Thanksgiving Thanks

In Thailand, the streets are lined with people selling just about anything from peanuts to pad thai for any dollar they can get. In India, I saw entire communities share a tractor for their only mode of transportation. (Photos were lost with my phone :( )In Nepal, porters will carry twice their body weight on their backs up thousands of vertical feet to provide for their family.

Despite these difficulties, despite the lack of material wealth and despite the comforts that we take for granted, I've seen people improvise, find joys in the things that they're doing and rally around family everyday, just like we do for Thanksgiving. 

Instead of using a boom box, I saw families use a pan for musical chairs. When the pot banging stopped, someone was left without a seat. 

We take for granted the ease of using a washing machine, but spending half your day socializing with the other women and a smile on your face while doing the laundry makes the time pass faster. 

You don't need the latest game counsel to have fun as kid. A bat and a ball is all that's needed for entertainment on the weekends.

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 And you don't need the latest designer clothes when a John Cena T Shirt is way more badass anyways.

Material wealth is always relative but happiness is absolute

I'm thankful of the opportunity I have to travel and to have an awesome family and friends who support me. I'd love to be home and see them right now. I'm thankful to live in a country that provides me the freedoms that I have and the opportunities that countries around the world dream of. 

When the little things go wrong like an over cooked turkey or the small problems we have like having Tony Romo throw picks on our fantasy team, they're problems that we can be thankful for. Looking at whatever problems we may have, we should focus on finding happiness with the present moment, make the most of the opportunities we have and most importantly stay close to your family and the people you love, no matter how far apart. 

Stay safe this Thanksgiving and eat some turkey and watch some football for me!

Day 7: Gokyo Ri Summit Day

So I decided to take a shower at Namche Bazaar and it was the wrong choice. I had to go outside in freezing weather with nothing but my skivvies on and it led to a cold that lasted a couple of days. Moral of the story: showers are dangerous for your health.

We arrived to the town of Gokyo, which sits next to the beautiful Gokyo lake. 600 meters higher is the summet of Gokyo Ri. The summit is the hill cut off to the left.

View of Gokyo lake and Cho Oyu (8201m) in the background.

Gokyo lake and village at sunset.

I got out of my sleeping bag early (I'd say I woke up early if I actually slept, the reason is at the end of the article) ate some porridge and started climbing up.

Here's some red stones that pointed to the sky on our path to the top.

It took us about 2 hours to reach the top but the views were incredible.

Guyajungkhang (7922m)

Nupse (7861m) above my right shoulder and Everest (8848m) and Lohtse (8516m) above my left shoulder.

Pharilapche (6017m) and Kyajori (6184m)

Cholasche (6486m) above my right, left is Tabuche (6542m)

The far left is Pumori (7169m) Everest without me in the way. The peak to the right is Lohtse.

Everest above my head.

Gokyo lake.

So I've handled the altitude quite well so far with the exception of my intestines. The altitude has caused extreme gas. My guide Jami has estimated over 1000 farts he's heard on the trail. It's also caused a traffic jam in the stomach if you know what I mean. I asked the the locals what's the best remedy. One said to pour powder milk in a cup of cold water and chug it. Another said I should eat raw pancake mix. I figured both of those could lead to food poisoning, so I went with my trusted remedy: coffee. I drank a liter of it and it worked... Only problem was that I couldn't get to sleep.

Still without coffee, sleeping at altitude is quite weird. You'll find very vivid dreams that you remember because your sleep cycle is much shorter. You'll also find yourself sometimes gasping for air at the middle of the night. Your body doesn't have a rhythmic cycle, where people can go without a breath for close to 30 seconds. 

I have a difficult pass that I need to cross tomorrow, but after that, it's all downhill from there. 

Day 2/3 Namche Bazaar

"Grit you teeth and climb to a drooping suspension bridge floating at dizzying heights above the Dudh Kosi (if any yak or pony trains are already on the bridge, let them pass - you don't want to be tipped into the gorge by a pushy bovine). There is a powerful sense this is where the mountains really begin - like the scene from Lord of the Rings where the fellowship starts to climb in the Misty Mountains."

-Lonely Planet

After this ridiculously windy pass and an exhausting 500 meter accent, we arrived at Namche Bazaar. The last place that resembles civilization for the climbers of Mt. Everest. The same place where Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edumnd Hillary passed through on their historic accent to the top of the world. It's a scenic town with beautiful stone buildings, bakeries that sell the awesome Himalayan Apple pie and the last place where you take a shower, use the internet or buy supplies.

I am spending two days here because I have gone from the valley of Kathmandu to around 11000 feet in two days, with 2500 feet coming from climbing. It's necessary to stay here and let your body adapt to the lower levels of oxygen. Altitude sickness is no joke and can mean an expensive helicopter ride to lower elevation if the symptoms are worse enough. It's extremely important to not push yourself too hard, drink plenty of water and monitor for headaches, dizziness or tingling in the finges. 

It's also important on your second day to get up and do some hiking to higher ground. We decided to hike about 300 meters higher in elevation to Kumjung, where I saw my first views of Mt. Everest. Hint it's the peak to the left of the one with the clouds.

We then climbed back down and stopped at the highest elevation school where students have to trek upwards of 45 minutes on a steep slope to attend class.

The school cafeteria below.

Like every kid around the world, they're learning English.

And remember kids, Mr. Football and Miss Bat are found of reading.

The playground

And recess is over.

And now I'm sitting here debating whether I want to pay the 6 bucks for my last chance of a hot shower. I can definitely smell some rotting frumunda cheese that will only get worse. But I have baby wipes and they can do a somewhat effective job at a full body cleansing. I'm not sure if I'll have internet after this but, I'll be sure to post updates if I do.

Oh yeah, beware of the Yak Attack. I'm waiting for a professional sports team to name themselves the Yaks. The Utah Yaks would be more appropriate than Jazz.

Day 1: Fly to Lukla, sleep in Phakding (2610m)

As mentioned in the previous blog post, the flight to Lukla is one of the most dangerous in the world. At an elevation of 2840m and built into the mountainside, Lukla is the highest airport in the world. It's not easy to land a plane at that altitude with less loft from an elevation that high compared to a landing closer to sea level. Oh yeah, the runway is only 1.5 Tiger Woods drives long at 550m, meaning a slope of 12 degrees is required to stop the plane and to get it up to speed on takeoff. 

There's only one commercial plane that can land at that airport, holding 15 passengers and looking like this. 

Kathmandu airport is a strange airport where metal detectors and bag scanners are for show only. People also bring a lot of luggage.

All of your luggage is weighed to the exact kilo. And so are you. The captain has a chart that tells him the take of and landing speeds necessary, accurate to 500 kilos. It's the yellow chart in the photo.

The flight itself is fairly short but we get extremely close to the mountainside and get some excellent views of Himalayas if you sit on the left hand side.

And sitting right behind the captain, I had an awesome view of the landing, which looks like your about to crash straight into a building.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=VyrgPdHJ3XU&rdm=xsd1m6uq&client=mv-google&guid=&gl=US&hl=en

Here's what a 12 degree slope runway looks like.

After the flight to Lukla, we took off for an easy trek to Phakding, perfect for your first day. The trek only took 2.5 hours and we arrived by 1 PM. To help build endurance and fight altitude sickness, we trekked up 250 meters and 1 hour to the Riminjing monastery. 

We got back and the people of the monetary showed up to our guest house. They were blessing all of the guest houses and owners were donating large sums of money, close to $350. They did some group singing and dancing, which I happily participated in.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=QhvdxXkjJkY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQhvdxXkjJkY%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player

And here's what the main room of a guest house looks like at the Kalaphatar Lodge. 

Rooms are $2 for a single bed and garlic soup is $1.80 and veggie and egg fried rice is $3. A full battery charge is $2. Garlic is the Nepalese Diamox, with properties that help fight altitude sickness.

Gokyo Ri Trek

So the blog is no longer going in chronological order as the posts about India and Thailand will come when I can upload my digital camera. This also probably the coolest part of my trek, as I am doing a 12 day trek to Gokyo Ri in the Himalayas. 

The two popular trekking routes in Nepal are Everest Base Camp and the Annapurna Circuit treks. The EBC trek has become increasingly popular over the past several years with notoriety for Mt. Everest coming from books and documentaries, most notably John Krakauer's Into Thin Air.

These treks are also very popular because there is no need to carry around camping, cooking and food supplies as Tea Houses provide accommodation and food for their guests at a reasonable price. Trekkers go from tea house to tea house with their personal supplies.

I am doing a slightly less popular but equally challenging and arguably more stunning Gokyo Ri trail. This trek will take a total of 12 days and leaves me with the option to go to EBC if I want to for a 16 day trek. On this trail, I will get to see at least 4 peaks above 8000 meters, including Mt. Everest, Lohtse, Choyu and Makalu, and the 5 holy Gokyo lakes.

I am doing this trek through Green Nepal Trekking (greennepaltreks.com) with a guide that I hired. To give a better understanding of the prices, I negotiated the guide for $18/day, down from $25. The cheapest I've heard was $15/day. This guide will show me the path on where I have to go, help me manage the elements and communicate with the base in Kathmandu.

You also need a TIMS card and a National Parks permit, which cost $40 combined. You can either get them from the, tourist agency, the Nepal Tourism Center (open 10 to 5, 7 days a week) on the corner of Dunbar Marg and Exhibition Road or when you arrive at Lukla (TIMS only) If you decide to get them at Lukla, you may have to pay a bribe and the paperwork that goes to tracking your location at each checkpoint is not guaranteed to go into the system. The National parks permit isn't required until closer to Namche Bazaar.

Tea houses should cost around $2-3 per nite and $3 per meal on the cheap side. The tour agency wanted to sell me a package for $25 per day with room and board include. I learned my lesson in India that it's best to negotiate things separately as it removes the mystery of their price and removes unnecessary fluff.

Here's what my trip looks like:

Day 0: Buy my gear in Kathmandu

Day 1: Fly to Lukla and trek to Phakding (3.5 hours, 2640m)

Day 2: Trek to Namche Bazaar (7 hours, 3420m)

Day 3: Rest/acclimatization day

Day 4: Trek to Dole (5 hours, 4020m)

Day 5: Trek to Machermo (2 hours, 4410m)

Day 6: Trek to Gokyo Valley

Day 7: Morning view of Mt. Everest then rest

Day 8: Trek to Renjo Pass (5360m)

Day 9: Trek to Thame

Day 10: Trek to Namche Bazaar

Day 11: Trek to Lukla

Day 12: Return to Kathmandu

There is apparently better cell coverage on the mountains than Sprint in the USA, but 3G is non existent. Electricity may be a problem as charging can cost up to $3/hour. 

The Food, Beer and Geology Tour: Where I'm Going

I remember when I was a travel virgin and had never been outside the North American continent. I was interning at Wells Fargo right before I went to go study abroad in Scotland my senior year of college. During my internship, I worked with an Englishman and an Indian and they were talking about their experiences abroad. At they time, I had thought Western Europe was foreign and exotic.

But truth is, Western Europe isn't much different than the US. Pretty much everyone speaks English, there's no strange creatures in your food and the religious/ideological beliefs share the same roots. There's hot water in the bathrooms, drinkable water from the faucet and a pub on every corner. Yes, there was a slight culture shock, but by no means was it a comfort shock.

The same British man I worked with told me "You're young, travel. Travel and explore places when you have the chance. And when I mean travel, I don't me Europe, go to Nepal and sip tea with the monks, go to Africa where kids don't have shoes on their feet. When your young, these learning experiences will carry with you the rest of your life."

While the places I'm going are well worn backpacker trails, I picked places that were all over the map and would provide me an experience that I wasn't used to. I wanted to experience different cultures with different religions and understand more about emerging markets.

Unfortunately, the blog comes with a 2 week delay as it's not always easy to find a computer where you can upload photos. But this is where I have gone so far:

Hong Kong
Thailand (Bangkok, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan)
India (Delhi, Pushkar, Jaipur, Agra, Palolem)

And to where I'm going:
Nepal (Kathmandu, Gokyo Ri Trail)
Lithuania
Helsinki
Czech Republic
Madrid
Morocco (Fez, Marrakesh, Tangier)

The map details can be found  here

It's quite an eclectic group of places to visit, but the main reasons why you see that list of countries because of  price, food and beer.

Each of these places, I should be able to live comfortable on a budge of around $50 per day, which includes an activity, meals, beer and a place to sleep.

Thailand, India and Morocco are my 3 favorite cuisines full of spice and heartiness. Not only will I taste the food, but I'll also take some cooking classes to learn how to make the cuisines when I return home.

I've always been fascinated by Nepal, Mt. Everest, sherpas and geology, so Nepal has long been on my bucket list. After tea with monks, that Engligh man would now approve of the travels.

Lithuania and Czech Republic are two very underrated countries when it comes to making beer and after 3 weeks of hiking, I plan to do 1 week of drinking.

Madrid, Helsinki and Hong Kong are on the list mainly because they are Oneworld Alliance hubs, but also places that I haven't visited before and would like to check out.

Coming up will be a post on how I booked the flights in business class using miles for free. 

How to make the perfect cup of tea

In addition to being a beer snob I am also a tea snob. I have usually 5 or 6 different teas at my desk and a special doo hickie that seeps the tea leaves and drips the water out of the bottom. I rarely drink tea out of a bag and thought I was the cats pajamas for drinking tea out of my doo hickie.

Cats pajamas no more.

There is an art to brewing tea and I got schooled on how to do it the proper way in Hong Kong. 

To start, the Chinese word for tea is Cha. Its the only Chinese word I remember because It's the exact same pronounciation and spelling in Portugese. It's also pronounced the same in Thai and is quite similar in Hindu (chai).

Well anyways, here's detailed instructions on the art of brewing tea.

Ingredients: Tea leaves of your choice. I went to MingCha (MingCha.com.hk) in Hong Kong. They ship to the USA and offer an outstanding product.

Equipment: Water, boiler, thermometer, 4 piece tea set with a thing to pour your leaves in, a tea sipping cup & lid, a cup for letting tea sit and cup to sip sip your tea out of. For the photo below, the top left triangle thing is the tea leaf container. The middle is the water boiler. The item he is pouring water into is the tea seeper, to the right is the vessel and cut off is the tea cup.

Step 1:

Heat your water to between 86 and 92 degrees. Typically it's lower for green teas and higher for black teas.

Step 2: Pour around 3 grams* of tea into a container and then place into cup

Step 3: Heat the seeping cup to temperature of the hot water by pouring water in it and letting it sit for a minute or 2. Don't do anything with the tea leaves.

Step 4: Dump the hot water out of your tea cup and place the tea leaves into the seeping cup. Then pour the hot water into the seeping cup and dump quickly 5 seconds later. This does 2 things: washes the tea leaves of chemicals and debris and will also remove some of the caffeine while getting the tea leaves up to temperature.

Step 5: Dump the correct temperature water into the seeping cup and the one your going to sip out of. When pouring water into the tea leaf cup, pour in a circular motion around the edges to get the leaves stirring. When the water touches the tea leaves, start the timer with a minute remaining on it.

Step 6: After one minute, dump the hot water out of the tea vessel and cup. 

Step 7: Once the water is out, pour the tea seeping cup into the tea vessel, making sure all of the leaves stay in the seeping cup. Also, make sure all of the water is out, otherwise it oxidizes the tea.

Step 8: Pour the appropriate amount of tea from your vessel into your sip sip cup.

Step 9: Bottoms up

Step 10: Here's the interesting fact, you can repeat the same steps up to 10 times. I found the best teas were on by 2nd and 3rd brew. Each time you brew, the color gets a little darker. To the left in the photo is the first brew and to the right is the 2nd.

And that's the detailed science to brewing the perfect cup of tea.