After the Cal game this past weekend, I took off for a quick two night trip to Monterey and Big Sur. I went to the former to see my sister run the Big Sur Half Marathon and to the latter because I had never been there. I figured I’d take my camera and shoot some photos along the way as well.
Driveway
Highway One
Bridge at Sunset
Last Saturday was the last night game that will be played in the old Memorial Stadium. After this season, the stadium will be renovated for earthquake safety and to create a new and competitive student athlete center. Next season the Bears will play at AT&T park in San Francisco, home of the World Champion Giants before returning to a renovated Memorial Stadium in 2012.
Unfortunately for us, our last night game was against number 1 Oregon. Though we didn’t win, we came really close, losing 13 – 15, which was a spectacular game for Cal’s defense. I used the opportunity to take a couple pictures with my new camera.
The last night game at the original Memorial Stadium.
This coming Saturday is the 113th Big Game at Cal. Cal has held the Axe for 2 years straight, and 7 out of the last 8 years. So far, for every Big Game I’ve gone to and every Big Game that Dean has been at Stanfurd during, Cal has won. The one year I didn’t attend (I was in India) and Dean wasn’t attending Stanfurd, Cal lost (2007). In other words, Cal is about to upset #8 Stanfurd.
The last night game at the original Memorial Stadium.
As far as my pictures I took with my camera, I have been extremely impressed with the Nikon D7000′s very high dynamic range. All the pictures here are untouched JPEGs, straight from the camera (Aperture can’t yet process the D7000′s RAW images – plus I don’t feel like storing hundreds of 20MB image files).
Cal vs. Oregon
I also just got back from a trip to Big Sur, and will be posting the pictures from that trip with the D7000 soon as well.
I’ve been wanting to go to Death Valley National Park for some time. After passing on an opportunity earlier this year during the summer, when the temperature in the park never reaches below 100°, I opted to wait. After my Yosemite Trip, I drove straight to Death Valley where the daily high was a much nicer mid 80′s. Here are some of the pictures I took while there.
Sunset Lit Clouds
I just got back from a great trip to Yosemite Valley with family and friends. I also used the occasion to take some pictures while there.
Tunnel Light
Yosemite Fall Leaves
Under Vernal Falls
See all the pictures in the Yosemite Fall 2010 set.
I had the good fortune to be in Ubud during a day when the Hindu holy men read that it was a “good day.” Why? Well, on the days deemed good and holy, people can be cremated with Bali Hindu ceremony. And luckily, there were some dead people that needed burnin’.
To the Hindu of Bali (and probably other Hindu, I’m just ignorant of them), the body is a shell for the soul and upon death, must be cremated in an elaborate ceremony befitting the ancestral spirit. The whole community can get involved depending on the significance of the person creating a spectacular event where hundreds or thousands of people are involved.
Funeral Procession
The body of the deceased is kept in the home until it is to be cremated, on a day that the holy men read is to be holy. Then, the body is carried in a tall, intricately detailed, golden multi-tiered pyre made of bamboo and covered in paper, tinsel, silk, cloth, mirrors and flowers. The pyre is carried by a ton of men (I’d guess at least a hundred in the example I saw) on a bamboo structure to the cemetery in a procession.
The day manager at Khrisna Guesthouse, Nyoman, had recommended that I go to see a traditional Balinese dance while in Ubud. The most popular one, and one that is actually pretty traditional, and the one Nyoman recommended, is the Kecak dance. It takes place in temples, after sunset and involves a group of men and boys who act as the musical instrument and choir during the performance. They sit in a circle around a big candela and make a chak-a-chak-a-chak noise in unison and separately, sometimes quiet and sometimes much louder, supposedly imitating a group of monkeys (monkeys also plays a valuable role in the story).
Kecak Dance
There are three parts to the dance, with the first part’s story being pretty familiar to me. At least one of my sisters (I can’t remember if both of them), used to watch the movie A Little Princess all the time when she/they were younger. So I’ve also seen it more than once, enough times that I can remember most of the story. Well, the girl was in India, and so recounts the famous Hindu epic, Ramayana; the story of how Princess Sita is kidnapped and then Prince Rama must free her with the help of a monkey general and his monkey soldiers (for some reason I’m picturing the people in the story as being blue). Anyways, knowing the story definitely helped for me to know what was going on in the show since there is only dancing and the “choir” making noises.
On my second day in Ubud, I actually set an alarm to make sure I woke up early. I wanted to head to the local market early, when the locals were in full force, when they were selling vegetables, fruit and meat, before they switched to Bintang shirts and handicrafts of dubious quality. In other words, get there when no other tourists were there.
Fresh Eggs
I got to the market by 6:15 and it was packed with vendors selling chickens, crates of eggs, vegetables I’d never seen before, all kinds of fruit and raw spices, flowers for offerings as well as fresh and dried fish. In Balinese spice recipes, there are almost always four roots that are used: turmeric (it looks weird in it’s root form – kind of like ginger), ginger, lesser galangal and greater galangal. I’ve never heard of galangal before, but it’s a root in the ginger family. The lesser and greater varieties definitely taste different too.
Arriving in Ubud was definitely a surprise. After taking backroads through towns, villages and cities, I was caught off guard when I got to a sign that welcomed me to Ubud. I thought I still had several more kilometers to go. I should have known however, as I kept passing tons of artist and woodcrafter shops. That should have been my first clue I was closer than I thought.
Rain in Ubud
Once there, I sought out a place to stay. Based on someone I know who previously stayed in Ubud, I went first to the Khrisna Guesthouse (sometimes referred to as the Krisna Guesthouse as well). They only had one room (out of six) available for one night. It was more than I’m used to spending, close to $20 USD / night, but I decided to splurge. They did have hot water. I mean, taking a hot shower every once in a while has got to be worth a little extra money, right?
Instead of waiting to leave at 8am for Tulamben from Lovina, I decided to get up before sunrise and start off early, catching some good light along the way. I left my hotel before 6am and started East. After catching the sunrise along coastal rice paddies, I took a quick trip inland to see the Git Git waterfalls. I arrived there before 7am, which meant that I was also there before any locals came to set up their tourist trap stands or even the people selling and collecting tickets. I made the 400m walk to the falls in peace and silence, which has to be a completely different experience than later in the day when droves of tourists in busses and “transport” services arrive.
Random Spot Along the Road
The road between Lovina and Tulamben proved to be more rough than my previous treks, which I’m attributing to the fact that no tourists travel that route. I think that most people get to Tulamben from the East coast, instead of coming East across the North shore. In any case, I enjoyed the ride, arriving in time to shop around at dive shops before finding a great deal and a one-on-one dive with a divemaster.
With the ride to Lovina going quickly, my accomodations setup and a dive trip planned, I explored the town a bit.
I was actually quite turned off by the town. Though it was in a beautiful setting, I found the locals who were selling to be especially aggressive. For example, while going from place to place to find a hotel to stay at, people who worked for other hotels would follow me around on their bikes, waiting for me to leave the one I was currently checking out to try and get me to follow them to their hotel. That really bothered me, and prevented me from staying at two hotels. Though I did cave and go with the dive company that displayed the same tactics.
Lovina Sunset
After talking with an owner, I found that Lovina was coming off the end of it’s high season. The high season is July and August, when students aren’t in school and people are traveling from Europe for the summer. I can’t imagine what I’d be like in February or March. I will say that the area has great sunsets.
