Nepal

    Before leaving Thailand, I had a few things to take care of.  First, I went back to the doctor and found out that what on my armpit was "Seabather's Eruption" from larval cnidarian (jellyfish) creatures at the Thai beaches, which in turn had the start of a staph infection.  After that, I wrapped up Thailand with an incredible sushi buffet and checked off the last thing on my list: talk to a lady boy.  Korea's version of Justin Bieber arrived at the airport right when I did, and this ladyboy thought he was soooo cute.  By the way, here's how to tell a ladyboy from a girl with masculine features: the face, the shoulders, the wrists, the feet, the voice.  This "girl" had ogre feet, and then she talked and the cat was out of the bag.  Then I slept at the airport and waited for my 6 AM flight to glorious Nepal.

Trust me: dude.

    It’s going to be hard to talk about 3 weeks in Nepal in a few paragraphs, so I’ll start with the facts.  I got to Kathmandu, Nepal and immediately started looking for either trekking partners or a guide, eventually opting for a “guide/porter,” a local who speaks pretty good English and carries some of my stuff.  His name was Khadga (pronounced CAR-guh) and he was a good 4 inches shorter than me.  He actually reminded me a lot of Nick Freidberg, except Khadga didn’t have the chiseled jaw or mastery and confidence with the English language that Nick’s been blessed with.  Once I had the guide locked in, I went around to the hundreds of stores selling knock off NorthFace and the such and picked up everything I needed.

    We took a bus to Bhulbule, which up to that point in my life was the worse bus ride of my life.  All the buses in Nepal are made for Khadga-sized people, all have customized horns that they use constantly, play Nepali music continuously, and don't mind picking up locals and throwing them on the roof if need be.  Unlike Bollywood music which is bearable at times, this Nepallywood music was just bad, and each song was so long that I don't think I ever heard one end - the driver just got sick of it after 15 minutes and changed to the next, carbon copy song.  

    Then we started the trek, the Annapurna Circuit.  Every day we would wake up and leave at 7 AM, hike/walk for 4-7 hours, eat lunch at our guesthouse, sit around, then eat dinner and do it all again the next day.  We went through several villages a day and each of them had a few guesthouses that served meals, gave super cheap lodging ($1-2 USD a night), and had 0 insulation. They also had a pretty good selection of food and drinks, which got more and more expensive the further from the roads you got.  Each village was supplied by super hoss Nepalis carrying HUGE sacks on their backs that were strapped to their heads.  I saw crates of eggs, chickens, metal tubing, aluminum panels, and baskets literally full of rocks, some of which were being carried by 60-70 year old men and women, or 14 year old kids.

Corn field terraces

This dude was seriously at least 70 and was killin it

Tibetan prayer wheels.

    It rained the first 5 days on the trail, but Khadga and I got to our guesthouse before the late afternoon showers started each of those days and managed to stay dry.  People usually take a rest day in Manang after the first 5 days to acclimate to the altitude.  I took a rest day in Manang because I got hella sick, either from bad water or bad food.  Thankfully, Manang is the biggest and nicest villiage in the area, with a doctor, bakery, and even “movie theaters” where they pop in a dvd and give you popcorn and tea.  I watched Into the Wild during my sick day. 

    By this point I had also met most of the people doing the trek, since everybody does the Circuit going counter-clockwise.  I spent a few days with a French couple, but spent most of my time with Israelis, who dominated most guesthouses.  At one point I was in a guesthouse dining room with an old English lady and around 20 Israelis.  There was a middle aged couple and two 25 year old soldiers that I hung out with a lot and I really enjoyed learning about Israel: the lifestyle, customs, politics, influence of religion, and how they view America (one word: thankfulness).  

Smooth rock face that curved up into the clouds - cool

The same smooth rock face from before, but with the night's snow.

Tibetan prayer whatever

Surprise.

Everyone had their DSLRs out waiting for this guy to circle back around, but when he did, I was the only one with a camera, because mine fit in my pocket.

Booyah.  Call me nat geo.

I do shots for Patagonia too.

I called this place Israeli Base Camp.

    The biggest day was the day we reached the Thorung La Pass: start at 4 AM, climb 1100m to 17769 ft., then walk down 1700m to the next village.  The whole thing took about 7 hours and wasn’t as hard as it was talked up to be, but the downhill grind made me glad I bought my knock off walking sticks for $5 a piece.  That same day we took a bus down from Muktinath to Jomson to save a day’s hike.  Afterwords, however, I was bummed that I didn’t walk it – everything beyond the pass was in its rainshadow, which made some of the most beautiful desert landscape I’ve ever seen and the geology was fascinating.  So, wanting to carpe diem, Khadga and I hiked back to Muktinath the next day, then took the same jeep ride back to Jomson.  So worth it.  I felt like a nerd on a geology field trip.  Again, Khadga doesn’t have the knowledge of geology that Nick Freidberg is blessed with, but he definitely has the same patience that Nick has with me as I pointed out some real neato geo features. 

"Khadga, act like your skiing bro!"

Thorong La

The next few days felt like the middle east

Muktinath

    The bus ride a week before had been the worst of my life, until the bus ride from Jomson to Tatopani.  It was everything terrible that the first ride was, but we were on a dirt “road.”  I say “road” because I would have called it a “boulder field,” because that’s what it was.  And the rain had caused landslides, which forced us to get out, walk around, then wait around at what felt like a refugee camp full of a hundred angry Nepalese old people.   To redeem the day, I met my first Texas of this trip that afternoon at the Tatopani hot springs – a girl who went to UT and was working a month at a hospital in Pokhara for her medical residency. 

For the last hour, I was the facing the entire bus.  I sat down and went, "heyyyy" and they all went, "ehhh!"

    The next day was 8 hours of hiking with a 2000m ascent.  Oh and I had developed a problem with my right Achilles, so I was sporting chacos for the rest of the Circuit.  I was so exhausted and frustrated… it didn’t even matter that Khadga was behind me carrying my shit, I was ready to be done.  The whole way was through beautiful rhododendron forests that I was too pissed to enjoy.  The next morning we hiked an hour to Poon Hill to see the sunrise over the Annapurna range.  It was beautiful and all, but I’ve still never woken up early to see a sunrise and been like “that was worth it” – too cold, too long of a wait, and it’s like a JV sunset.  The next two days were all downhill I don’t even want to talk about them, except I ate a fried snickers bar along the way.  That was nice.

Poon Hill sunrise

Another victory for Asia

Cute guesthouse that turned us away in a thunderstorm.

    All in all, I really loved the Annapurna Circuit.  It was gorgeous, went through some old school villages, and had a wide range of environments to go through.  It was also nice not having to go back the way we came, like you do for the Everest Base Camp. 

    But Nepal?  Yeah I kind of hate this country.  Flies everywhere, mosquitos too, cities are hella polluted and the air tastes funny, wild dogs keep you awake all night, cows roam freely on the streets because their “sacred,” the entire country has tentative electricity, the local food is bland and their attempts at other food are blander, no ice, no milk, and no Dr. Pepper.  It’s also full of people from around the world who grow dreads, look more Hindu than the local Hindu population, and come here to seek enlightenment or whatever.  I heard two hippies talking about shamanism and I wanted to be like, “yeah I know tons about Shamanisn – I played WoW for 2 years.  Frost shock bro.” 

    I made that list of reasons to hate Nepal two nights ago, then went to sleep, only to wake up two hours later and throw up what was left of my dinner.  The next morning I walked 30 minutes to an American breakfast place and ate pancakes.  Did I say pancakes?  Because I meant feeling - I ate my feelings.  I did have a good time on the trail, and I've taken all of the annoyances in stride, but I leave for Germany in two days and can't wait.

Khadga and I say goodbye.

Note the little Shiva picture at the door.  Another reason to hate Nepal.

Bangkok Dangerous

    The trip to Bangkok was an experience.  There was a German girl that I knew from Tonsai that was on the same bus, but then they gave her the run around and told her she had the wrong company.  Her ticket was the exact same as mine.  After losing her, I made other friends on the 3 hour van ride to the bus station, a couple from San Diego.  Before getting on the bus, they kept pointing at signs that told us to not leave valuables in our stored bags.  I thought it was just a nicety.

    We got to Khao San Road in Bangkok at 6 AM, just in time to see the parties dying down and people throwing up on the side of the street.  I got my bag off the bus and immediately noticed a few things: the zippers were moved and the draw strings were tied together, which I've never done.  Apparently, it's a known thing that people riffle through your bags during these bus rides, or, as my San Diego friend put it, "some dude totally got his little Thai fingers in your stuff man!"  Thankfully, I did have all my valuables with me.  They even took my shitty international phone out of it's case and put it back in the bag.  Beggars can't be choosers, but little Thai thieves can, apparently.  Good thing they didn't grab the $400 of travelers checks or the thousand dollar Eurail pass.  Idiots.

    So we get to a hostel and are about to take a nap before lunch.  I had gotten a nasty bug bite in my armpit about 4 days before that was starting to bother me, so I decided to take a look at it before hitting the sack.  I don't know if it was the hand sized rash, the dozens and dozens of pus filled red marks, or the hole in my skin where the original bite was, but something I saw there put me into panic mode.  Before leaving the USofA, my parents and I went over my insurance stuff and their recommended doctors across the world, so I knew I needed to contact them (and I knew that I should).  That shitty international phone?  Oh yeah that didn't work here - good call Thai thieves.  I emailed my folks but decided that I didn't want to wait for them to check it, so I looked around for other options.  I found Luke Davis on facebook and had him call my parents and my sister.

One day after starting antibiotics.  It looks kind of weak to me, but you should see each of those red dots up close, or the initial spot of the bite!

Had to cancel lunch plans

    By the way, if you want somebody you love to worry about you, have somebody else call them and tell them you need help.  But we contact the insurance and find a good place nearby - Bumrungrad International Hospital.  At this point, I was actually stoked to see what this place would be like, to have a new experience, and to write this post about it.  I took a tuk-tuk, a little tri-motorbike to the hospital, and after a fun ride we pulled up to what seemed to be a 5 star hotel.  I was smiling ear to ear from the time I walked in to when I saw a doctor - maybe 5 minutes of forms, 5 minutes of walking, and 2 minutes of waiting.  This place was better than any American hospital I've seen.

tuk-tuk

Bumrungrad Hospital

Hospital lobby.  

"if you take a picture of me, can I take a picture of you?"

    I feared that it was a staph infection, figuring that that was the worst that could happen.  The doctor took a look at it, noticed it in my other armpit (before I did), and said, "not staph... maybe yeast infection."  My first thought, besides "what." was "there's no way I can tell my friends that."  She ran a quick test on a little sample and determined it wasn't yeast infection, but told me the bite was definitely a mite or flea.  Turns out that rat hole in Tonsai wasn't worth it after all.  She never actually told me what it was, only what it wasn't, but gave me some bomb antibiotics and steroid cream.  I asked her if I would get jacked if I rubbed it on my biceps.  She didn't get the joke.

    Well, welcome to the BKK.  That's the abbreviation for Bangkok, which has put Jay-Z's line "moving the Nets to BK" firmly in my head for the last few days.  The song doesn't really allow for the extra K syllable, but I manage to squeeze it in there every time.

    This post is getting long, so here's a quick rundown.  After the hospital, I got dinner with my San Diego friends and walked around this Khao San Road place.  It's like Kuala Lumpur but with way more intrusive street vendors, women with adams apples and big hands, and a just all around dirty feel.  This morning I got breakfast by myself and saw the German girl from the bus, chased her down, realized I didn't know her name, and called out "Munich!" a few times until I got her attention.  We hung out for a bit then went to a cheap restaurant that she knew nearby.

Granola, homemade yogurt, papaya, dragonfruit, banana, mango, watermelon, pineapple - $1 USD

Cats and pagan rituals - my two least favorite things in the world

Street food fish

    Sitting in this cheapo place, with a shirt on for the first time, was my friend Elan from Tonsai.  I spent time with Elan every day for 2 weeks on Tonsai, so I need to elaborate on this guy.  44 years old, from Israel, travelling for 26 years, been to 150 countries, fills a passport every 2 years, been to Tonsai 20 times, speaks about 7 languages fluently, hates kids, super lazy, debbie downer, weird, doesn't talk to women unless their single, complains about people all day, favorite phrase is "can't be bothered."  Naturally, this is the dude I've spent more time with than anybody else (except for Dustin) in the last 2 months.  And here he was in Bangkok for what literally might have been the 100th time.  After eating, we went to the mall, shopped for sandals, and saw the Hunger Games.  Before the movies start, everyone stands up to "pay respect to the His Excellency the King" and has to watch a minute long slideshow of the king set to whiny Thai music.  I think Americans should have the same thing to the song "proud to be an American."

Elan, being Elan.  By the way, he used to be an ice cream truck driver in Houston.  He reminds me more of the evil snow plow guy from Snow Day.

   
    I've been in southeast Asia for a month now and I'd say I'm pretty much over the culture shock.  However, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the culture of the people that travel at least 3 months a year.  Elan works for a few months, travels for a few months, runs out of money, and does it again.  The folks from San Diego used to be ski bums in Chile and now work at Whole Foods, which allows them to work seasonal; they work for a while, travel for 3 or 4 months, then go back and start from scratch.  And the Europeans are even crazier - can't find a job? go travel and spend what little you have left until you can.  Some of these people don't consider themselves to have a home anymore.  A little different than what I know: finish school, get a job, keep that job.  Now when people say, "I don't know what I'm doing with my life," I think, "work at McDonalds and travel the world."

    I don't know what to think of it.  I might think that staying in one place, investing in people, and having a strong community is better, but to think that those things are impossible while traveling is to limit God.  Their lifestyle is much more uncertain, but since when does God call us to any certainty other than "Christ and Him crucified"?  I mean, Paul had his homies that he Skyped with or listserv'd or whatever, but spent most of his time on the move.  Who's to say that the Texan-Christian life is THE way to live?  I don't know, but it's just weird to see this lifestyle that's so counter-intuitive yet so appealing and full of potential if done right, in the pursuit of God.

Thai hospital?  Check.
Expanding horizons?  Double check.

Tonsai, Thailand

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog.  I wish I had a famous quote to sum up my feelings on that, but all I can think of is this: when you're in paradise, you don't really want to do anything other than what you want to do.  Let me explain.

I spent a few more nights in Cameron Highlands and took a bus to Penang, Malaysia.  Penang is a pretty big city with not much to do, but has tons of travelers for one reason: Thai visa runs.  Besides the French guys I came there with, everyone I met there was just extending their Thai visa, then going straight back to wherever they were.  I didn't feel like exploring Penang really, but did find some good Indian food and a little street vendor selling some bomb pancakes.

We took a "bus" from Penang to Thailand, which was more like a large van with way too many chairs crammed into it.  We stopped in some town near the border to get onto an actual bus that took us to Krabi Town.  We arrives in Krabi Town around 2 AM local time and went to a pretty crappy hostel.  I decided to take a little 2 AM poo poo and, surprise, they don't use toilet paper in this country.  The replacement?  A little water gun attached, like the ones attached to kitchen sinks.  Like Dr. Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, "when you gotta go, you gotta go."

The next morning I took a longtail boat to Railay, a beach peninsula which I had heard was beautiful and affordable.  As soon as I got off the boat, I realized it definitely wasn't going to be affordable.  I mean, I could afford it no problem because it was still cheaper than most New Zealand hostels, but I wanted the cheapo backpacker places.  So I asked some backpackers where to go and they pointed me to Tonsai.  Remember that stuff about being in paradise?  That's exactly what Tonsai is.  No roads, no cars, no ATMs, access only by boat and jungle hike, and the number one rock climbing destination in Asia.  I got there and instantly fell in love.  I didn't take a single picture for three days, because I didn't feel like it - that's how chill this place is.  The blend of each, bro, and rock climbing cultures make this place mad chill and subsequently reek of weed.

I stayed in Tonsai for eleven nights.  Here's a quick rundown of what I did: hang out, rock climb, take naps, rock climb, play poker, chill, climb, poker, chill, climb, poker, chill, slackline, chill, climb, poker, deep water solo, chill, slackline, and more climbing and poker.  Every day I would wake up, eat at Mama Chicken's (the best restaurant in Tonsai), chill at the beach, climb, eat at Mama Chicken's, sit around, slackline, eat BBQ (chicken, baracuda, and tuna), then play poker until like 1 AM.  For 11 days.  Tonsai is small enough that I saw the same people every day, watched them leave, and met the new people.

I stayed in a rat hole bungalow for $5 USD a night that definitely pushed my limits.  The half inch thick "mattress" was covered in dirt, sand, ants, mosquitos, and my own sweat while my lower ribs hurt from when I slept on my side.  It was miserable, but it was awesome.  I don't know why I stayed there for 6 nights, but it was an experience that I wanted to have.

I took a two day rock climbing course in Railay - one day of lead climbing, which I haven't done in a long time, and another day of learning how to multi-pitch climb, which I've always wanted to do.  I also got to do some deep water soloing (climbing above water, no ropes) on an island, as well as climbing with randos.

I could go on forever about the people there: Elan the 44 year old Israelite who's been to 150 countries and traveled for 24 years; Dominic the 18 year old German on his gap year; Wauter the 18 year old who bicycled toThailand from Belgium over 9 months; Luke and Eliot the Californian super-bros; and how they all smoked weed 24/7 and how I cleaned them out playing poker.  I won 1700 baht ($56 USD) from playing poker with stoned fools.

It was hard to say goodbye to Tonsai this morning, but I definitely want to go back - next time with tons of climbing gear and climbing friends.  Next up, a 15 hour bus ride through the night to Bangkok.  It's kind of like the bus to Crooked Creek or Frontier Ranch, except I don't know anybody, everyone smells, and I don't speak the freaking language.  I've heard disturbing things about Bangkok which I won't even go into, but hopefully I can take some cooking classes and buy some random stuff super cheap.  

I had a lot of time in Tonsai to reflect on everything that God has been showing me the last two months.  God gave me answers to some questions I had been asking for a while and gave me some serious peace about things for when I get back home, like school and younglife, etc.  Actually, now I'm kind of out of questions.  It's kind of this directionlessness that I'm really excited about.  My job now is to just seek Him out and listen to "great and unsearchable things you do not know," to watch for "things that you would not believe, even if you were told."

I'll put these in the right places with captions later, but I need to go quickly to catch my bus!

Also, when I went deep water soloing, we had a filmmaker with us - and here's his film.  See if you can spot the pale bearded man (me)!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76285COQryc&feature=relmfu

Thai passport photo... yesss (can't rotate)