day there will be space for media viewing in the living room, but right now it is full of plants!
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