Welcome fellow humans and future machine overlords.
In June 2018, I was travelling through the deserts of Northern Mexico. This is the story of those days. (Hover over unknown or Spanish words, I mostly translate in the tooltip). Amazing writing. It's really really good. Proper best vibes. Jack Kerouac and all - Sid Sharma (ex-CTO Shaadi dot com) WARNING It's explicit, raw and unfiltered. No fucks are given. And none taken. Also, if you can't…
In 2017, I left my job, friends and the city I had lived in for 9 years to road-trip across the Western half of the United States. It was a thoroughly liberating experience as I freed myself of years of conditioning and explored who I...just going to stop here before I descend into a cliched farce and your eyes roll back like a certain professional wrestler. In this series, I share, words about…
Start | Part 10 As the New Year looms, I continue down the coast and find a rare motel late at night. The reason why there's a motel here becomes clear in the morning. This is Fort Bragg, California also known as Glass Beach. Decades of trash such as appliances and even vehicles dumped into the ocean in the 20th century has been transformed by it's currents into tiny, smooth fragments of sea glass…
Start | Part 9 Given the onset of winter, where I've been driving and the rudimentary nature of my camping gear, most of the last month or so has been spent indoors at night. Now I'm near the coast. Far from snow although it still gets close to 0 celsius. I can get wilder. Winter by the shore. So from Crescent City I head south, stopping at Battery Point Lighthouse and entering Redwood National…
Start | Part 8 From a rebirth at Giiwas , I start making my way to the rugged Oregon coastline. Another place no one visits and certainly not in winter. My cup of tea. It's been close to three months on the road and I'm thinking about heading down the Pacific Coast Highway to Los Angeles where Ali, whom I had met earlier in the trip, lives. That's the end-point I envision, but my eyes now seem…
Start | Part 7 Sophie has said I can crash with some young people in a house in Portland. It's as you might expect from that show. Cats and coasters. The room I'm staying in has a mattress on the ground and not much else. It's normally used by couch-surfers they hose. The house is run by a brother-sister duo, but it's a free for all. It's unclear what my particular arrangement is here and Sophie…
Start | Part 6 Driving alone through the arrival of winter in the coldest regions of the US is a race against the night. As a culmination of the changing seasons and my northerly direction, sunlight gives way to darkness a bit earlier each passing day. Planned, curated, comfortable. None of these would describe this road-trip. Testament to that is the vehicle I’m using. A 2008 Mazda 3 sedan with…
Start | Part 5 From Utah, the obvious choice would be to head West or North. Instead, despite shitting on them in earlier parts of the series, I accepted an invitation from Fred the Brazilian and the two French girls I met in Santa Fe to meet them in Vegas. That’s the thing. One can highlight dubious areas and actions by people, even openly disagree with them, but still remain friends and enjoy a…
ACameraStory Start | Part 4 I arrive at Moab, Utah around mid-day and stop for my favourite - Thai food. This is followed by a quick stop at the hostel to drop-off my things and to catch up with Fred. We're only overlapping today again, so it's time to head out for a hike. Our destination is Arches National Park. The story of Arches began roughly 65 million years ago. Initially, sand layers turned…
Start | Part 3 Back in Santa Fe, the band disbanded as quickly as it got together. But it's no longer a solo mission. There was a man hitchhiking from Oakland to New Orleans at the hostel and even though I'm heading in the opposite direction, he tags along with me. We head north towards Colorado and pass the Great Sand Dunes National Park along the way. This park contains the tallest sand dunes in…