I made it!

I made it to Everest Base Camp at 17,594 ft. , and Kala Pattar at 18,200 ft. I'm safe, I have all my limbs, and my mind is fine...now. All I can say is that the past 10 days have been the toughest in my life. I'm drained physically, mentally, and emotionally. But, I made it. Well, I have one more day to get back down to Lukla where I will take a flight to Kathmandu the following morning. Thank you Everest!! Pics to come soon, when I get back to civilization!

I saw Everest today!

It was everything you'd expect it to be. I mean I'm still far away from it, but I saw the entire lineup, Everest, Lhotse, Peak 41, Ama Dablam, Kumbili, etc. Everest is behind Lhotse and you can only see the tip, but what a view! It's now Day 3 of this trek. The past 2 days have been pretty brutal. For the firt day and a half , the hike was so easy I was beginning to think getting to Base Camp would be no big deal, but I was really really wrong.
The last few hours yesterday of hiking were so hard. We climbed 600 something meters to the town of Namche Bazar at near 12000 feet I think. It was one of the hardest things I've done physically. I think we went too fast. Most people do it in 6 or 7 hours, but me and Dave did it in 4 hours of hiking. Dave got a headache yesterday night which is the first sign of altitude sickness, so we learned our lesson. Our guide has been dissapointing. He doesn't speak very good english, and he responds to all questions with 'Yes, maybe.' You can ask him how many hours of climbing to such and such town, and he just says 'Yes,...maybe.' It's beyond frustrating. Thankfully, we got a lot of information yesterday night. This Indian guy from London who is part of a 14 member group doing Gokyo/Kala Pattar/Base camp in 21 days overheard our frustration with 'Kopin' (or Kipin we haven't figured out his exact name) and told us to take aspirin every day, and to take neurophrin at the first sign of a headache. Aspirin, thins the blood which allows it to carry more oxygen, which is good because as you climb higher up your blood thickens and less oxygen is carried by the cells. We are trying to avoid taking Diamox for the moment. It's the altitude sickness pills you take when you really get AMS.

Anyway, besides the lactic acid pain that my legs are suffering from, the lack of oxygen, sleeping in the same clothes for the past 3 days, eating the same Dal Makhani every day, and the guide who says 'Yes' to everything, I am having the time of my life! Just the sight of Everest made it all worth it. Now to get closer!

At Phakding

I made it through the airplane flight to Lukla! That was a scary ride. I flew on a small 10 seater propeller airplane, and we had to land on a cliff. Anyway, hiked for 3 hours today from Lukla to Phakding. It's an amazing area. We are still in the 'lowlands' relatively speaking even though I think we are near 6000 ft. In the background is this huge wall of snow capped mountains known as the Himalaya. It's an impressive sight. Anyway, just wanted to check in, I won't have much interent on this trek, so I'll take a lot of pics, and post them in 2 weeks.

Off to Everest!

Tomorrow is the day we finally leave for the Everest trek. It's been a long week in Kathmandu. Dave was injured, I got sick. Well I still feel a little sick, but I'll get over it in a couple of days. We're flying to Lukla tomorrow at 8:30, and from there we trek to Phakding for the first day. Only a 3 hour hike for the first day, but a 6-7 hour monster hike the day after to Namche Bazaar.

I'm excited, but I feel a little numb to it right now. I've been waiting for a long time to do this, and now that its here I don't know what to think. Anyway, I'll be away from computers,internet,maybe even electricity for 2 weeks. I'll be away from all the comforts of the world. Wish me luck, I'm going to Everest no matter what!

Pics!!

From Thailand/Nepal

Thailand/Nepal

Here are some pics! Now write me some comments you ungrateful bastards!! ;) Just kidding.

Trekking is delayed

...for the moment. My friend Dave who is trekking with me got bit by a brown recluse spider (or could have been a mosquito ;)) around his ankle. He itched it and it got swollen pretty big, about 3 times the size as normal. We got some boiling water and submerged his foot in it last night, and that helped a bit, but it was still really swollen and red this morning so we went to a clinic here run by American doctors. The doctor cut away some of the mucus/pus and gave him antibiotics, so we're going to see how it is for the next couple of days. We had originally planned to start the Everest trek on the 17th, but now it's delayed to at least the 18th or 19th. I have my own wounds to take care of also actually. The back of my feet is worn away from wearing flippers a size to small while diving. I've actually been wearing sandals for the past few days because wearing my shoes hurts too much.

So, this turn of events sucks on the one hand, but on the other hand I can't help but think this is maybe a sign to delay our trek because maybe something bad might have happened if we went tomorrow. I don't know, just trying to reason our bad luck. But, I am still going to see Everest no matter what!

We've been in Kathmandu for 2 or 3 days now, I can't remember. We're staying in the area called Thamel which is backpacker central. Very touristy, with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of stuff. I want to get our of this area and see the real Kathmandu, so tomorrow we may rent a motorcycle and do that. Although, getting around town with a vehicle here is basically like daring Death mano e mano. So far my general impression of Kathmandu is it's very similar to India. A lot of people here look indian, and the nepalese people look like chindians ( i guess they are). What's funny is that everyone here assumes I'm Nepalese! They come up to me and start talking to me in Nepalese. I feel like I'm letting them down a bit when I open my mouth and sound like a complete tourist. But, I do seem to get better discounts because of it. Haha.

I took so many pics, but the computers here just suck. I really wish I brought my laptop because these computers here can't handle the RAW format pics my camera takes. It's dissappointing. I wish I could share all these great things I've seen.

Anyway, will post back in a couple days before I start the trek!

I'm going to conquer Everest!

Well, not quite conquer Everest, but conquer the bottom of it ;). Tomorrow I will be in Kathmandu, Nepal. I'm going there to to go on a 2 week trek to Everest Base Camp (EBC). Weather is not so good at the moment. It's -17 C at EBC, and snowing. I'm hoping it will clear up in the next couple of days. My plan is to hire a porter in Kathmandu who is knowledgable enough to take me and my friend there. I'll also need to buy or rent cold weather gear in Kathmandu because I didn't plan to do this earlier! It will be an adventure of a lifetime. I can't wait to meet Amma in person.

I survived 60 ft and blew my O-ring!

I'm a PADI certified Open Water Diver now! I'm allowed to dive to about 60 ft. I never thought diving would be as dangerous as it is. Not in the sense of getting hurt by marine life or anything (though my friend dave did get pricked by an Indian Walkman, wasn't a pretty sight), but in the sense that diving puts your body under a lot of stress. For instance, there is a limit on how many dives your body can handle in a certain period of time because of the risk of Decompression Sickness (DCS). There are specific rules on how long each dive can be depending on depth, and how long you have to wait before you can dive again.

The scientific reason: Your body absorbs Nitrogen when you are underwater and breathing compressed air unlike when you are on the surface. This nitrogen gets absorbed by your tissues, and there is a danger of the nitrogen basically fizzing out of your body like a can of coke when you go from a deep depth to the surface. In an extreme case, the nitrogen bubbles causing your blood to foam out of you. Pretty gruesome. If you have any of the symptoms of DCS you have to go into a recompression chamber for 3 or 4 days. It actually depends on how deep you go, commercial divers who dive to like 100m for work purposes, have to live in a recompression chamber for 3 months after they are done. It's pretty astonishing what the pressure of water does to you. As little as 10 m of depth puts you at 2 Bar of pressure, double surface pressure. Every 10 m deeper you get another bar of pressure.

Open Water Diver

I'm in Koh Tao now which is an island about an hour north of Koh Phangnan , the previous island I stayed at. I'm doing a 4 day Open Water Diver course,so I'll be certified to dive all over the world. I'm not exactly a water person, but I'm pretty excited to see how it will be. The plan is to dive in 3 days in a place where there are schools of barracuda, corral reefs, manta rays, and possibly even bull sharks.

Link to pics

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

I'm Free, I'm Free Fallin'

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

So yesterday, me and my buddy Dave (I met him earlier in Beijing, and we met up again here in Thailand) hopped on some scooters we rented and went to go find an ATM. Little did we know the adventure we would get into. We got to the ATM, then decided to go to the nothern part of the island which is not really inhabited. We followed the paved road (believe me paved is stretching it, it looks like it's been through a war) until it became a dirt road. We took our scooters as far as they could possibly go, then got off and decided to trek along this trail. Well we get to the end of the trail, and go down a dry creek bed. At this point we are in the midst of the jungle, and a machete could have been real handy. Anyway, we continue through thick brush until we see water. We came upon this rocky shore, and we had the bright idea of doing some cliff diving!

We did a couple of practice dives at smaller heights to make sure the water was deep enough until we came upon the man's ledge. It was a 50 foot behemoth with on the right side a wall of rock, and on the left razor sharp shells. We were so high up you could even see the curvature of the earth ;). We figured we had to jump far out in order to avoid getting thrashed by the rock wall, or cut up. It took me a few minutes before I could muster up enough courage to jump. Dave, jumped first holding his camera (it's waterproof) and yelled out "I have no regrets!" I was taking pics. After, he came back out, it was his turn to take pictures. Well, I figured I should also yell out a profound statement as I jumped. I figured out what I would say in my mind, and then when it came to jumping, it turned into a garbled "I woaahaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!". Splash. "Woooooohh! Ya baby!!!"

It was one of the best moments I've had on my trip. Conquering a fear is always a beautiful thing. I did pay the price of losing my scooter key in the ocean, but that was a small price to pay. Great, great day!

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

Hong Kong, Singapore

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

A lot has happened since my last update. Let me fill you in. I survived a typhoon (what they call a hurricane in asia) in Hong Kong, watched the first night race in Formula 1 history, and am now looking for some adventures off a tiny island in the Gulf of Siam. This is going to be a very long post, forgive me.

Well, let me begin with the typhoon. I had originally had a 5:30 pm flight from Shanghai to HK, but they put me on an earlier flight because of quote 'very bad weather' in HK. I didn't realize it but HK was getting pummeled by the 8th typhoon of the season here in Asia. Needless to say, the plane ride was probably the scariest flight I've ever been on. The turbulence caused by the high winds made the plane rock violently up and down. At point, I just decided to say some prayers, because I didn't if the plane could land in that type of weather. I decided I would be grateful for anything as long as I survived that flight. We landed safely obviously, but at the cost of a punctured tire. Apparently, one of the tires blew up when we hit the ground.

After I landed, I had to figure out how to get to the hostel, but HK was basically shut down. There were no cars, or buses allowed on the streets, so my only option was to take a more expensive train into the city. Looking for a hostel located in a high rise in a foreign city carring 50 lbs of luggage on your back, while trying to not get swept of the ground because of the high winds was slightly challenging (Yes, i know that was a run-on). Anyway, long story short, made it to the hostel, and was basically ready to write off being able to see anything in HK the next day. Amazingly, the next day was much calmer. Sky was still cloudy and it was windy, but it stopped raining. So, I was able to see some of the HK sights, like taking the Star Ferry across the harbor. I went to the HK Museum of History, and I went to the top of Victoria Peak and was able to take some really cool pics of the entire skyline. HK, I have to say is up there with NYC and Chicago in terms of beautiful skylines. It may be the best actually. HK, like Shanghai but to an even greater degree, is a westernized city. Even though it is now technically a part of China, it is more like a city you'd find in the States than a Chinese city. Pretty much everyone can speak English, you can get any type of food you'd find in the States there, and everyone wears suit and tie.

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

After a day in HK, I took a flight to Singapore. I stayed with my former co-worker Erik. For the next 6 days there I got barely any sleep, ate really badly, and spent way too much money. But, it was a fun experience. I've always wanted to see an F1 race live, and I can now say I did. To people who do not know too much about F1. It is basically creme de le creme of racing cars. No car is faster around a track than F1 cars. They are more like jets than cars actually. In fact, an F1 car can drive upside down at 200 mph because they produce so much downforce. Ok, enough of the geeky facts, what is it like in person? Just imagine the loudest noise you have ever heard, and multiply it by 2. They produce this wall of sound that shakes everything as they go by. It's just amazing how much energy is produced by these cars. Everything vibrates, it feels like the ground is even shaking as they go by. The drivers are unquestionably some of the finest athletes in the world to be able to process so much information so quickly. And they did it at night! I highly suggest if you have the chance to see F1 live, you go. You can't appreciate the violence and raw speed of the cars on TV.

From Hong Kong, Singapore, Koh Phangnan

Besides F1, I did a few other things in Singapore, like visit Little India. I really like Little India because it really does feel like India, except it's cleaner. I went to Komala Vilas and had some authentic South Indian Thali. Mom, you'll be happy to know I took a break from eating bird brains, and had sambar satham, thyer satham, and brinjal curry. I visited a temple there, and got into a debate with this Hare Krishna guy about the nature of God. I, of course, visited Mustafa's shopping complex. It's like the Walmart of Singapore. It's huge and messy, and very easy to get lost in.

After six days in Singapore, I got tired of city life, and decided to fly into Koh Samui, an island off the coast of Thailand. From there, I took a boat to a smaller island called Koh Phangnan which is the mecca of the Full Moon party. Thankfully, I'm too early for the full moon party because I'm partied out. I'm in the northern part of the island where it is much more relaxed and village like. It suits me better I think.