Burning Man 2011

Burning Man thoughts:

The overarching impression is how inadequate any attempt to describe Burning Man is.  To try to explain what it's all about, why it's so awesome, why it's not so bad, why people go, why I want to go again; I know that I will fall far short of adequately conveying even a small part of this to anyone who hasn't been.  But, in the same spirit that took me to Burning Man despite my apprehension, here goes.

Radical self reliance, radical self expression.
Off the charts creativity (some of it at amazing expense).
Mind-boggling.
Cooler than I could ever have imagined, no where near as hard as I feared.
"Welcome home."
Generosity.
Gift economy.
Sunrise first day.
Feeling of participation due to French Maid Brigade parade.
Great weather: cool down, low wind but nice breezes, no rain.
Sand is way worse than dust.
CARCASS WASH!
Nighttime was like an anarchic Disney Parade of Lights (or a Parade of Lights on acid).
Wonderful lack of body consciousness.
Nudity inescapable (not really a problem).
Drug use not in your face.
Dubstep inescapable (boo).
Ear plugs an absolute necessity if you want to sleep.
Spray-on sunscreen rocks!
Plush fabric makes the dust more tolerable.
In terms of getting away from it all, like a shorter Grand trip where you don't have to know how to row.
At BM, you don't pick your experiences, your experiences pick you (ie, cede control).
I've never before willingly hugged so many strangers and near strangers.
Celebratory atmosphere at the Man burn.
Reverential atmosphere at the Temple burn.
Surprisingly emotional exodus.

During the weeks of preparation, a Burning Man veteran told me, "Don't be surprised if you hate it at first."  Thankfully, this was not my experience, perhaps because I was warned, perhaps because I purposefully went in with an open mind and a willing spirit.  Burning Man was so much cooler than I ever could have imagined and so much less difficult than I feared. Now, I will grant you that I was very lucky as a first-timer. The weather was the best that it's been in years; no day long dust storms, low wind but nice breezes, no rain (which turns the dust into mud), wonderfully cool at night.  Due to a wet spring, the playa surface was ideal, hard and smooth.  Due to my travel companions, I was invited to camp with an established theme camp so was able to rely on a group of highly experienced Burners to ease my entry.  Since I arrived late and left late, I avoided the 4, 5, 6+ hour long waits to enter and exit. In addition, my camp was set up when I got there so I was spared a lot of initial uncertainty and anxiety.

For the most part, at least among the people I saw and the places I went, there was an amazing lack of censure.  It is an exercise in self selection.  You're not going to go to Burning Man if you're not willing to be tolerant and because most everyone has arrived with this philosophy, there's an ease to the playa. There's also a communal aspect, people looking out for one another.  I stopped on the playa due to a problem with my bike and immediately, a roving bike mechanic materialized at my side.

The carcass wash.  What, you're wondering, is a carcass wash?  I've decided that the carcass wash was my favorite aspect of Burning Man, due in part to the fact that it was something specific to the French Maid Brigade camp and its neighborhood, our little awesome ritual.  One of the Maids brought a pressure washer.  When he felt the urge or received a request, he would fire it up and yells of "Carcass Wash!" would spread from our camp.  People would then materialize in the street in front of our camp in various states of undress to be treated to a shockingly cold and fantastically refreshing carcass wash, a fine spray of a shower as we all hopped and danced around.

Burning Man is 24 hours a day. The playa never sleeps. However, I got a reasonable amount of sleep, as a conscious choice to not try to cram everything in and because of ear plugs. The dubstep, an annoying thumping electronic music, was round the clock noise which would have made sleep elusive without ear plugs.

The dust was remarkably tolerable.  Granted, as I've already stated, we didn't have any real dust events.  But, as opposed to the grittiness of sand, the dust was much finer, a lot like talcum powder.  Given the choice between dust and sand, I choose dust.

A benefit of Burning Man for me was being forced to disconnect from my electronic connection to the outside world.  I've had a few vacations where I've had that experience, RAGBRAI, my Grand Canyon river trips.  At Burning Man , I had to unplug but I didn't have to ride my bike 60 miles a day or know how to row a raft.

Tickets go on sale January 18, 2012.

Sunday, 7/11/10, 9:34 a.m. Home

Damn Ambien.  I literally fell asleep trying to journal.  My last paragraph was positively nonsensical.  And messy.  Each time I fell asleep, the pend would hit the page and make a mess.

As I was saying, the Arrival Lounge was plush.  A valet led me to a private room with a shower, toilet and vanity, stocked with a robe, towels and luxurey toiletries.

Off to our SFO to LAX and LAX to ASE flights.  Interesting to note that both flight times were the same.  It doesn't seem like San Francisco is the same distance from LA as Aspen so I'm not sure what accounts for that.

Just so we really knew we were back in Aspen, Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy were at the airport to greet us.  Well, not really to greet us of course, but they were there.

Home. Ambien assisted sleep. Not sure if that counts.  Doesn't really feel like it right now.

Ah, jet lag . . .

Saturday, 7/10/10 9:09 p.m. Home

Today will have been a 37 hours day by the time midnight rolls around.

I got up before 6 a.m. and showered so that we could go out for a walk before we had to leave for the airport.  We walked over to the Forbidden City but since they're now charging to get into the courtyard, we opted to head across the street to Tiananmen Square.  There was a barricade across the closest entrance so we walked a bit further.  At 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, there were hordes of people already lining up to view Mao's body.

After wandering around the square for a bit, Suzannah headed back to the hotel around 7:15 a.m.  Since we weren't leaving until 9 and I was already pretty organized, I wandered some more, making my way down Qianmen Dajie where I bought myself two last pieces of fried dough for breakfast.

Back to the hotel to check out and catch a cab (more like a "car" a la New York or London, a black sedan with leather seats that the driver had to dress up in its taxi paraphenalia for the airport trip).  Luxury hotel to luxury cab to business class treatment at the airport doesn't suck.

Met up with Susie and had breakfast with her at Starbucks.  Headed through security where they felt the need to empty my purse (but I didn't have to take off my shoes) and on to the gate where we waited until boarding and then went our separate ways.

Business class was plush and the 11 hour flight went quickly what with all the video selections.  I watched The Bounty Hunter, Valentine's Day, The Last Song (in honor of Rachel), The Art of the Steal and an episode of Nurse Jackie.

3 meals and 11 hours later, we sped through passport control and customs.  They even had adequate agents although one guy did give Suzannah the third degree because it appeared that she didn't have any luggage.

Since Suzannah was trying to get on my flight from San Francisco to LA (the reason her luggage had been checked on my ticket and the customs agent grilled her), we headed down to the Arrival Lounge where we had a valet lead us to private shower . . .

(Ambien addled, I was totally unable to complete this journal entry)

Friday, 7/9/10 10:45 p.m. Raffles Beijing Rm 7701

The Forbidden City ticket lines were a completely ridiculous zoo and combined with the heat really took it out of us.  We were also very disappointed to discover that they had replaced the excellent Roger Moore narrated audio guide with the totalitarian guide like the one we disliked so much at the Summer Palace.

So we did a bit of the quickie tour of the Forbidden City.  Too many people, too much heat. 

We did get all the way from the south end to the north end and I showed Suzannah my favorite part, the Imperial Gardens.  

We took cab (which we prevailed upon to stop illegally at the north gate) to the Temple of Heaven Park where I finally got to see the iconic Temple of Heaven

and we got a bit of peaceful park time.

A subway ride to the Silk Market where we did some damage and came away with some goodies.  We were surprised to come out of the subway to a downpour so came back to the hotel to shower and figure out dinner.  We decided to go to the Nihuge Jaoza place recommended by Lonely Planet which ended up being an excellent choice.  A walk in the rain down Wangfujing meant we accomplished all of our goals for the day, then back to the hotel to pack.

Hopefully up for a walk tomorrow am before we head off to the airport.

Friday, 7/9/10 9:24 a.m. Raffles Hotel Beijing, Rm 7701

Woke up at 6:30 a.m. after going to bed at midnite but due to adventurous day anxiety, couldn't sleep anymore.  Got showered, packed, breakfast and checked out, then headed to the train station.  We left our luggage at the Sheraton and took the subway to the train station.  The subway took an hour and a half, the train took a half hour.

Once in Suzhou, we headed directly to the Garden of the Master of the Nets which was superb.  I found out after we got there that it's considered the smallest but the best.  The central courtyard garden with its large pond was quintessential Chinese garden.  

We got a bit lost on our way out of the Garden of the Master of the Nets and in wandering through the alleyways, we stumbled upon a non-tourist jade market with huge pieces of jade spread out on blankets on the ground amidst tens of little shops with jewelers cutting and shaping the jade.  Very serendipitous.

We then headed to the Blue Wave Pavilion which is the oldest.  It too was beautiful with a more wild, natural feeling.  Next, we went in search of the canal scene and lucking into Pingjiang Lu.  A lovely walk along the cana with a stop at the Bookworm and then a cab back to our business class seats on the express train to Shanghai.

Once back in Shanghai, we tried to have dinner at Zen on Xin Tian Di but ran out of time so had to leave the restaurant and get a baguette sandwich at Paul.  Back to the hotel to collect our belongings and then to the Shanghai train station for our soft sleeper train to Beijing.

Once on the train, we found a number of English speaking Chinese and spent almost two hours chatting and asking and answering questions.  It was very interesting.   One young man in particular was very curious, asking a lot of probing questions on subjects ragning from family to politics, religion, movies, sex, travel, career . . .

Got up this a.m. just as the train pulled into the Beijing station, long line for a cab, long cab ride (time not so much distance) to the hotel, then a quite personalized check in experience.  We were greeted at the door, our luggage was whisked away from us and we were asked to take a seat at a cafe table.  The very proper Chinese gentleman apologized for troubling us for our passports and my credit card, then left us with some plum juice while he went to the desk to handle all the check in paperwork.  He then personally showed us to our room along with a bellman with our luggage.  It felt a bit like we had an entourage.

Now shower and out to hopefully see the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Wangfujing and the Silk Market.  We may be being a bit ambitious. 

Wednesday, 7/7/10 11:19 p.m. Sheraton . . .

Trying to watch the Germany/Spain semi-final but for some reason, CCTV is showing us Germany/England.  Huh?

Got up early this morning and took the subway to People's Square where we walked up the Nanjing Pedestrian Street and saw the Chinese early morning ballroom dancing and tai chi.  We continued on to the Bund where we were unable to see the interior of the Peace Hotel because it is still under renovation construction.  We walked along the river for a bit and Susie left us to come back to the hotel and shower before catching her train to Jinan.  Suzannah and I then walked up Fuzhou to check out the art supply stores and Foreign Languages Bookstore.  

Next, to the Shanghai Museum where we stopped at the cafe for beef fried rice and curry chicken before continuing on to the bronze, jade and ceramics exhibits.  A bit of shopping at the museum store and then on to the French Concession.  

We started a Lonely Planet walking tour and were immediately rewarded with the Xin Tian Di shopping district, a less than 10 year old renovation of shikumen in the long tang.  Wonderful examples of European exteriors repurposed to cafes and stores with an excellent little museum showing the neighborhood changes and preservation work.

We bailed on the remainder of the walking tour due to the heat, arriving back at the hotel around 5 pm with time to lounge a bit before dinner at 1221 again.

Lightning did not strike twice.  While the food tonight was good and well prepared, it did not measure up to last night's stellar choices.  The service, while still friendly and professional, was quite a bit slower.

After dinner, we headed back to Xin Tian Di to check out the after-dark scene which was quite a bit more crowded, buy breakfast for tomorrow at Paul, and then back to the hotel to check out the train schedule to Suzhou for tomorrow's adventures.

We're going to try to get up early, get a train to Suzhou and back, do some sightseeing, get back to the hotel to gather our belongings, and get to a different train station to catch our 9:30 p.m. train to Beijing.  It should be quite a day if everything goes well.  It could be quite a disaster if everything doesn't.

We'll plan on the former . . .

Shanghai at night is amazingly colorful with LED light shows on the buildings and bridges.  Creates quite a sense of vibrancy.

Tuesday, 7/6/10 11:59 p.m. Sheraton Hotel . . .

Got up rather leisurely this a.m., had breakfast which we had purchased at Bread Talk yesterday, then Suzannah and I went in search of the Maglev train while Susie went in search of train tickets.  The Maglev was fun, traveling in VIP class and going 431 km/hr (268 miles/hr).  We checked out the Shanghai airport (which is where the Maglev train goes) and then after our return trip, the small information museum.  

Back to the hotel to meet Susie, lunch at Costa Coffee and then a few hours at the Expo.  In contrast to yesterday's cooler but steamy rainy day, today was sunny and hot, moderated some (very little) by wind.  We found out that China is in the midst of a heat wave, Beijing having broken a 50 year record high temp yesterday.

Took the ferry across the river which wasn't nearly the cluster I feared, walked thru the commercial corporate zone and then to the metro so we could get back to get ready for dinner at 1221, The Dining Room.  Very, very good.  So good in fact that Suzannah and I will head back tomorrow with the constraint that we're not allowed to order anything we ordered today.  

After 1221, we took a cab to Cloud Nine, the bar on the 87th floor above the Grand Hyatt whose lobby is on the 54th floor.

Tomorrow Susie leaves at noon so we'll go out early to do some sightseeing with her.

It is amazing how much you (I) lose your filter when no one around you but your companions understands what you're saying.  A bit trickier in Shanghai where it's harder to know but in Beijing, Pingyao and Jinan, very few people spoke English so were could commentate virtually unedited.  And the various difficulties gave us much to editorialize about.

Also interesting is the fascination with us.  We are often (less in Shanghai) the subject of open stares and the subject of photos and videos.  The teenagers will ask if they can have their pictures taken with us.  They're rather shy when they ask and very excited when we say yes.  Jinan, which sees the fewest foreigners, was the place where we saw this constantly but it happened everywhere. 

Monday, 7/5/10 11:15 p.m. Sheraton Shanghai Hotel, Pudong, Rm 2957

Uneventful night on the train.  We couldn't find the ticket windows at the Shanghai train station when we arrived this morning so we headed to the Sheraton where we checked into a very civilized room on the 29th floor.  Suzannah and I were able to get soft sleeper tickets to Beijing on the overnight train on Thursday but Susie is having trouble getting transport back to Jinan.  Suzannah and I booked another night here so we'll leave here to go straight to the Raffles Hotel in Beijing.

After breakfast at the Costa Coffee down the street, we headed to the Expo.  It was overcast and steamy when we got there at almost noon but it cooled off and rained so was tolerable.  The Expo site is quite impressive and we went into more pavilions than I can list right now (I'll have to check my photos).  The best was far and away the UK pavilion, the Seed Cathedral (see photo above), but we paid for it with an almost 2 hour wait in line (see photo below).  

We had Italian food for lunch at a Bricco Cafe and Indonesian food for dinner at the Ekna Cafe.  The lights at the Expo after dark were spectacular and the China Pavilion is almost perfect, marred only by a too large wall around its base.

After yet another sketchy cab ride, we're back in our plush digs.  

Tomorrow, Susie chases down a bus ticket, Suzannah and I seek out the Maglev train and then, heat permitting, we head back to the Expo.  Plans tomorrow evening include a nice dinner out.

Sunday, 7/4/10 10:39 p.m. Hard sleeper, bottom bunk, Cabin 11 of Car 12, overnight train from Jinan to Shanghai

When we woke up this morning in Susie's apartment, we thought we'd be going to bed there again tonight but after our near miss with the standing room only train from Pingyao to Jinan, we were a bit gun shy about purchasing train tickets so we went out to a local business hotel to try.  After first telling us no tickets to Shanghai were available, the "travel agent" called and was able to procure us three tickets for tonight's train.  Since our hotel reservations were already made for tomorrow and Tuesday, we jumped at them.  And so we are traveling once again.

Before we went in search of train tickets, we set out in search of breakfast.  Our first choice, the place with the good rolls, was closed but afforded us a trip through the market.  Instead, we got a watermelon, fried bread and onion pancakes, all of which were delicious.

We got in some internet time and laundry while we were waiting for the train tickets.  We also squeezed in a very successful trip to the KT Mart where I got a memory card (the 8 gb card I brought from home not being formatted for my camera) and a gift for Steve and Susie and Suzannah got parasols.  We also got to check out the grocery store which I love to do when traveling in foreign countries.

This afternoon we went to Batou Springs, a beautiful park adjacent to the town center with streams and temples.  An ATM stop at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and a cab ride back to Susie's, we then showered and packed to leave.  I had a scare with traveler's diarrhea but am thinking it was just the onions not agreeing with me.  (fingers crossed.)

We then headed to dinner with Grace, one of Susie's students.  She got a chance to practice her English and we got assistance in ordering some unbelievably delicious carmelized eggplant, cucumber dumplings and tomato dumplings.

After an adventurous cab ride (really 2 cab rides because we bailed on the first one) to the train station and getting kicked out of the soft seat waiting room, we are now comfortably (more or less) ensconced on the train until 6 am tomorrow.

Cabs in China are quite the crap shoot.  Some are nice, clean, air-conditioned, professional.  Some are grimy, grubby, hot scams.  When one stops for you, you never really know what you're going to get.  But at least we've only had one so far refuse to take us unlike last time in China when we had six in one day in Beijing refuse us.

By far the most exciting moment of the day was when I decided to check the price of an upscale hotel in Beijing and ended up booking us a room at the 5 star Raffles Hotel.  I'm very excited to spen our last night in Beijing in style.

Our thought now is to stay in Shanghai through Wednesday night and take the overnight train to Beijing on Thursday night.  We'll see if we can get an extra night at the Sheraton and if we can get train tickets for Thursday.  Nothing's ever certain in China . . .

Saturday, 7/3/10 11:30 p.m. Shandong University of Science & Technology, Jinan

Whew!  We made it.  We didn't take the train but instead took a 2 hour mini bus from Pingyao to Taiyuan and then a 7 hours Greyhound type bus to Jinan.  It was fine and I really enjoyed the countryside but the trip was marred by the guy across the aisle from Suzannah who threw up twice, once before we even left the city.

We got up and wandered around Pingyao a bit, getting breakfast from a street vendor (some sort of corn pancakes)

and taking in the Lu Lutang residence and the temple before getting a cab at 10 a.m. to the bus station.

Drivers here in China are crazy.  This bus driver was whipping the bus around, changing lanes, driving on the shoulders.  Red lights are advisory.  Pedestrians, bicyclists, scooters, cars, trucks, buses all just willy nilly go where they want.  If you're making a left turn, you do it from any lane and you just nose out and block traffic.  Honking as often announces your intentions as expresses your impatience.  But so far we've only seen one accident . . .

Friday, 7/2/10 9:22 p.m. Zheng Jia Hotel, Rm 109, Pingyao

The overnight train was tolerable.  The 5 other people in my berth were nice enough as far as I could tell (we couldn't converse but one helped me lift my suitcase to stow it).  The bunk was quite high and was close enough to the ceiling that I couldn't sit up.  I wore my earbuds and listened to my iPod all night so the snoring wasn't too bad.  I slept fitfully but did get a fair amount.

It was pretty sunny in Pingyao which made for a very hot day.  Pingyao is a remarkably old historic city only slightly marred by the tacky souvenir stands lining its streets.  There are many museums set in old buildings which start to get repetitious especially in the heat.  We walked around a bit, had lunch (once we found it) at the Lonely Planet recommended Big Noodle Bowl (Dawan Mian)

and then I had to come back to the cool to lay down.  Damn hot flashes.  Went back out for a little in the late afternoon, then back for more laying down.  Had dinner at another Lonely Planet recommended restaurant, De Ju Yuan.

Tomorrow we have a change in traveling plans.  We were to take another overnight train, this time to Jinan but all that was available was standing room.  We did buy tickets for that but in searching for other options, found that we could take a 7 hour bus so that's what we're going to try to do. 

Fingers crossed.