All Snow Warrior-ess and Whatnot

Well, hello.  It's been a minute.  A cool year-and-a-half worth of minutes, actually.

So here I set up a blog to chronicle the trip of a lifetime.  My 13-month voyage around the globe, living out of a backpack, hopping from hostel to tent to couch to boat to villa to cockroach-infested mattress on the ground.  And chronicle I did.  I skimmed a couple of my past entries, and, holy shit.  I did some ridiculous stuff.  I think I need to wait another 5 years before fully re-living all of the memories, though.

In any case, I had intended to keep this blog going even after I returned from my trip.  Well, I was too busy re-adjusting to "normalcy" and being "funemployed" for 6 months.  I did a lot of surfing, hiking and climbing.  A very hectic schedule, yes.

Long story short, I landed a job at Red Bull, and have been working out of the North America headquarters in Santa Monica for the past year-ish.  Not gonna lie, Red Bull is a pretty rad place to work.  Case in point: they're sending me off on a 7-day backcountry ski tour in the Eastern Sierras.  I leave tomorrow. 

There's been a lot of build-up to this event they've named "Snow Warriors."  I've basically been freaking my shit out about it.  Partly because the application requirements for this thing were meant to scare most people off, and partly because I was physically and emotionally scarred from a raging blister encounter my first time ski touring.  And that was after 1 day.  Multiply that by 6, and I might end up rubbing my feet to bloody stumps.

Whatevs, I filled out my application and answered all the questions, despite not having all the requirements under my belt.  Clearly the experience I did have was good enough, and I was selected to join the "Trans Sierra Five"

The series of blog entries that will follow are those that I submitted to Red Bull’s employee fitness department, for them to broadcast back out to the company as a way of following along on our trials & tribulations in prepping for the big trip.  Ohhhh yes, and there were many stories that ensued.

3/7/13

Moral of the weekend:  it's a lot harder skiing uphill than it is downhill.  Ski touring brings a whole new meaning to "earning your turns."

When I saw that FFF was in search of a team for an epic trans-sierra ski expedition, I thought, "oh heck yeah."  I’ve spent many a family vacation on the slopes of the Rockies on skis, mastering my first pizza & french fries at age 4ish.  I have a solid ski background, but it never occurred to me to ski in any direction but downhill.

This past weekend in Utah was my first time ski touring.  Turns out ski touring is exactly like downhill skiing, except for the fact that all of the gear is different, you wear a pack 1/3 your body weight, and you’re going uphill.  So, in essence, the two sports are approximately 90% different.  As soon as we kitted up and set off on our initial ascent, I thought to myself, "well, this is going to be rather difficult."

Six hours, 2 raw blisters and 3,000ft later, I was sufficiently exhausted, yet enlightened to a whole new world of skiing that I could really see myself getting into. 

As far as the team goes, I was anxious to meet these gnarly dudes that I’d be hanging out with in the mountains for 6 days.  Being the token female on the trip, I had my fair share of concerns.  Could I hack it?  Would they be cool? Does this mean I have to buy a She-Wee?

Reading everyone’s bio ahead of time, it sounded like I was being thrown into a mix of what could be the cast of Rambo: Arctic. Not to mention the fact that this project’s pet-name is "Snow Warriors."  Hard core.  Thankfully, though, once Matt, Eric, Pete, Jordan and I all greeted each other in the parking lot just above Alta, I knew it was going to be a good crew.  As the weekend progressed, I was super impressed with how supportive, encouraging and positive everyone was. 

This will definitely make for a great trip.

And so, now begins the training.  Off to get all Snow Warrior-ess and whatnot.

3/27/13

Skiing in powder is like doing squat-thrusts down the side of a mountain for hours

Post-Utah, it was apparent that I’d have to set myself up on a solid training plan.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t put shoes on for a week after the trip due to a bit of a blister bonanza, plus I’ve been traveling quite a bit, so getting on a training schedule has been rough. 

Fortunately, I just spent a week up in Whistler and logged a few days skiing & riding.  Didn’t get any touring in, but successfully murdered my legs after 5 days downhilling in powder.  Skiing in powder is like doing squat-thrusts down the side of a mountain for hours.  By the end of the week my legs were blatantly starting to give out on me.  So I guess that counts as training.

Now that I’m back in Santa Monica, I plan to mountain bike up & aound Sullivan Canyon at least 2-3x/week, bike to work on days I’m not mountain biking, get some yoga back into my life, and perhaps start considering using some gym equipment.  I’m not a gym person whatsoever, so this in and of itself will be challenging.  I find much more enjoyment getting exercise from the activities I already love doing, whether surfing, climbing, skiing/snowboarding, etc.  I’m way more motivated by fun & being outdoors with exercise as the by-product, rather than exercise for the sake of exercise.  So, TBD on the whole "running on a conveyor belt while staring at a parking lot" thing :)

Outside of that, I plan to pop up to Mammoth this weekend to get at least 1 more day of touring in before the trip.  I’ll ultimately be renting my gear for the "real" trip from Mammoth Mountaineering, so they will be able to help me dial in my setup this weekend.

Fingers crossed some storms roll through in April, since it sounds like the sun has been baking away a lot of the snow up in the Sierras...hiking shoes may show up on my packing list if that keeps up!

4/10/13

Easter weekend.  Mammoth.  Hot, epic mess.

Long story short:

I decided to take advantage of the 3-day Easter weekend and headed up to Mammoth for some friend bonding and touring training.

At around 9am Friday morning, I loaded up and set off.  Seven hours and $1,000 later, I had a juicy speeding ticket, a broken-down car and wonderment of “is the universe trying to tell me something?”  But I made it to Mammoth. 

After dropping my hoopty off at the mechanic, I made my way over to Mammoth Mountaineering to sort out the touring setup I’d be renting for the “real” trip.   Once everything was dialed in, I told them to hang onto my gear as I went across the street to grab a bite and wait for my friends to come scoop me up. 

By the time I returned 1.5hrs later, someone at the shop had put my gear away.  One of the employees quickly ran to get it and they sent me on my way.

The next morning I met up with a local friend of mine to skin up the Sherwins.  As we arrived at the trailhead and began to gear up, I realized that the rental shop had given me two left boots.  WTF.  Seriously?  So we packed up, drove back to Mammoth Mountaineering, got the right boots, and headed back to the trailhead.

The skin up was kind of a bitch.  The snow cover was minimal and the conditions were soft, slushy and slippery.  It took us twice as long as it should have to get to the summit.  But, alas, we made it.  Hiked the ridge a bit, and found a nice chute to drop in on. 

We began to transition our gear to downhill mode by stripping the skins off our skis, setting our boots to ski mode, and clipping into our bindings.  But, wait.  Wait.  No.  Wait.  Are you effing kidding me???  My bindings were set completely wrong.  There was a solid 3-inch gap between the back of my boot and the binding.  There was no chance I was clipping in.  There was no chance I was skiing down.

So, yeah. I ended up sledding down the Sherwins on a frickin’ avalanche shovel.  It sounds like a lot of fun in theory, but the grade was only steep enough for the first 1/8^th of the way down, and hiking/walking was not an option.  It was as if Mother Nature set up trap-door booby-traps all along the mountain so that every 3^rd step you took the ground gave out below you and your leg would sink up to your waist in deep snow. Hence, I essentially scooted, crawled, rolled and face-planted 2,000ft the rest of the way off the mountain. 

>:0

Needless to say, I got the entire weekend of gear rental for free.  What a bunch of jabronis.

Silver lining: I found the boots I’ll be renting for the trip. 

Natalie Michal from Fit for Flight on Vimeo.

4/17/13

I’m sick.  So that’s nice.  Blargh!

Just slugging back shots of Robitussin this week and attempting to train through it.  Sorting out my gear is super high priority with such little time left, so I plan to hit REI pretty hard this weekend.  The countdown is on!  Holy sheet....

4/25/13

I have planned my final meal which includes copious amounts of pepperoni pineapple pizza, donuts and gummi bears.

AAAHHHH!  Final countdown!!!

I’m treating this last week of prep as if I am on death row.  I have paid off all my debts, I have come clean with all of my confessions, and I have planned my final meal which includes copious amounts of pepperoni pineapple pizza, donuts and gummi bears.

I keed, I keed, I’m probably not going to die.  I’m, like, 70% sure of it.   Although there sure have been A LOT of signs…no, warnings….omens….that I have actively been trying to ignore & rise above.  Who knew so much would go wrong before the trip even started?  I guess I'm just getting it all out of the way now so the trip will be smooth sailing!

So remember a few blog posts ago about my trip to Mammoth?  Where a bunch of shitty stuff happened and that the silver lining coming out of the whole cluster-F weekend was the fact that I found the gear I’d be renting for the trip?

Well, I called the rental shop on Monday to confirm the logistics of getting my gear delivered to Bishop before the start of the trip.   Yeah, about that.  They sold off my setup at an end-of-season sale.

I’m sorry, what?  WHAT?!

First, you guys set me up, and as I step out of the shop for an hour, you put everything back and reset all the settings.  Then, you give me 2 left boots, which I don't discover until I get to the trailhead.  Then, you set my bindings incorrectly so I have to sled down a mountain on a shovel.  And now you’re now telling me you’ve sold off all the gear I had lined up for this huge-ass trip??  Mammoth Mountaineering, eff you.  Tell your friends, tell your family, hide your kids, hide your wife.  This place SUCKS.  Unfortunately, they are the only shop in a 500-mile radius that rents alpine touring gear, so my hands are tied and I’m forced to continue doing business with them. 

In any case, I have decided on a backup plan, which involves trying on 4 more pairs of boots the day before we launch to determine which pair is least likely to rub my feet into raw, bloody stumps.  I cannot stress enough the importance of proper, fitted boots for long trips like this. 

I have since emerged from this latest frenzy in a state of positivity, knowing that everything will work out totally fine.  This trip is going to be a journey of epic proportions, out of which I will have stories I will be telling to my grandkids.  And my baby's mamas. Mamas mamas, baby mamas mamas.  Wait, that's an Outkast song...

Aaaanyway, I'm anxiously awaiting Saturday morning!!!  We drive up to meet the team in Bishop, spend the afternoon finalizing our packs, shuttling cars and doing final-final prep.  Sunday morning we take a flight over the mountains, get dumped off in the wilderness somewhere, and thus begins a week of frolicking up, down and around some snowy peaks!!!  Let’s do this!!!

Now What?

How, after 24ish hours of travel home, did I not find the time to write a final blog entry about my trip?  Absurd.  As far as I remember I was too busy freaking out about the prospect of going home to focus on anything other than freaking out about going home.

I actually did start to write something, but got only as far as this:

Wow. Ok.  So I’m just leaving South Korea, fully on my way home. WHAAAAT? If you could see my face right now, it would be the face of total denial and disbelief. 

I never thought this day would come and I would always massively freak out just thinking about what it would feel like to be going home after over a year of traveling.  I’ve done and seen some mind-blowing, life-altering stuff and I would never trade this experience for anything.  I am SO GLAD I made this happen, despite the insane difficulties in setting it in motion - i.e. completely abandoning my comfortable, secure life as I knew it.

But what’s the point in living a scripted life?  Seeing as though we’ve only got one shot, I figure why not max it out and embrace the unknown in order to avoid the ole “I really shoulda/woulda/coulda done that” nonsense?  No risk, no reward, right?  The riskier, the rewardier, in my book.  Perhaps I should actually write that book…

And that’s about when the stewardesses came by serving something akin to a meat asteroid sealed in plastic (steaming hot on the outside, frozen on the inside) to pop all my thought bubbles.

I’ve been back for about 4 weeks now, and I still get the feeling that I’ve just awakened from the most amazing dream of my life.  Hot damn, what a trip.  But it wasn’t just a trip.  It was an adventure, an experience, a journey.  No words will ever describe it to anyone.  Nor pictures.  Nor videos.  I had read and seen other people’s blogs and photos before I set off and, although cool, they never fully soaked in and I couldn’t put anything into context until I’d experienced such things first-hand.  I’ll never watch the news, Discovery Channel or NatGeo the same way again.  I relate to it all in an entirely different manner, now. 

Yadda, yadda, yadda.  Rambly, rambly, rambly.

Really what everyone wants to know (or doesn’t actually care about but is just being courteous in asking) are the all-important questions below that I’ve been asked many times since returning.  So I’ll go ahead and give you the abridged version of my answers here:

• What was your favorite place?  Ok, if I had a gun to my head and I were forced to choose ONE favorite…and this is like asking a mother to choose her favorite child.  Nepal.  I love Nepal.  Honorable mentions include: Ethiopia, South Africa, Malawi, Madagascar, Indonesia
• How long did you travel for? Nearly 400 days
• Where’d you go? I technically went to 21 countries across eastern Africa, southern Africa, central Asia and southeast Asia.  But, realistically, I “spent time” in about 13.  Check out http://sites.google.com/site/spontaneish/faq-s for the full list.
• How much did your trip cost?  4 years’ worth of busting my ass at university followed by another 5 years’ worth of busting my ass in a corporate job.  Ok, if you really want to know, I opted for the trip of a lifetime vs. a new mid-range car.  It can be done for much more or much less, FYI.  See the same link above for advice on saving and budgeting.
• What was the craziest thing you ate? Silkworm larvae. And poo, probably.  There’s likely been traces of it in most things I’ve eaten.  Right.  I’ve also had warthog, ostrich (meat & eggs), kudu and goat. 
• Where was the best food? Ethiopia, Nepal and Thailand.
• Were you ever scared?  95% of the time, no.  Ask me in person for the stories of the 5%.
• How did you get around?  Bumpy ass rides on dusty ass roads.
• What was the longest you stayed somewhere? 1 month in Mossel Bay, South Africa.
• What was the craziest thing you did? Probably that time I free-dived with a ton of oceanic, bull and tiger sharks.  Best dive ever.
• What was the most memorable thing you did? I stayed with a family in a tiny village in the Ruhengeri region of Rwanda. 
• How did your trip change you?  Wow, good question.  I’ll save getting deep for close friends and family members…and those seriously interested in a quality conversation over a beer, assuming you’re buying.  I’m still the same person, but with different perspective.  I think about things differently.  I engage with the world a lot more.  I just feel more “in touch”.
• What will you do now?  Well, it’s probably going to be a multi-step process that goes something like this:  A) revel in the fact that I actually just “did that.”  B) continue to have fun and pursue things that make me happy.  C) earn a living.  D) figure out a way to intertwine B&C as much as possible.  In order to do all of that I’ve got to get a job.  Or dust off that meth lab in the basement.  I’ll shoot for a job first, though.  But not just any job.  A cool job.  For a respectable company whose sole purpose isn’t just making money.  Easier said than done, yes.  But so are a lot of things.  No reason to not aim high.

So there we have it. 

Any more questions?  Want some travel advice?  Let me know.  I’m happy to help.

I’m not totally abandoning my blog now that I’m back.  I plan to keep posting things as I continue to re-adjust to life in America.  Most likely they will be reflections on things we take for granted, this so-called “American Dream” we all aspire to and miscellaneous dumb stories or observations.

Until then, toodles! 


Here's my final RTW adventure map.For a larger version and to see a full list of all the stops: http://bit.ly/qncUPy

Confessions of a Scuba Logbook

Scuba diving is fun!  Here's proof!  Excerpts from my logbook...

• Failed narcosis test miserably.  Not bc I was “narc’d out”, but bc I can’t add 4+3.
• Cage dive w/ great whites.  Chomped on cage in front of face.  Touched it.  NBD.  Ok, total lie.  EPIC!!!!
• Shallow dive w/ pyjama and leopard cat sharks.  Brought squid with as bait.  They went nuts for it!  Crawling all over us.  We rolled them over, “tonic’d” them and hugged them like crazy!!!  I love sharks.
• Total NatGeo dive.  Shark cinema!  Six tigers, 1 bull, 30-ish oceanic blacktips.  Begged DM to secretly let me stay down longer.  Came up with only 10 bar.  Stupid!  But worth it! One of the best dives of my life.
• Dive buddy got attacked by titan trigger fish!  He totally freaked and pulled a CESA.  Dangerous!
• Cleaner fish (remora) got fresh with me trying to clean my legs.
• Holy negative entry! Sucked down 80 bar just fighting the current to get to the reef.
• Lost my GD mask bc of shitty velcro. $35 wasted…
• I <3 clown triggerfish!
• No mantas, DAMMIT! BLARGH!  Last trip had 20...
• Got the once over from a judgmental Napoleon wrasse.
• Dive aborted bc diver caught in nasty current toward the abyss.  Diver from another boat lost for 1 hour. Scary!
• Dive aborted bc diver (same one) swept off reef and ran out of air.  Blargh!  Hold your breath, people!  Sike, terrible idea.
• Stare-down with territorial anemone fish
• Holy mother of all moray eels!  Three feet around at least! 
• I love me some crotchety old giant grouper
• Sea snake! Heyoo!  They breathe air? Who knew? 
• OCTO-MUTHA-EFFING-PUS!  Flashing colors, changing textures, so cool!  New favorite animal.  <3 <3 <3
• OMG crazy fishball!  Would punch hand into it and it would dent and morph.  Cool!
• Almost caught a lobster!  So frantic and goofy-looking.
• New life goal: see a puffer fish puff.
• Given an “American” gauge.  PSI and Feet versus Bar and Meters.  No idea how to read it.
• Boring dive.  Entertained ourselves doing headstands in the sand, blowing bubble rings, planking the reef.
• Full tunnel penetration...i.e. a swim-through a 60m cave/tunnel. Dope!
• Anemone hat.  Turned around to see DM with an anemone on head looking like some rasta dude.  Never laughed so hard underwater in my life!
• Cuttlefish the size of a giant football
• MONSTERCRABS! ROOOOARRRR!  They even had tube coral growing on their backs.  Ridic!
• DM found dying fish on reef.  I gave it my reg.  Shockingly, it still died.
• THRESHER SHARKS, SUCKAS!  Tail as long as body.  Beautiful. Incredible.

Backpacker Conversations

Being that backpacking entails bouncing around from place to place, you are meeting new people from all corners of the globe on a daily basis.  Hence, everyone has a similar list of questions and conversation topics to cover.

Obligatory first introductions:
•    Where you’re from
•    How long you’ve been on the road
•    Where you’ve been
•    Where you’re going
•    Where your favorite places have been
•    What you’ve done
•    If you are traveling with anyone
•    What types of transportation you have used (i.e. how hard core you are)
•    When you are returning home
•    What you do (did) back home before traveling
•    What you plan to do when you go back

Granted, a lot of these conversations have become routine, but it’s always interesting to hear what everyone else’s stories are.  Many are similar -- gap year between school & work, holiday-makers, job-quitters, etc – but I like to hear how other people have worked travel into their lives.

It also happens on a regular basis that I get to throw myself, and all of America, a pity party in regards to our piss poor, life-eroding lack of holiday time.  The conversation usually goes like so:
ME: Hi, what did you get up to today? Any suggestions on things to do/see?
THEM: Hi, yeah, we did blah blah blah and it was good.  We recommend it.
ME: Cool, I’ll look into it.  So where are you from?
THEM: We are from XYZ country.  Where in America are you from?
ME: California, originally.  So have you guys been traveling for a while?
THEM: Oh, we are just on holiday from work so we only have about 4 weeks to travel.  Yourself?
ME: Not on holiday, exactly.  I quit my job and I've been traveling almost a year now
THEM: Wow...you couldn’t just take time off from work?
ME: Well, it’s a bit more complicated.  In the States we get about 12 days’ vacation a year and a handful of public holidays.
THEM:  You are joking, right?
ME: (shrug)
THEM:  That’s insane! We start out getting 4 weeks and it goes up from there.  Plus public holidays.  How can anyone go anywhere?
ME:  Well, a lot of people go to New Jersey.  Or TGI Friday’s. 

Boo hoo.  Woe is me.  But you can't deny how crap that is.  The only places I’ve spoken with people about where they are worse off re: free time to “have a life” are South Korea and Japan, the #2 and #5 ranking countries on suicide rates.

So that’s cool. 

Perhaps Canada is in my near future.  Vancouver?  We'll see...

Thailand. Meh.

Ok, we are gonna start with a bit of a quiz.  I’ll throw out some phrases and you guess whether I’m describing the country of Thailand or the “actress” Lindsay Lohan.  

Here we go:
Overexploited
Needs serious rehab
Once pretty, now a hot mess
A drunken, drugfest wasteland
Looks good in magazines/brochures, but actually a big ol’ mess

If you answered “both” for all of the above, you are correct.  So, in effect, Thailand is the Lindsay Lohan of Southeast Asia…or perhaps the world, but I haven’t been enough places to say for sure…I’ve heard Syria is a bit of a shit show as well…

Ouch, I know.  Sorry, Thailand.

Now would be a good time for me to make the disclaimer that I never got off the tourist trail, so every slam in here is only directed at the farang hot-spots of Bangkok (aka Kok-Vegas), Koh Tao, Krabi, Phi Phi and Phuket.  I am not intending to slam Thais at all, because I found them to be a happy and warm people.  I realize I’m generalizing to a major extent, but this is just what I saw in the short month I traveled around southern Thailand.  The north is apparently better, but having come from places like Africa and Nepal, my expectations were really high.

Anyway, I would be lying if I didn’t admit to sort of hating on Thailand a bit.  The backpacker and tourist scene is so massive that I really believe it has ruined this country.  Sure, you could probably get out into some remote villages to get a better sense of “authentic” Thailand, but you’d have to go really out of your way to get there.

Tourists are everywhere and Thai people have adapted to them.  Which has its ups and downs, but shouldn’t the tourists be adapting to Thai culture?  What you end up with is a bunch of Westerner enclaves with trendy chain restaurants, “massage” parlors, air-conditioned hotel rooms, 7Elevens and a 9:1 ratio of souvenir hawkers to every tourist.   And then you get the tourists and Thais interacting on such surface-level terms that it’s almost like the two are constantly butting heads and trying to rip each other off.  Thais try to rip tourists off by charging 5x the price of any good/service; tourists rip the Thais off by haggling to the point of insult/degradation all the while straining the local economy and culture.  It’s a vicious cycle.

I’ve obviously passed my prime of backpacking around Thailand.  Most travelers here are university-age kids whose sole purpose is to seek out insane, raging full-moon parties, drug-toting beach boys and remain in a drunken, drugged state for most of their trip, then brag about how bad they blacked out the past 5 nights in a row.  Ridiculous.  Snore.  What’d you learn about the culture? Yep, that’s what I thought.

When I started my trip I remember making a hypothesis that the more touristy a place is, the more abrasive and artificial it becomes.  Everything I’ve seen has confirmed this theory so far, and Thailand is a perfect example.  On the flipside, the fewer tourists and travelers around, the more genuine, warm, welcoming, and curious a place is.  Which, for me, is what I find most appealing about traveling.  Getting as far out of your comfort zone as possible makes for such a more rewarding experience.

Look, tons of people love Thailand.  It does have a lot of natural beauty and some interesting heritage.  Unfortuantely, IMO, this has been smothered by the influx of tourism.  So now you can go to Thailand, ride an abused elephant, pet some drugged tigers and then get wasted on a beach somewhere.  Rad.

I think I will come back one day and get way off the gringo trail.  I did spend a couple nights Couchsurfing on the southern coast so got a quick taste of what a true Thai village is like, and found it to be quite awesome.  I even played a game of badminton with an old Thai man that was super fun.  He spoke zero English but kicked my ass and laughed at me the whole time.  And I loved it.  It was great.  I also randomly inserted myself into an impromptu aerobics session in a parking lot with some menopause-aged Thai ladies.  They all came up to me after the class to ask me where I'm from, chat me up and invite me back to class the next day.  They were so cute and so fun.  So I know there is much more to Thailand than the crusty surface that I scratched.  I just obviously didn’t see much beyond that, which is definitely no one's fault but my own.

But let’s end on some positive notes and send out some good vibes Thailand’s way.

I LOVE that Koh Tao is the cheapest place in the world to get any scuba certification imaginable.  I finally got my advanced open water and saved a few hundred bucks in the process.

I also got to stay at the fanciest resort I’ve ever stayed in my life.  And probably ever will.  I was somehow invited to spend time at the Pritzker family’s ocean-front villa on Phuket.  This place was unreal.  Ten-thousand-dollar-a-night unreal.  Here’s the description as according to the resort’s website: “the villa consists of six separate bedrooms finished with Thai furnishings, art and antiques. Villas enjoy private pools plus living and dining salas. Personal housekeepers and cooks are also on hand. Villas are ideal for small business gatherings, weddings and other special events.”  That, or for a group of freeloaders with the right connections.  Hell yeah.

Nepal. A Lovefest.

Talk about being behind on blog entries.  I love to envision myself making smaller, more frequent updates.  But here we go again and I’m playing catch-up in the form of a massive beast-entry. 

FYI, before setting off on this trip, I loaded up my iPod with movies and audiobooks thinking I would have a lot of down-time to kill.  So not the case.  I honestly have no idea where the time goes, but when you travel like this, chances are most of your time will be spent exploring/experiencing, in transit or doing admin.  Yes, there is a lot of admin to take care of when away for so long….like figuring out what to do when Bank A cancels ATM card #1 and then ATM card #2 gets eaten by the ATM machine.  Banks can go the way of mosquitoes in my book: let’s nuke ‘em!

So unfortunately, this is my only legitimate entry for Nepal.  Which sucks, because Nepal is rad. Hot damn, I’d go so far as to say I love it.  It’s a wonderful melting pot of all things Asian, Indian and Arabic that makes for a delightful and delicious stew.

Not gonna lie, I was majorly sad to leave Africa being that I spent the bulk of this trip traveling up, down and around its eastern front.  However, as soon as I set foot in Kathmandu, I loved it.  Most would think this city is a dirty, polluted, chaotic mess, to which I would say, “indeed,” however, it it’s the “good kind” of dirty, polluted, chaotic mess.  At least according to me, but my standards have been significantly lowered over the course of the past 10 months.

I’m not the only one that has fallen in love with this place.  I’ve heard from many people – tourists and Nepalese alike – that second, third, even ninth visits to Nepal are not uncommon.  This does not shock me, as I could see myself coming back time and again.  My initial plan of a few weeks’ stay quickly and sneakily turned into a nearly 2-month lovefest with this country and I only covered about 20% of what it offers.  There are many other regions I have yet to explore of this place. 

Except for the Terai.  Who honestly wants to find themselves roasting alive in 110 degree wet heat and ingesting handfuls of mosquitoes with each inhale? Sure, the lure of potential tiger sightings outweigh these horrid conditions for many people who choose to visit Chitwan National Park, but after hearing that the rangers maybe see 1 or 2 tigers EVERY YEAR, forget about it.  Suck it, Terai, nobody actually likes you (no offense to the peeps from down there, you guys are cool…especially that Buddha character). 

Anyways, every place has their “red-headed step-child” – the Terai in Nepal, New Jersey in the States, Canada….(insert winky face to make Canada feel better)

Here’s what I got up to in the time I spent in Nepal…

Buddhist Monastery

My first couple weeks in Nepal were spent beaming from ear-to-ear.  I, along with another volunteer, lived 24/7 with Buddhist monks in a monastery in the surrounding hills of the Kathmandu Valley.  I was there primarily to teach English, but was also able to learn a bit about Buddhism straight from the source.  I was nervous about what to expect, anticipating that I would inevitably yet unknowingly break a bunch of rules.   Which I definitely did, but contrary to what the Hangover 2 would have you imagine, I was never beaten into submission with a stick.  Not even close.  I was given the utmost respect, hospitality and kindness from the monks than I was ever imagining or expecting. 

Many of the monks at the Namkha Kyung Zong monastery are of Tibetan lineage.  Much of what I saw and learned stemmed from the Tibetan form of Buddhism.  This included everything from the cuisine, traditional dress (the zhen), architecture, paintings, a bit of the language and a beginning level of Tibetan Buddhism.   One of the most remarkable things I learned was the way in which traditions shape the building any Buddhist structure, be it a monastery, Buddha statue or stupa. 

From the way in which you cut down the trees to the makeup and insides of each statue and stupa, it’s incredible how many intricacies exist.  Case in point, our monastery had 3 giant, golden idols depicting different forms of Buddha at the front of the temple. Holding each statue up and supporting much of its weight is a specially carved beam of wood selected from a particular tree that had been felled in an equally particular manner.  The plank spans the height of the statue from base to head, with carvings along each of the main chakras of the body.
Within the remaining space are thousands of scrolls with mantras handwritten by monks.  Every cavity within the hollow statues is filled with these mantras, which are placed inside by a mini-monk all the way to the tips of the statue’s fingers.  It’s truly astonishing.  Even the hundreds of mini statues lining the walls of the temple are filled with mantras.

Separately, in a conversation with the brother of the monastery’s guru, I was inspired by one of the tenets of Buddhism in the acknowledgement of and desire to update with modernity.  One such example of this is the recognition of English as a global language and widespread communication tool.  The way they see it, learning to speak English will enable them to export Buddhism and its principles to the Western world, a region in which Buddhism has become increasingly popular. Secondly, many monks do not stay at the monastery for their entire lives.  Many choose to leave to enter the “real world” in their mid-twenties.  At such an age, they’ve potentially lost out on many years of traditional schooling.  In order to make the transition that much smoother, they choose to study English to better prepare them for greater success outside the monastery.

That said, we spent most of our days teaching the monks to read and speak English, with off time following the schedule of the monks, shadowing them at prayers and ceremonies, and following their lead in the various practices of the monastery. 

A day in the life:
04:00 – wake up
05:30 – morning prayers
07:00 – breakfast
08:30 – teaching: middle class
10:30 – teaching: older class
12:00 – lunch & misc
15:00 – tea & misc
15:30 – teaching: younger class
18:00 – dinner
19:00 – play “rocks” & misc …but mostly play rocks
21:00 - bed

The monks’ schedules looked very similar, but they would rotate between English, Nepali and Tibetan class and fill most gaps in time with prayers and/or prayer practice.

As I’ve said before, I’m not the religious type.  I didn’t reach any kind of “enlightenment” while staying at the monastery, but I did gain a new appreciation for Buddhism.  Compared with other major religions, it seems a bit more accessible and less reliant on a suspension of disbelief.  I like the idea of individuals being in charge of their lives and actions without an ethereal being acting as babysitter.  Anyway, that’s about as far as I’ll go on this topic…

All in all, I loved my time there. 

Sight-Seeing

One of my favorite things about traveling around Nepal is that you get to share the woes of being a visitor with Indian tourists.  Usually these woes are reserved especially for Westerners, mainly because tourism is dominated by Westerners.  Not so in Nepal.  It made me extremely happy to have Indian tourists around to buffer me against irksome street touts, declarations of “I give you good friend price” and the constant barrage of “namaste” while walking through the gauntlet of shop-owners.  Ha!  So long suckers!  Have fun with that.

But I digress. 

Sight-seeing-wise, Nepal is very rich in culture, architecture, traditions and history.  There is a ton of stuff to see without even having to leave the Kathmandu city limits.  There are a number of Durbar Squares – old royal palaces – to check out, as well as a plethora of temples, stupas and religious sites.  Many depict the hundreds of gods worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists, are adorned in vibrant floral arrangements or prayer flags, are watched over by gargantuan golden idols and even date back to 600AD, as is the case with the Boudha stupa in Boudhanath.   I was lucky enough to tour two of the most famous Buddhist sites with my new monk friend, Chuoying from the monastery in Buddhanilkantha.  It was an amazing way to experience, learn, participate and connect with these sites while having “Chewy” as my guide.   It was certainly a highlight of my trip.

The people of Nepal are very colorful as well.  Not only in dress, but in attitude and traditions.  Kathmandu is one of the most lively places I’ve visited.  There is a continuous buzz and flow of elders, parents, kids, babies and animals throughout the maze of streets.  Paying a visit to the markets is well worth it to pick up some curious fruits and vegetables you never knew existed, check out the vibrant pattered fabrics and perhaps thrown down some cash for your own baby cow.  Or in my case, a baby goat.  Ok, I didn’t actually buy one, but I had to muster up some serious restraint not to.

Trekking
The amount of outdoorsy stuff you can do here is endless.  The rafting and trekking alone is world-class.  For as outdoorsy as I am, I never actually thought I’d willingly send myself off into the wilderness for any more than 5 days max.   Turns out I ended up spending over 3x that amount of time trekking.  Shit, I couldn’t have left Nepal without giving it a go. 

The first trek was a “short” 5-dayer to Poon Hill.  Hill of the Poon.  Poon meaning nothing more than the name of the tribes found in that region, so don’t get all Urban Dictionary on me here.

The second trek was a 12-day venture into the Annapurna range of the Himalayas.  

Both treks were awesome.  Very different, but very awesome.  Each had its own set of challenges in completing the circuit.  Poon Hill was more a battle between the trail and your knees, as there is a whole day on either end devoted to ascending and descending a slate staircase.  The Annapurna Circuit Trek was more varied, with most of the “easy” days at the beginning and the rough stuff scattered throughout.  There were a few days in there where I felt a distinct sense of utter accomplishment and simultaneous physical and mental exhaustion.

The hike to Ice Lake and crossing Thorung-La Pass were the two hardest days.  Think over 8 hours of hiking at extremely high, oxygen-deprived altitudes over steep terrain dodging mules, rivers, rocks and landslides.  All the while trying to grit through various muscle and blister pains while convincing yourself that you need to slam more water to stave off AMS and getting emergency heli-evac’d to lower ground.  So, yeah, it was definitely a doozy. 

I’m SO glad I did it.  I love a challenge, and that it was.  It makes any success that much more sweet.  Not to mention the reward of amazing Himalayan scenery.  Truly breathtaking.  There would be numerous mornings where we’d wake up, look out the window and shriek at the sight of majestic peaks before running outside for a better view. 



Behold! Nature! I love it…

So there we go.  And this brings me to my token abrupt ending to a long-ass entry that I’ve become weary of writing.

The end.





Next entry: my love-hate relationship with Thailand...stay tuned for that one…

Ode to Earplugs

Earplugs, how I love you. Without you my sleep life would be non-existent and my ears would have to battle a constant barrage of abuse.

You are my most valuable travel accessory.

Non-exhaustive usage list as compiled thus far:

•    Crying babies (not African babies, tho, bc they are the chillest babies in the world)
•    Shouting people
•    Cackling Italians
•    Buzzing motorbikes
•    Backup beepers
•    Honking cars
•    Farting trucks
•    Engines revving
•    Slamming doors
•    Early morning sweeping
•    Cawing crows
•    Shrieking cows
•    Cockadoodleing roosters
•    Barking dogs
•    Meowing cats
•    Various animal fights
•    Hyenas rummaging through the garbage
•    Serengeti chef parties
•    Huge thunderclaps
•    Sharp hammer blows
•    Miscellaneous loud banging noises on sheet metal
•    Variety of yardwork and/or cleaning appliances
•    Constant 3rd world street parties & other random outdoor festivities
•    Late night & early morning fishermen yammering
•    High-pitched, foreign-language lady-arguments on the street
•    Guy driving around a car with giant speakers strapped on the sides shouting something about upcoming elections
•    Midnight sitar music
•    Pre-dawn Muslim prayers blasting through speakers from mosque
•    Late-night marching band practice
•    Blaring African music and/or Celine Dion on repeat over PA system of overnight bus journeys
•    Raging nightclubs spewing thumping bass and drunken patrons into the streets
•    Loud, snoring, farting, sleep-walking, hostel dorm roommates who can’t control the volume of their voice
•    Shrill, blaring bus horns every 3 minutes while traveling by public transport in Nepal
•    Surround-sound crying babies on airplanes


This is all just the tip of the iceberg….