Marc's Public Blog

nice view

unexpected to see burning man art, here

One big plus of Unkonscious is that they make your trip worth it, as while the main festival is really just 2x 12H days (or 2x 16H with the indoor after party on day 3 and 4), there 2 days with pre-parties and 2 days with after parties in Bangkok. That's a great idea and it made for a pretty intense 6 days, not for the faint of the heart :)

Travel, Where to Stay and Weather

Carrying my LED outfit and all the batteries through Japan along with my snowboards was extra work, but worth it. As expected every venue during Unkonscious was cool with it, no one gave me a hard time and honestly all the venues were happy to have extra party spirit:

If you ask, yes, it was hot as balls, and it was warm and uncomfortable to wear, haha. I wore more comfortable clothing during the day that LEDs would'nt do much good anyway (it got dark enough around 18:00, so that was 6 hours with more reasonable weather and temps):

We also got lucky that we didn't have rain, which is always a possibility.

So, 6 days, let's go for it:

Day 1: Pre-Pre-Party @ Tappia Floating Cafe

after a little while, the sun set and it got dark:

The bar had plenty of alcohol, food was more limited and it took long enough that it felt like it came from a restaurant on land and was brought in via the next speed boat:

one Thai specialty is the 1.2L bucked of alcohol, saves time :) (and reasonably priced)

switched to my night outfit

great to see Richard Durand again

Video summary of the day:

Day 2: Pre-Party @ DAM Pattaya Beach Club

light clothing to deal with the weather :)

The food options were good, but unfortunately required some fake paper money you had to buy in one place, then exchange it for a voucher, which finally got you food:

same thing with drinks although they were reasonably priced

buckers were popular

that's what the fake money looked like, and it could not be exchanged back or used from one venue to the next.

Before long, it was darker and cooler, so I was able to change and light up a bit:

brought a few lights :)

even got a chance to take that picture Ferry Tayle and I missed a few times :)

haha :)

Indoors was fairly decent for a beach club:

and we got an XXXL set from John 00 Flemming

Video Summary of Day #2:

Day 3 & 4: Main Festival Day 1 & 2: Alexa Beach Club

Finally this was the main festival. The mainstage was honestly pretty simple, it wasn't huge, definitely smaller than lumi mainstage and almost on par with stages 2 or 3 at lumi, but honestly it was big enough for the location and crowd. The entire event was not huge and that what made it nice, cosy and homely, I did like that.

Yeah, so it seems to be a Thailand thing, non refundable fake money you have to buy to be able to then buy things (which was still 2 or 3 more steps depending on what you needed, way too much work IMO). Not a fan...

note that the fake paper money from the previous day looked different and couldn't be used

hopefully contactless credit cards and phones will be allowed for direct pay in the future

Merch store that was reasonably priced:

The festival was then split in 2 each day: 12:00 to 16:00 was the pool party which was low key and easy to get in and out (security wasn't really there yet). Other bonus is you could order from the bar and restaurant from the full drink and food menu and pay with real money (which became not possible at 16:00 once the real festival started). Once I figured that out the first day with great disappointment of having lovely drinks on the menu being rejected as "not available until after the festival is over", I learned the lesson and got them during the pool party the next day:

nice to chill by the pool, listen to music and sort festival pictures :)

and a great time to chat with DJs too

nice and chill

nice beach too

pool party day #2:

working hard, or hardly working? :) Nice to relax for a change

haha, nice outfits :)

by day2 I figured out how to get real drinks

as well as very yummy food

By 16:00, the main festival started with mainstage and the psytrance stage on the 2nd floor of the building which had AC and that was nice because outside was definitely hot:

You could pay for VIP lounge areas:

The views sure were nice:

awesome sunsets

The psytrance area was nice:

And yes, it eventually got dark. It was super nice to just be able to walk by to the room and change:

Richard Durand did another killer set

a few of us brought kandi joy to the party :)

Craig Connelly was next!

And closing set by John 00 Flemming

Day 2 had more DJs and more fun:

yes, sunset again :)

fans were a lifesaving device, I can't describe how much I was sweating :)

But the big surprise of day 2 was the fire juggling which was stellar:

Festival Day 1 Video summary:

Festival Day 2 Video summary:

main festival afterparty

main festival fun pictures

wait, what happened here? :)

awesome to have met Katie Sirisinha, one of the organizers

Day 5: Post Party @ Venti Bangkok

great to run into Somna who had just arrived

Rinaly did trance that night

and then Markus Schulz took over

Venti Bangkok Video Summary:

Day 6: Post-Post Party @ Eden Bangkok

Damn right, 6 days!

Rinaly was back for techno that night

awesome to have finally met Andy Moor

and that was it, finally over, 6 days!

Well, not quite over, Srangkun Sirisinha, Unkonscious co-organizer, went to play more tunes across the street, more trance still :)

And then it was finally over, time to run back to the room, pack, and go to the airport for a long trip back home to San Francisco

Eden Bangkok video summary:

Thoughts/Conclusion

Should you go? Would I go Back?

Thanks to the organizers, DJS and everyone who made the 6 days happen!

More Photos/Videos

The next morning, it was time to visit the park, which is a smaller recreation of all of Thailand, although it is not small in any way, it takes several hours to get around it in a golf cart:

Thailand likes reclining buddhas :)

you could walk the floating market and of course yummy drinks :)

It was a impressive and well built place, definitely worth at least 3 hours with a golf cart, and more if you can:

Outside, the balloon garden was also fun for a quick walk:

This time around, I went to Thailand for Unkonscious Festival, and it was mostly located around Pattaya, south/east of Bangkok, along the coast.

After spending the day visiting sights, and checking in the next hotel, arrived in time for the boat party by Pattaya:

After the boat party was over, had a bit of time to visit downtown Pattaya main street, and it was very seedy indeed (not posting everything I saw, haha):

There was a bit of time the next day in the morning to visit more sights:

And that was the end of the half sightseeing day, the rest of the time was spent at Unkonscious Festival.

Once the festival was over, had most of day to visit more local sights before going back to Bangkok:

Found a nice chinese temple on the way:

The local water market was fun enough and worth visiting on foot too:

There were several smaller aquariums, went to see one of them: Pattaya Underwaler World

Next was another nice park with a so-so crocodile show:

the gardens were quite nice, though

and it was then time to go towards Bangkok to check in our new hotel and go to the 5th Unkonscious Party. The [last 2 days were spent in Bangkok|]/perso/thailand/post_2024-02-04_Finishing-Unkonscious-Festival-with-2-Days-in-Bangkok.html].

For our last day in Hokkaido snow, Kiroro has just gotten a lot of snow, and it was a godo time to visit to enjoy the powder. It was reaosonably busy, but even if the parking lots were full and we had to go to overflow, the resort didn't feel very crowded and never had to wait long for a lift:

the weather alternated between sunny and snowing, all day

I wasted some time trying to see how to register for the sidecountry gates, as was required last time I came, but that was 7 years ago, and now they ask you to register with some Hokkaido backcountry office on the internet which seemed fairly time consuming if you just wanted to do the in resort sidecountry as opposed to exiting in places where you'd end up way out there.

the maps are worth paying attention to, lots of tree areas and powder fields

yes!

The first run down the chair was very good:

the gondola to the other peak had a short line and did take 15mn up each time

beautiful trees

anti wind gates

did I say nice trees? :)

Seems that most people didn't really register and just took the side country gates in a way that you end up in the resort at the end, but in one of them, if you turn the wrong way, you could end up in unhappy places (like snow hike out which could take hours)
You definitely have to pay attention to this map once you get out, especially for teh elevation linea and the river in the middle that you can fall into if the snow collapses:

I did have my beacon :)

some signs, but no real warnings about the river that will try to swallow you at the bottom

the hike at the top of the gondola can be as long as you want it to be, but make sure to drop on the left side

While the side country was good experience, it also could get you in trouble, especially as you end up on top of a river with multiple holes, some big, and others where the snow could collapse and you fall in the river, no good:

it was very easy to end up in one of these, they were almost everywhere

After 6 different side country runs, the day was over, and time to get back:

Defintely a great experience, but it's a no screw around zone, you can really get in trouble once you go side country at Kiroro

Rusutsu gives you 5 free days if you have an epic local pass, but those 5 days are consecutive

Rusutsu Day 1: Great Bluebird

nice drive to Rusutsu

I didn't know the terrain so well, my first ride down the gondola, I was afraid of getting stuck at the bottom, but actually it was fine

always hard to gauge if it will be downhill the whole way, I was worried the gondola line had an uphill section lower down

ran the gondola line a few more times, it was excellent

While I really like flow bindings as they are easier to get in and out, they fail in too many different ways. Thankfully I learned my lesson and carry an entire spare emergency binding in my backpack:

kind of sucky that such a thick cable can snap

there you go, emergency backup binding installed

will fix this later, spare cables were ordered and sent home for when I get back

Back on the slopes to esplore the rest of the resort:

Rusutsu Day 2: Windy Post Storm

snowy drive to rusutsu, but the roads stayed open

only a few lifts were open in the morning, Mt Isola was too windy

people showed up for the pow day, thankfully we already had a ticket thanks for our epic pass and skipped the ticket line

eventually Mt Isola opened up

And the tree runs on the correct face of Mt Isola (way from sun and wind) was also quite nice:

and after a bunch of rides, it was time to get back. Yes, there was night skiing, but that didn't really seem worth it after the great powder we had all day:

Defintely got lucky with Rusutsu, great snow even if the terrain isn't super steep in many places.

For US people, Niseko gives you two days for free with Mountain Collective (you have to go to some office to get them) and then half off. At half off it was about $30 a day to ride all 4 mountains, i.e. super cheap.

Niseko Day 1: Annupuri and Niseko Village

my partner in crime, Arturo

ticket prices were quite cheap by US standards (got 2 free days with mountain collective and half off for the last 3 days)

lots of side country gates

gate 11 by niseko village was also fun

riding pizza box chairs on the way back to Annupuri :)

doesn't feel super safe, but better than a tow rope

the Annupuri G1/G4 gates were nice, but you quickly get to a valley with tracked terrain

Niseko Day 2: Grand Hirafu and Hanazono

morning gondola line

windy day with rotor cloud on top of Mt Yotei

beautiful day

gates were open, G5 took you to the Hanazono base

this was the posh base for people with too much money :)

2 or 3 chairs to go back up and cross back to Grand Hirafu

with 2 chairs only and a short hike, this side country took you back

this was the posh base for people with too much money :)

2 or 3 chairs to go back up and cross back to Grand Hirafu

with 2 chairs only and a short hike, this side country took you back

When it was sunny, it looked nice:

Side country run with good snow, still:

Niseko Day 3: Grand Hirafu Mostly Shut Down Blizzard Day

not many pictures, visibility was not good due to wind, it was kind of a blizzard

Nice side country with powder faceshot:

Niseko Day 4: Windy Grand Hirafu and Hanazono

morning gondola line, although it went faster due to less wind and higher gondola speed

the gates were weird, some closed ones were routinely ignored while others were really a good idea to respect

the work to get that powder was not really worth it, and it was not very steep in most places

beautiful views

but the weather turned quickly again

Two nice sidecountry runs, one with sun, one with show falling:

Niseko Day 5: Better weather, all mountain

lnie for the top lift

The avalanche gate near the top had some really good warning cartoons. They were poetic sounding (maybe even haikus in japanese?), and they should actually be more advertised, The warnings on getting stuck in crevaces and riverbeds, were wery on point, especially at Kiroro where you can really get in trouble when you go side country:

you could hike all the way to the top, but it was a 45mn hike that didn't feel worth the time and effort

being able to take gate 4 for the first time, was nice

After that, I went back to Niseko Village and gate 11, which is alledgely a triple black diamond, but didn't feel that hard:

makes for a nice picture, though ;)

Nice clouds to end the day:

farewell niseko, we had a great time

One sidecountry run off gate 4 that finally opened:

And a loast one from gate 11, the supposed to be triple black diamond that was only single black:

met Arturo there to join us and drive to Niseko

food food as always

Arturo won wasabi roulette :)

Hokkaido and Niseko especially gets reliable snow, and it actually snowed every day we were thee, not huge amount like in tahoe, but enough that it was fun:

After 2 days in Annupuri, we moved to the main Niseko Village base and stayed at the wonderful Pension Island and with wonderful Kako-SAn:

she is adorable and took great care of us

The food trucks close to our Pension, were fun dinner options:

did I mention it snowed almost all the time? :)

we also did a sit down dinner at a somewhat expensie restaurant we actually had been to before

my own google maps review said it was overpriced and not that great last time we went, but we did enjoy it more this time around

After 8 days around Niseko, Rusutsu and ending in Kiroro, we drove to Chitose to be close to our plane back out the next day:

managed to use enough of my japanese to order food in a restaurant which spoke no english at all

last breakfast before heading out

We had great snow, here are the blog reports on snowboarding:

We had a great time, thanks to Arturo for making the trip happen.

On my way to Hokkaido for a snowboarding trip with Arturo, I had 24H in Tokyo:

bye SFO

hello Tokyo

Once in Haneda, I checked in my snowboard for my trip to Sapporo the next day, which was a bit of a hassle but saved me from carrying the bulky bag across Tokyo.

missed out on a cheap haircut :)

I decided to base myself in Shinjuku for that short time, because fun things:

Did a quick hop to Harajuku:

Harajuku is known for a special kind of fashion

After that, I went to a language exchange café to chat with locals:

And went out for dinner:

hahaha, can't argue with that

yum

The next morning, went back to Harajuku and Meiji Jingu:

Quick Cat café on the way :)

Quick stop by Shibuya crossing, because why not :)

also lunch :)

had to pick up a custom japanese toy to bring back

And then it was time to go back to Haneda for my flight to Hokkaido to go snowboarding

The drink selection was good, and if someone wanted to spend $500 on a very special wine pairing, that was available

I got a very interesting blueberry cider, it was very good

Nice dishes and still a fun evening:

this entremet looked nice but taste was underwhelming

the main dish, chicken, was good bug a lot of food instead of having other tasting portions

intersting cheese and salad presentation

desert was good, but just a single one

how to handle cats :)

snow line was low, but that's good for the snow quality (cold)

got to KW in just over 3h40 with chain control speed restrictions, not bad (arrived with 31%)

glad to be back :)

Day 1 was cold and windy, became whiteout conditions before long:

coverage in Chamoix was still a bit rough at the bottom, but easy to go back on my butt

still a bit low in coverage on some ridges, but ok elsewhere

bottom of the drain still had holes to the river underneath, but they were being covered slowly

the wall still needed a bit more snow in places

it was still easy to get cliffed out i places

fair mount of snow falling the 2nd half the of day

KW crew did a great job keeping 6 and 10 open 'till end of day.

Thanks to Jeremy for getting me lodging for one night

Day #2 was the bluebird. We didn't get the 1.5ft in the forecast, only 7", but it was just the right kind that it felt bottomless and enjoyable while helping improve the base.

crews hard at work, and it sounded like this guy was actually electric, not diesel. Is that possible?

6 opened right on schedule, no delays

lovely snow

Couldn't see the base or anything the previous day. Much nicer on day #2:

I feel like I jumped this because I was too lazy to hike back up and the snow was soft enough, but it looks high. Still, I took a picture afterwards and have no other such picture, so it may actually be this one:

The Wall opened around 11:00 after snow safety was done, and the backside at 11:45 exactly as scheduled (big thumbs up on the twitter updates):

lovely to see the backside coverage, not bad

I didn't stay in line for 30mn to get first chair on 4

but I went to the wave, one of the first people down

looked like a good place to check out

got all this snow to myself, woot!

not every day I get a shot like this :)

I finished the day, getting good snow and lines all day, and left after 2 full days, very content. Great job to the KW crews for keeping things running in the middle of the week, even if few people were there:

There are plenty of sleep drugs, but first make sure you don't have Obstructive Sleep Apnea which definitely must be handled through whatever appropriate means and not paper over with drugs.

But if you have an hyperactive mind, took caffeine too late, or have dozens of others reasons for having poor sleep, please read up on natural things you can do in daily behavior and personal health, and if those don't help, here are drugs that can also help.

Falling asleep more quickly with Hypnotics

Those drugs are known to cause some people to sleep walk. I personally would only recommend taking 1/2 or 1/3rd of a pill if you need a little kick to help. It's also helpful if you have to go to bed early due to timezones or whatnot.

Staying asleep longer

These are all off label, meaning they are meant ot treat something else, but can help to stay drowsy. One downside is if you take too much, you'll still be drowsy when you wake up, so you should adjust dosage by trial and error.