Ate Insects and Arachnids, Attacked by Poisonous Snake & Visited Ancient Angkor Wat Temples

On January 29, 2013February 4, 2015 By Karl GessleinIn TravelLeave a comment

For 3 weeks I traveled around Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. I tried to push myself to see as much as I could and experience as many things as possible. I ate every manner of worms, larva, grasshoppers, frogs and even two scorpions. There was 3 different times I got sick, even though for most of the trip I was taking antibiotics. Few of the places I stayed had any amenities like hot water, a flushing toilet or even toilet paper. I was constantly uncomfortable, traveling on the back of motorcycles, in school buses with wooden floors, in Tuk-tuks, taxis and trains. A poisonous snake attacked me while I was trekking in the jungle and I got stuck in a hailstorm where the hail was the size of golf balls. Through all the discomfort, confusion and unpleasantness I managed to create a truly unique experience, which was my own. I will carry these memories and experiences with me to the grave. This document is intended to inspire others to get out in the world and travel, and get more of the same kind of experiences. Leave the comfort of your feather bed and your espresso maker. Get out in the world and see what it’s all about.

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Went To Nassau And Wanted To Kite But Mostly Flailed Around And Lost My Kiteboard

On January 29, 2013February 4, 2015 By Karl GessleinIn Kiting, TravelLeave a comment

As I got off the plane in Nassau in 2005 and was going through a motorized revolving door it abruptly came to a halt and I walked right into it. It took me a minute to realize I was bleeding all over the place from a cut on my head. This was pretty indicative of how the entire trip was going to go. John and I arrived early enough to head out on the water, the winds were marginal so I took the 17 Speed and the Flydoor. The winds were so marginal I got blown downwind for about 3 miles. There was not enough wind to jump so I just rode as best I could. John tried to go out on his 9 foil but there was not enough power to get up. At one point he crashed the kite into the middle of the road and the cars honked at him. I walked for about an hour then caught a ride back the last mile or so with a pickup truck full of construction workers. The buffet dinner at Orange Hill was spectacular even though the breakfast and lunch was pretty nominal. It was all you can eat for $20 and John and I gorged ourselves and went to bed at 7:41PM.

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Fought In Thunderdome, Rode The Roaster Coaster & Found My REAL Home – My First Burn

On January 29, 2013February 4, 2015 By Karl GessleinIn Lifestyle and Health, Travel1 Comment

The following is a recounting of my first experience at Burning Man in 2004. I have been back many times since then, but that first trip was the most magical.

As I sat quietly tears streamed down my face. All around me thousands of people sat quietly humming in different low harmonious tones. The heat from the flames of the temple was so hot it was quite uncomfortable. Although we were seated over 300 feet away the 80′ Temple of Honor burned with an intensity I have never seen in any structure fire in my 4.5 years as a firefighter. I big part of me was glad to see it burn. I have been to visit the temple 8 times in the last 3 days and each time it brought tears to my eyes. I have traveled across a great deal of the planet and the temple was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. The love and tremendous amount of energy that was put into the temple was staggering. It made me realize that once you see what’s possible you’re no longer interested in what’s probable. For the temple the gift was in the giving. I thought about the huge amount of resistance I had put up in switching over to the Burning Man gifting economy and I realized that a great deal of that was the difficulty I was having in seeing that the gift was in for the giver, not the receiver. There was a big part of me that was glad to see the temple go and another part that was just beginning to appreciate the transient nature of life. All the work that had been put into that temple that was only around for a week made me realize that no matter how hard I worked or how much I accomplished that it wouldn’t change the fact that even if I lived for 100 years that it was still a brief glimpse of time when compared with the timeline of the universe, the earth or even mankind. It was sobering in a deep and meaningful way. The night before we had burned the 40′ neon blue man at the center of the city and the atmosphere had been a world of difference, there was hooting and hollering and dancing. The burning of the temple was a far more solemn occasion. There was so much emotion in that place, frequently visitors made no attempts to hide their tears. The energy of the place was so intense it was hard not to feel sadness.

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Went To Jamaica During A Hurricane – Trashed Rental Car & Fell Off A Mountain Cliff

On January 29, 2013January 29, 2013 By Karl GessleinIn TravelLeave a comment

Blue Mountain Peak in Jamacia (2004)

I’m finally here in Jamaica and am working at overcoming my fear of this place. There is far more poverty than I had expected, Jamaica is a third world country. Everyone here drives like glue huffing maniacs. The people seem to be reasonably friendly, although most of them are preoccupied with the coming hurricane. Ivan is scheduled to whack the center of the island tonight at midnight. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that 240Kph winds will soon be destroying most of the shantytowns in this country. Right now it’s so quiet and peaceful. I’m here by the pool villa and the peepers are unusually noisy. I keep forgetting why I’m here, I don’t feel safe and I want to feel safe. Jamaica has the highest murder rate per capita of any country. Everyone tells me not to go to Kingston, but Kingston has been evacuated. Where have all the gang members in Kingston gone to? Here in Negril perhaps? Negril is nice, it’s on the West coast. It’s a tourist town with everything but the tourists. Everyone here expects a tip and my rental car has no reverse, or at least it takes me 5 minutes of messing with it to get reverse to work. I should have kept my reservation with Hertz. I don’t know what I was doing trying to save $60. The hotel was also $60, which is too much. I should have paid with a credit card though and I choose to pay with cash. Soon all the power in the island will be down. There is so much poverty here I can sense a criminal element here in Jamaica not far beneath the surface. That brings up fear for me. It’s funny how I know so many drug dealers and violent people and I don’t really fear them, but then when I go to another country that is foreign I do.

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The Largest Person In Ithaca, NY Goes To The Country With The Smallest People Ever (SPE)

On January 29, 2013February 4, 2015 By Karl GessleinIn Travel6 Comments

If I had to sum up my whole trip to China in 2004 with one word it would be WOW! China is unlike anyplace I have ever traveled in the world. Although for the entire time I was there I was totally uncomfortable, overcrowded, altitude sick, and off-center I still had a great time. Why do I travel? I travel to give my brain new experiences, to look at things in a different way. Like a rat running a different maze other than the one he is used to running it stimulates me in a different way and makes me feel alive.

The Greatest Wall ... Ever — The Greatest Wall … Ever

I flew into Hong Kong to start the trip off. For eight days I ended up getting stranded in Hong Kong while I waited to get my Chinese Visa. It turns out that the Hong Kong Visa does not work for China even though Hong Kong is supposed to be a part of China. This whole thing will continue to get more confusing as time went on. I wanted to fly to Tibet but the plane tickets from Hong Kong were obscenely expensive and I could not find anyone to get me a Visa into Tibet. Although Tibet is part of China you need a special permit to get there as well. It would not be until the end of my trip that I would secure a fake Visa to get into Tibet with, but that comes later.

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Watch As This Clueless American Tries To Learn To Kite In The Dominican Republic

On January 29, 2013February 4, 2015 By Karl GessleinIn Kiting, TravelLeave a comment

How many kids does it take to carry Kyle’s kite?

The following is an account of 12 days I spent in the DR in 2004 with Kyle where I was desperately trying to learn to kite.

What day is it, I can’t remember and I don’t care. One day blurs into another. Eat, sleep, kite that has become the routine. I can’t remember why I do the eating and sleeping anymore except that I can’t kite if I don’t do the other two. I feel like I’m in a movie, beautiful women everywhere, there is sun and sand and little local DR kids that grab your kite and walk it back up the beach for you for 50 pesos. I’m making these kids downright rich as I’ve been going up and down the beach 7 times a day for about the last 12 days.

Just how much abuse can a body take anyway? Every day I look in the mirror and see a handful of new bruises. It’s so exhausting learning Kiteboarding that all I’ve done for the last 3 days is eat, sleep and board and hardly anything else. It is so brutal that I am sleeping almost 12 hours a day and often have to lay down for a nap in the middle of the day. I feel like a lame old man (no offense mom, dad and President Bush all of which love their naps). I can get up on the board consistently now and can stay up for a pretty long time, my major problems in the past have been that I have been way under-powered. I am flying the 13.5 meter kite in about 20-25 knots of wind every day and that is about the right size kite for me. For Ithaca I’m going to need a 25 meter kite I think seeing as how most of the time the winds are low there (under 10mph).

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The Glitz And Glamour Of Europe Amid Aimless Wanderings Of A G6 Vagrant

On January 29, 2013February 2, 2015 By Karl GessleinIn Travel1 Comment

In 2004 I traveled in 12 days from Amsterdam, Holland to Berlin, Germany to Munich, Germany to Budapest, Hungary to Vienna, Austria to Frankfort, Germany to Ottenberg, Germany to Freidburg, Germany then back to Amsterdam, Holland.

The red light district of Amsterdam reminded me of animals in a zoo. Some of the most beautiful and attractive specimens of humankind trapped behind glass dressed in almost nothing going about living their lives, reading magazines talking on cell phones or in some cases dancing. I felt strangely uncomfortable as I often do in the zoo. I had a freedom inside my heart that most of these women would never know. They have found an easier way, where money was never short and they could use their body to get money to buy themselves things so that they would feel better about their lonesomeness At least for a little while. In Amsterdam sex is a commodity to be bought and sold, not a special thing to be shared between 2 people who feel strongly about each other. It seemed cheap and commercial, it reminded me of fast food franchises like McDonald’s and Burger King. You pay the very little money and in return you get enough to barely sustain your hunger or sexual appetite. Sometimes it feels like everyone is waiting behind a pane of glass waiting to be discovered and loved.

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Costa Rica Delivers Flood-Stage Rivers, Kayaking Down Volcanoes And 40′ Waterfalls (oh my)

On January 29, 2013February 3, 2015 By Karl GessleinIn Kayaking, Travel9 Comments

When I first arrived I felt like I had died and gone to paddling heaven. Everywhere I looked huge landslides had removed parts of the road. The rivers were swollen and running that dark coffee brown color. Several bridges had recently collapsed, others were closed because the recent rains had moved the foundations. This is how my Costa Rican vacation began … 11 straight days of class IV-V rivers.

For the past week it had rained nonstop and things had been way too high to run. Finally there was some relief and the sun was starting to peak through. They had refused to let me take my kayak on the plane because of some silly trade embargo against Costa Rica for the holidays. Even worse than that my flight was delayed three hours so the car rental place was closed. They were nice enough to leave a note though, so that was cool. There was some Costa Rican sleeping behind the rental car counter, I asked him if he had my car, he told be to sleep in the next car rental booth over in Spanish. I followed a very attractive Australian woman I had met on the plane to a local hostel. Apparently she was going to Costa Rica to do conservation work with Sea turtles. Once at the hostel I tried to get a room with her which the woman at the counter found quite amusing. She put me in a room with some scuba diver from London who apparently also followed another attractive woman from the airport on sea turtle conservation work. Man what a racket, get all these attractive woman to do conservation work and lure unsuspecting Gringos into your hostel. Me and the limey stayed up late into the night talking then finally crashed out.

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The Most Frightening Whitewater Kayaking Experience In 8 Years Of Class V Boating

On January 28, 2013January 29, 2013 By Karl GessleinIn Kayaking, TravelLeave a comment

Prologue: I wrote this true story for Dennis Squires’ wilderness adventures book. Unfortudently Dennis died paddling in NZ several years ago so its unlikely this story will ever see print. I am posting it here instead.

First Decent of Augers Falls

You can see the tiny eddy in the crack of the rock at the top left. The water level was much higher when Mike made his first descent.
Ever have such a bad experience boating that you could hardly talk about it or write about it for years. An event that instilled so much fear in your being that it would fundamentally shift the way you kayaked forever? Mike Burns and I had an experience like this several years ago on the Middle Branch of the Sacandaga in Upstate NY.

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The Book Of Saint John’s Brook (RIP Dennis Squires My Personal Paddling Hero)

On January 28, 2013February 3, 2015 By Karl GessleinIn Kayaking, TravelLeave a comment

John’s Brook

Dennis Squires (RIP Bro), one of my paddling heroes and close friends.

Prolog: John’s Brook was first run solo by Dennis Squires (RIP bro) in the 90’s. Dennis had been telling me and Mike to hit it for a while and with the spring runoff we finally got a chance to hit this gem. This article was published in AW Magazine.

So there I was, the better part of the way down what was easily the most difficult creek I had ever paddled, standing on the shore waiting for Mike to walk down, after paddling a long section of class IV-V by myself trying to catch up with Mike’s lost paddle. My spray skirt had been badly ripped on a log which was stuck under an undercut rock and Mike’s skirt was also badly ripped. Luckily mine had ripped first so I had gotten dibs on the only safety-pin we had which was now holding together the tear and keeping my little creek boat from sinking like the Titanic in this heinous 350+ fpm creek known as John’s Brook. If John’s Brook had been a movie review it would have read like this:

John’s Brook is the newest in a long line of productions aimed at appealing to the segment of the kayaking community that have hit their heads on a few to many rocks. The first two hours is spent watching kayakers hike up 3 miles of steep rocky trails dragging 100 lbs of gear through the mud, over creeks and over huge boulders. You can tell from the gradient that once these guys hit the water, there will be hell to pay. While most runs gently ramp up for the viewer, once they get to the water Johns creek starts out full-bore and never slows down. The entire 5 miles is just one long climax with little or no interruption. Most people who enjoy this spectacle will be forced to switch over to auto-pilot or will end up running out of energy and adrenaline after the first 15 minutes. After the first couple of hours, you wonder when it will end, and whether or not the actors will just say “enough” and walk out of the canyon.

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Awaken Spirit

Category: Travel