Monk in Bangkok, Thailand

Right down the road from where we lived in Hua Hin, Thailand

Beach in Hua Hin, Thailand

Street vendor, Hua Hin, Thailand

Morning prayer on Hua Hin beach

Reclining Buddha, Bangkok

Tuk Tuks in Hua Hin

Mmm....street food...

The day's catch, Hua Hin

Peter

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As I sit cross-legged on the hard wood floor of Taksu’s luxury yoga studio in Ubud, Bali, I’m trying my best to decipher the rambling of our scraggly-bearded and long-winded Balinese meditation teacher. I dare not meet his gaze as he scans the group for a confirmation that we are following his long-derailed train of thought.

“Kundalini is God. Buddha is God. Jesus is God. The earth is God. The sky is God. [...] You IS God…”, he finally says as his eyes widen, and he pauses for dramatic effect.

To my left, I notice Marina is fidgeting around; apparently the red ants have made their way to her as well.

After what seems like an eternity of non-sequiturs in broken English, punctuated only by rolling R’s, we are no closer to understanding anything about Kundalini mediation, the topic of our session.

This is certainly not what I had envisioned when I set out to learn to meditate in Indonesia’s most popular island, Bali. In “Eat, Pray, Love”, Julia Roberts’ character seemed to have no difficulty finding a Balinese healer and wise man.

So why were we having such difficulty?

Just last night, my taxi got lost in Ubud’s dark streets while trying to find a temple that offers a once a week free group meditation.

And now this nonsense?

Perhaps finally sensing our incomprehension, or more palatably our boredom, our Balinese ‘priest and healer’ announces: “Now we will begin Kundalini meditation.”

What follows is a confusing mixture of ill-timed breathing exercises, some talk of chakras, something to do with colours, and a lot of ant bites.

And to end off our session, our instructor yells “I love you bodiee!!!” as he enthusiastically hugs himself.

Feeling defeated in my mission to learn to meditate in one of the most magical places I’ve ever visited, Marina and I head out for a walk through Ubud’s rice terraces. The scenery is stunning, and yet I can’t stop thinking about our missed opportunity.

As we walk back into town on one of Ubud’s many cobbled stone streets, we pass a large temple on our right.

Suddenly, something forces me to stop in my tracks and turn around.

I can’t believe it.

“Marina! I found it! I found White Lotus!”

…

(4 days later)

For the first time in my life, my mind is silent, free of thoughts.

Although it lasts for only a second, the experience is remarkable.

Slowly, the clear blue sky that was my mind during that moment again starts being invaded by clouds of thought.

However, like being in a movie theatre, where I watch various thoughts come into focus on the screen, I remain an observer. Rather than reacting to each passing thought, I can acknowledge it, briefly evaluate it, and if I choose to, gently push it away from consciousness.

It is just as Sandeh said it would be.

Just a few days ago, I had no idea how I would ever be able to silence the incessant thoughts constantly nagging for my attention.

As I slowly open my eyes, I become aware of our environment.

Marina is sitting to my left. Her legs are crossed, her hands rest on her thighs, and her eyes remain closed; she has yet to come out of her meditation.

Sitting across from us is Sandeh, our private meditation teacher and the owner of the White Lotus. She sits quietly, meditating as the rays of the setting sun pierce her long silver hair, giving her an otherworldly appearance.

The three of us are seated on cushions in the octagonal, open-air, roof-top, meditation studio, designed by Sandeh herself. Above the tall palm trees, the sky is painted with broad, overlapping strokes of orange, red and purple. To the northeast, the peak of a volcano is visible above the tree line. The smell of burning incense permeates the air, as distant sounds of traditional Balinese music come and go with the passing breeze.

This moment would make Elizabeth Gilbert jealous.

As I wait for Marina and Sandeh to come out of their meditation, I realized we found everything we wanted and so much more in Ubud.

In a way it’s almost comical: a Polish-Canadian and Russian-Canadian learning to meditate from an Italian-German in Bali.

And yet, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Meditating at the White Lotus in Ubud

You see, before we flew to Bali, I searched online to find the perfect place to learn to meditate. After some digging, I found a few reviews on Tripadvisor of a place called White Lotus, which sounded ideal: a small, unique place that taught meditation without invoking too much voodoo and discussion of spirituality. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I looked, I could not locate any contact information for this place: no email, no phone number, and not even an address. All I knew was that it was near the path towards the rice terraces and was owned by a woman named Sandeh. After several passes to and from the rice terraces without a sight of the White Lotus, I had nearly forgotten about it.

But thanks to my random discovery of a nearly invisible “White Lotus” sign a few days ago, we finally found what we were after.

When I later inquired about Sandeh’s motivation for keeping the White Lotus so elusive, she replied with a smile, “The right people always manage to find me.”

Our time with Sandeh at the White Lotus was easily the highlight of 4 months of traveling through SE Asia. And don’t get me wrong, we had a phenomenal time and met many wonderful people everywhere we went.

But there was simply something magical about that place that I am unable to articulate.

Every morning, after being gently woken by the warm sun, we would slide open our glass doors and walk out onto our private veranda overlooking a garden and koi pond directly below, and rice terraces in the distance.

After a healthy and inexpensive breakfast of fresh fruit juice, and a bowl of granola, yogurt, fresh fruit, and honey at a nearby restaurant, Marina would head out on the town to snap some pictures, while I went back to the White Lotus to read about and practice meditating in the garden.

Around 6 in the evening, Marina and I would head up to the rooftop to meet Sandeh for our nightly meditation lesson. On each occasion, Sandeh would guide us through another form of meditation.

At night, we would climb into our comfy bed, and fall asleep to the sounds of the waterfall just beyond the edge of White Lotus’ garden.

On our last night, after completing our final meditation, the three of us remained seated talking on the rooftop long after the sun had set. That conversation we shared under the starry Balinese sky remains my fondest memory of Bali, and one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Late that night, the three of us exchanged hugs, as our eyes filled with tears.

Through some stroke of luck we made a connection with a kindred spirit who understood us completely. Possibly more so than anyone else ever has. And yet, Sandeh was a complete stranger just days ago.

“You’ll be back in Bali. I just have a feeling.”

Those were Sandeh’s last words to us, before we headed off to bed.

Somehow, I think she may have been right.

Peter

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On the suggestion of our Cambodian friend, Long, we’ve come to see Cambodia’s version of Muai Thai boxing, named Pradal Serey. Although the former style is more popular around the world thanks to the UFC, from what I can gather the Khmers’ (people of Cambodia) style of fighting was actually a precursor to Thailand’s Muay Thai.

The crowd surrounding the ring is substantial; on the periphery numerous locals are seated on their mopeds, in the middle layer hundreds of locals stand together, and finally an inner circle of seated spectators encircle the ring.

The crowd surrounding the ring (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

Since we are late, and the fights have already started, I presume we’ll be viewing from a distance.

Instead, we all follow Long as he pushes through the crowd, and points to the only row of empty seats, directly next to the ring.

We all sit, and immediately become transfixed by the swift kicks, punches, knees and elbows of the Cambodians duking it out. The sound of the traditional fighting music played by a band of cross-legged men provides an eerie melody but sets the tempo for the movement of the fighters.

It is almost as they are dancing to the music; as the tempo of the music picks up, so does the intensity of the fighting.

However, this dance is bound to leave a few bruises.

As the first round ends, we notice both of the local cameramen have zeroed in their cameras directly on us.

“Long, why are the cameras on us?” I ask.

“They want to show the people watching at home, as well as the sponsors of the event how popular this is. If there are foreigners here, it must be good!”, Long replies as he bursts into his characteristic high-pitched chuckle.

Now I begin to understand why we were given VIP seating – we’re practically celebrities in Cambodia! Immediately, I feel a hint of guilt at the preferential treatment. Especially since we haven’t paid a penny to be here.

As the fights progress, a similar pattern emerges that Marina and I witnessed at a fight in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Namely, the pattern of “tough” guys with intense stares, big muscles, and excess bravado getting their asses handed to them by their slighter, unassuming, and seemingly weaker opponents.

In many instances, these surprising victories are achieved by severe knockouts and accompanied by plentiful blood. In other words, not only did the more physically intimidating contenders lose the bout, they lost BADLY.

You can almost see a fighter’s ego being deflated as he gets knocked down by a seemingly inferior opponent.

Why you should never get into a fight (Chiang Mai, Thailand)

While I was already a pacifist, watching these fights certainly reiterated an important life lesson:

No matter how weak your opponent might look, they could kick your ass. Thus, avoid fights at any cost.

So if you’re ever in a confrontation, do your best to talk your way out of it.

Otherwise, if your opponent doesn’t respond to reason, run like hell!

Peter

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Sunset on Phuket's Kata beach

Sand crab on Kata beach, Phuket

Phuket Tuk Tuks

Beach bar on Kata beach, Phuket

Marina enjoying a beautiful sunset in Phuket

Us at 'James Bond' Island in Phang Nga Bay

Thai boy bathes outside at a floating village in Phang Nga Bay

Reclining Buddha in Suwan Khuha cave, Phuket

Longtail boats in Koh Phi Phi Lei (filming location for the movie "The Beach")

Us at The Beach; Koh Phi Phi Lei

Island crusing near Koh Phi Phi

Marina's favourite pose on Bamboo island

Peter

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“Ok, once we descend to about 12 meters , you’ll completely remove your mask, swim 15 meters along the sea floor, put your mask back on and clear it.”

As we hear these instructions, Marina and I exchange nervous glances.

“Are you ready?” asks Alexia.

“Ready!” Marina and I respond in unison, hoping the volume of our response masks our trepidation.

Only 3 days ago, while doing the theory part of our course, the mere idea of breathing underwater made my palms sweaty. And yet, that is the least of our worries now.

Before we have time to contemplate any further, as if by instinct, we place our regulators in our mouths, raise the exhaust valve of our BCD’s above our heads, push the deflator button, and begin to sink under the water.

Once we’re all kneeling on the sandy sea floor, Alexia signals that I’ll be the first to go.

As instructed, I slowly remove my mask and instinctively close my eyes as the water rushes in. Although the regulator is still in my mouth, breathing through it while not sucking up water through my exposed nostrils is a challenge. I grasp the mask in my hand, and begin swimming.

Before I know it, Alexia is right beside me, tapping on my shoulder; I’ve covered the necessary distance. With both hands, I place the mask over my face, and secure the strap behind my head. Next I tilt the bottom part of the mask away from my face as I begin to blow air through my nose; an action that replaces the water in my mask with air. After a couple breaths, I can once again open my eyes and avoid the sting of the salty water.

Making an “o” using her thumb and index finger, Alexia signals successful completion. She shakes my hand, and swims over to Marina, who’s about to perform the same test.

After Marina and I do a few more tests, the fun finally begins as we go for an exploratory swim around the bay.

Marina and I swim along as John keeps a close eye on us in the background

Moving around through this foreign world, spotting honeycomb eels, porcupine fish, yellow box fish, sergeant majors, among others, I note how relaxed my breathing is, and how calm I have become.

So this is what scuba diving is all about.

When I was younger, I’d watch shows about sea life and often wonder whether the underwater world actually looked as brilliant as it did on television. Being naturally sceptical, I certainly had my doubts. However, this scepticism was quickly shattered during my first snorkelling experience in Cuba in 2001. As soon as my mask touched the water for the first time, I was stunned by how colourful and lively the underwater world really was. Since then, I have been absolutely mesmerized by underwater life and have taken every opportunity to snorkel on our travels.

Not surprisingly, I’ve wanted to learn to scuba dive for nearly a decade. A good friend of mine who also happened to be a scuba instructor even lent me a copy of the study guide so I could prepare to take the course. Sadly, that book sat and accumulated dust on our book shelf for years as we ploughed through our PhDs. And to be honest, I wasn’t particularly keen on learning to dive in the frigid and murky waters of Lake Ontario.

When we initially departed for Southeast Asia, getting our scuba diving certification was a top priority. As soon as we took our first steps on Phuket’s beautiful beaches and swam in the warm and crystal clear waters of the Andaman Sea, it was only a matter of time.

And now, resting on our boat ride back to Phuket, we revel in the satisfaction of having finally accomplished one of our long-term dreams. Also, we’re ecstatic to now be able to pursue another one of our dreams: diving the Great Barrier Reef!

Thanks to Phuket Scuba Club, and specifically to Alexia, John, and Nic for making one of our dreams come true. You guys were phenomenal instructors, and great friends. We hope to dive with all of you again!

Us with Nic and Alexia on our celebratory dinner:)

Peter

Note: Thanks to Alexia for taking the wonderful underwater photos

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We have been in Southeast Asia for about 2.5 months now and have managed to encounter monkeys on the road, on mountains, in parks, caves, cafes, temples, and beaches.

While I am all for monkeys living in their natural habitat rather than behind bars in a zoo, given the nature of these frisky primates I would personally prefer some degree of separation.

Nevertheless, due to the frequency with which we find ourselves surrounded by a group of monkeys, Marina and I have picked up a few safety tips from various locals.

Feeding monkeys near Hua Hin, Thailand.

For those of you planning on seeing monkeys in the wild here are a few quick pointers.

1) No Smiling:

Seriously. Even though their actions may be hilarious, it is better not to laugh, or even smile for that matter in a monkey’s presence. Since bearing teeth is a sign of aggression, you showing your teeth while smiling may send the wrong message.

2) No food or shiny objects on your person:

Monkeys are a curious and perceptive bunch and they may become particularly interested in you if you are wearing anything shiny (jewellery, sunglasses, etc.), have any food on you, or are holding something in your hand. The rule of thumb is this: if a monkey tries to take something from you, it’s best to let them have it rather than fighting them for it. Better yet, do not wear anything that might attract attention, and do not carry any food with you. Additionally, if you notice you are being stalked by a curious macaque, show them your open and empty palms and often they will immediately lose interest.

3) Keep clear of injured or dead monkeys:

On one particular occasion in Ubud, we came across a monkey that had just fallen out of a tree and was badly hurt, writhing in pain on the ground. Our natural instinct was to get close and see if we could help. Thankfully, one of the experienced park staff quickly stopped us from getting mulled by the onlooking monkeys. As was explained to us, approaching a hurt monkey is likely to incite an attack by the other members of that group. Thus, if you come across a hurt or dead monkey, best to give it space.

4) Back away slowly:

Finally, if you encounter an aggressive monkey, simply back away slowly while continuing to face them. Since turning your back is a sign of fear, such action may increase their confidence, potentially leading them to attack.

A showdown in progress.

Now that I’ve gotten you completely paranoid, please note that 99.9% of the time you’ll be absolutely fine. Despite our countless encounters (even when I fed a bucket of peanuts to a bunch of monkeys in Hua Hin’s Monkey Mountain) nothing even remotely dangerous ever occurred. And while we certainly witnessed a number of tourists freaking out when one or 3 monkeys jumped on them, no one ever got hurt. For the most part, the monkeys we came across were most often participating in any one of these 3 activities: eating, sex, or resting.

Just look at this face…

Awwww...

Peter

Note: As our few loyal readers may have noticed, this blog has been collecting cobwebs over the past few months. Let me assure you this silence was not due to a lack of adventures. For the past number of months we’ve been exploring Southeast Asia, and just recently settled into our next temporary home in New Zealand. As opposed to our travels through South America where I constantly updated the blog in nearly real-time, this time around I chose to experience everything as it happened without worrying how I could turn said experience into a blog post. But fear not! Thanks to my notes and Marina’s 10 000+ photos, we will be updating the blog with our most recent adventures over the next little while. Stay tuned!

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Nickname: The retirement condo

Location: Kingston, ON

Dates: March – April 2011

Basics: 2 bedroom corner condo unit on lake Ontario within 2 km of downtown and the nearby university. The vast majority of residents were above retirement age.

After our experiment in reasonably rural living at The Cottage, we decided to finish off our stint in Kingston while staying a bit closer to civilization, and particularly closer to the university where Marina was working.

We were well acquainted with this condo property as our good friends, Ian and Katie, lived here for a number of years while we were all in graduate school. We had very fond memories of this property so we jumped at the chance to temporarily live there ourselves.

In contrast to our prior home, here we had 2 bedrooms. However, we generally found we had no use for the second bedroom as once again I settled in at the dining room table as my office space. Of course, if we were settling here more permanently, the 2^nd bedroom could have easily been turned into an office, thus clearing our dining room for more appropriate activities – such as dining.

Peter's office space

Being quite a bit closer to work meant Marina was able to walk to work on most days (weather permitting) instead of taking the bus (the norm at the Cottage). Also, we were close to a park, a convenience store and a Tim Horton’s coffee shop. While this was a significant improvement in the proximity of the essentials from our last place, we still felt fairly isolated.

One of the highlights of this place was the lake view (see above), which would have been particularly spectacular in the summer time – had we stayed long enough to see it. Every morning, as Marina got ready to go to work I would transfer from the bed to the couch and soak up the sun that would stream through the large windows overlooking the water. This was a wonderful way to start the day while sipping a cup of tea.

Peter's morning wake-up couch

Being close to a park also meant that we had some nice running routes to take advantage of. Additionally, all day long I would see people from my “office” window running by and this certainly was a nice motivator to get off my butt.

In contrast to the Cottage, which we found to be great for hosting dinner parties, the kitchen/dining/living room arrangements at the Retirement Condo were less conducive to having people over. The kitchen was very small, with little counter space, which made making cooking a nuisance. Since the dining room could only hold 4 people, our dinner parties had to be small. Finally, due to awkward seating arrangement and lack of adequate living room furniture, even having a few people over for a chat and a drink was much less natural than at our previous home.

This residence came with a fairly budget television but a reasonable number of cable channels. I found that merely having that television meant that more often than not, we would automatically turn it on during meals, or when vegging out, rather than reading, talking, or doing something else more productive. This once again suggested to me that not having a television, and specifically not having cable or satellite is the way to go. Having the option to turn it on and tune out was just too easy and I felt as though we wasted much more of our time passively consuming poor quality content. Having a television for purposes of watching a movie or documentary every once in a while is fine, and I think this may be the way to go when we settle down. But having a large selection of channels simply steals hours of your life. I’d rather do something more productive.

On a positive note, given that this was a condo, I didn’t need to worry about shoveling snow (which took up many hours at the cottage), or mowing grass, or remembering to take out the trash at specific hours. This was all taken care of, and when the garbage became full, I simply walked it over to the garbage shute and deposited it regardless of the time or day.

Here is a detailed summary of items that either improved or tarnished our experience at The Retirement Condo.

The good:

-          Great view

-          Communal pool

-          Morning sun exposure

-          Proximity of running routes

-          Ability to walk to a select few places (convenience store, Tim Horton’s)

-          No need to worry about garbage disposal/snow shoveling/grass mowing

The bad:

-          The presence of cable television

-          Small kitchen with limited counter space

-          Uncomfortable and small dining area

-          No dishwasher

-          No air ventilation in washroom = very steamy showers

-          Poor fridge design (left side freezer full length of fridge)

-          Awkward entrance (door opened in a direction making getting in and out more difficult than necessary, especially given the small foyer)

-          Outdoor parking

Conclusion:

Feeling less isolated from civilization, particularly when you work from home is very important. Simply knowing that I could walk to the coffee shop or convenience store, or to downtown (in 30 or so minutes) made me much less anxious about being isolated. Nevertheless, there were still only a few things in our vicinity, and I would have still preferred living closer to a city centre. Living in a condo is certainly easy as most things are taken care of on your behalf – you pay a condo fee and forget about maintenance hassles. Maybe if I was a more handy person, I would have preferred to do these tasks myself, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit I would much rather spend my time doing something else. Finally, the lack of neighbors in our age range made making new friends a bit tough.

Peter

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The first shot is exhilarating and frightening.

The sheer power generated by the relatively small object in your hands is phenomenal.

I finish off my round of 10 shots, the vast majority of which hit the target, and put the empty gun down on the table.

As my long-time friend, Matt, gets prepared to shoot his first round, and I attempt to take his photo I realize just how much my hands are shaking.

And we’ve just started! This is the smallest caliber gun we’re shooting today!

As a prototypical male who played plenty of shoot ‘em up video games and incessantly watched any movie involving Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger, I’ve always wondered what it was like to actually shoot a real gun. Of the numerous items on my bucket list, the attainment of “shooting skills” has been something I’ve been obsessing about for the past 2 years.

Today, armed with the company of Marina and a long-time friend my wish was finally coming true.

After Marina nervously finished off her rounds with the James Bond gun, I was up again to try the .40 caliber Glock – the most popular gun among police officers in North America.

As you may be able to appreciate by the above video, I really liked this gun! And my accuracy wasn’t too shabby either; I managed to put 6 rounds through the head of the target!

Peter and Matt smiling because they shot their targets and not themselves!

Next we shot off a bunch of rounds of a .223 rifle similar to the one used by the Swiss army. This thing certainly had some power, but due to its larger size, it felt much more comfortable and stable to shoot.

Next up was the manliest of weapons – the shotgun. Right after we both realized just how much kickback a mere 9mm pistol could generate, Matt and I both became a bit nervous at the prospect of shooting the 12 gauge Remington shotgun we naively decided we should try. The hardest part of shooting a shotgun was aiming – not that aim is terribly necessary when you essentially spray your target with fragments.

See below video of Marina with a shotgun:

Although we were all very satisfied after successfully handling the beefy shotgun, we had forgotten we had also ordered dessert! The finale of our shooting spree consisted of 5 rounds on the sniper rifle – complete with scope and all!

The sniper rifle finale

We all had an absolute blast – we were giddy as children and couldn’t stop exchanging high fives after successfully handling each weapon.

In total, the three of us went through 125 rounds, 5 different weapons, and many paper targets. We were there for a heart-pounding 2 hours and paid approximately $80 each.

If you live or are visiting the GTA, and have even a passing interest in shooting a gun, I’d certainly recommend you give Target Sports Canada a try.

What a rush!

Peter

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“I’m uncertain about many things in this life, but I am absolutely sure about one thing: I love you.”

What I failed to document on the blog was that soon after we returned to Canada, Marina and I got engaged. We have yet to plan our wedding, and due to our nomadic lifestyle, this is not likely to happen in the immediate future.

In the meantime, while we continue to refer to one another as fiancee we thought some engagement photos might be fun. They may be nearly a year overdue, but who’s counting?

Lucky for us, one of our good friends from Kingston, Rob Whelan, is actually a professional photographer. Since Rob was visiting Montreal on other business, we thought it would be a great idea to do an impromptu photoshoot. So we did exactly that and had a great time.

Below is just a small sample of the wonderful photos Rob took of us goofing around in the plateau area of Montreal – where we’ve been living for the past 4 months.

For more information on Rob’s photography and to find out how you can book him to shoot your engagement, wedding, or other special event, please check out his website.

Thanks again Rob!

Peter

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All that changed when I first heard a classmate’s cassette of Nirvana’s In Utero while sitting on a school bus.

That sound simply blew me away.

It was a completely transformative moment that paved the way not only for my taste in music, but also for my want to express myself through playing and writing music. Although I still get the guitar out now and then, during high-school, music was my life. After learning how to tune my guitar and learning a few songs, I started a band with a couple of friends. We practiced twice a week, driving our parents crazy in the process. Eventually we started performing beyond the confines of a basement: at our high school, and a couple of local clubs. We even got paid to perform now and then (just enough to cover the gas to get to the venue)! When we weren’t playing music we were going to see other local bands play live. And when there were no shows to see, we would hang around someone’s basement, huddled around a CD player blasting Nirvana, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Tool, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Silverchair, Pearl Jam, Our Lady Peace, Rusty, I Mother Earth, Tea Party, Hole, Veruca Salt, or any other band from that era.

Although I had attended a few larger concerts and local music festivals during this period, I always knew the biggest venue for seeing live alternative rock was Lollapalooza – an outdoor music festival in the US that always drew the best alternative bands of the time. Unfortunately, at that time, I hardly had the financial means to support a trip to the US for a multi-day music festival. Since then, I have always said that I would eventually attend Lollapalooza and experience it firsthand. When I found out earlier this year that two of my favourite bands, Foo Fighters (a band fronted by the former drummer of Nirvana) and Muse, were making an appearance at this year’s festival, I knew Marina and I had to go.

So one day in the early spring of this year, I purchased the 3-day tickets for a hefty $215 each and later informed a surprised, but supportive Marina.

The concert was held in Chicago’s Grant park during August 5-8 and consisted of 8 stages, and 130 different acts.

Our first day at Lollapalooza - notice how clean we are! This didn't last.

There was A LOT of music. I had an iPhone app that helped us schedule our weekend.

Oh, and did I mention 270,000 people attended over the 3 days?

In other words, there were also A LOT of people.

The whole weekend was an absolute blast.

While some artists were a tad disappointing (e.g. Cee Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley), our two main draws each gave a spectacular performance.

Personal highlights:

1. Muse, a more recent addition to my music collection (since 2004ish), randomly breaking into Nirvana’s “Negative Creep” – a song included on their original debut album from the late 1980′s. This moment brought my whole music journey to a complete circle – simply amazing.

Muse performing at Lollapalooza

2. Dancing and singing along with Foo Fighter’s performing “Everlong” while completely soaked from a downpour in a field full of mud, rain, and what smelled very much like fresh feces (we both lost a pair of shoes during this trip).

We're wet, our feet are submedged in mud/feces, and the Foo Fighters rock on!

That’s rock n’ roll!

Foo Fighters performing to a soaked audience

No, it really was that messy...

3. The crowd going crazy as Muse launches into “Plug-in Baby” and giant ‘eyeball’ balloons are dropped on the crowd. Check the video to fully appreciate:

4. Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters frontman, describing the personal significance of Lollapalooza and its creator, Perry Farrell, in the development of alternative rock. See below video. If the rock nostalgia bores you, fast forward to about 3:20 to hear “Everlong.”

What a weekend!

Peter

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