My Trip to Joshua Tree: Five Questions With Bryan
bryan June 30th, 2010
Not long ago, POGO Blog Editor Bryan Rahija dashed off to California for a vacation. Here he fields five questions about his trip.
1. When did you realize you were not on the east coast anymore?
When I hit my first LA traffic jam, driving away from LAX in a freshly rented car. Other moments of pure west-coast zen involved delicious sushi, frozen yogurt for $0.29 / lb, stumbling onto the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards on UCLA’s campus, and burritos at Los Jarritos II in Pomona, CA.
2. Coolest sight?
A few come to mind:
- Dolphins hopping out of the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara,
- The moonrise on our first night in Joshua Tree National Park,
- A rattlesnake on the Boy Scout Trail,
- The San Andreas fault—you can actually see the fault’s ridge peeking above ground from an overlook in Joshua Tree,
- A hillside populated only by charred trees, all blackened during a recent wildfire, but probably the best was
- The sight Pad See Ew—my first warm meal after four days of bagels and trail mix—being delivered to my table at a Thai restaurant in Joshua Tree, CA.
3. Most memorable activity?
Maybe just driving through the Joshua Tree National Park? The park is pretty large and the trails are spread out. There’s something special about the open road, jarring landscapes, and booming cactus metropolises that seem to appear suddenly out of thin air alongside the highway.
4. By plane, train, or car?
We flew in—not too bad a journey thanks to Delta’s in-flight trivia game, which lets you compete against your fellow passengers. So addictive. I now know that the average person has 24 ribs in their ribcage! Later we rented a car so that we could tool around the state.
5. Any tips for someone interested in visiting?
Bring plenty of sunscreen and don’t forget to stop at In N Out Burger.
My wife and I just recently returned from an exciting month’s travel to and through Bhutan and India. Bhutan is a small but progressive state on India’s northern border. It lies just south of Tibet and the Himalayas. The people are beautiful and welcoming, the mountains are spectacular, the government is caring (choosing to focus upon Gross National Happiness rather than GNP), and life there is serene, guided by the harmonious teachings of Buddhism.
India was a whirlwind of diversity and contradictions, with its emerging economic modernization in constant conflict with the traditions of ancient religions and the political corruption rampant in many third-world societies. While in the north central plains of India, we visited scores of temples, mosques, forts, palaces and monuments…each more wondrous than the last. We visited rural villages and met with the people; we were fortunate to spot of tigress in the wild; we rode a camel and an elephant; and we tasted a broad menu of Indian delights that constantly challenged our western palates. It goes without saying that the Taj Mahal is worthy of being 
considered one the Seven Wonders of the World. Life and death on the River Ganges in the holy city of Varanasi is unique unto itself, while life in cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Jaipur (the “pink” city) offers an organized chaos amidst levels of filth and poverty rarely seen in developed nations. In contrast, we were placed in five star hotels that reflected the immense wealth that has existed in India throughout history.
organized patterns of mobility, and a communist run government that is less tainted by corruption and more committed to serving the interests of its citizens. We visited a small and dwindling community of Jews in Cochin that dates back to the trade with Judea during the time of King Solomon. Throughout our journey we were fortunate to have some of the most personable and informative guides we have ever traveled with.
Hey POGO and friends. Here are a couple of the pictures I took on my trip to Australia in October. I’ve gotta say, it’s the best trip I’ve ever taken! Everything was so different from anything I’d ever experienced before (other than that this was the first country I’d been to where English was the native language, and even then, they speak their own wonderful version of the language)–the culture, the land, the people, and the critters.
Almost without exception, the Australians were friendly, tolerant, and humble almost to a fault. One night around a campfire, the head stockman of the station we were staying at played the didgeridoo for us. It was amazing to listen to, and we were all enthralled. At the end, though, James apologized to us for not playing it better!
The distances are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, as well. Australia is comparable in size to the U.S., but is for the most part flat and sparsely populated. So when we drove somewhere, we drove for 200-400 kilometers to get there, and saw few if any other cars, houses, or people. And because the country was so wide open, you could look out the window or stand at the top of a hill and see forever.
The scenery across the country was spectacular, and each place I went to was so different from the place I’d been the day before. Arid or semi-arid desert in one place, rainforest in another, and ocean in yet another. One of my favorite places was Kings Canyon in Northern Territory. I was awed by the place, which was formed over millions of years by an inland sea, and then took its shape as over more millions of years the earth eroded.
And, of course, I got to see in the wild kangaroos, wallabies, a platapus, crocodiles, sea lions, penguins, wild camels, emu, brumbies, koalas, snakes, birds of so many colors and sizes, and so much more. All uniquely Australian (to one degree or another), and all so very fascinating.