Well, I was planning on this being my first photo from Nepal, but as soon as I got home I ended up spending the next few days in bed with a flu or bug of some sort. I've been dizzy and fatigued, and have barely had the energy to open my laptop, let alone edit photos and write a post. So I'm going to keep it short this week and am using a photo of a seaweed farmer that I took last year in Indonesia. I'll be sharing Nepal photos and stories soon. Much love.
"The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B." -James Yorke
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This will be the last time you “hear” me say: “if you are reading this, I am still on my trek.” See, I have no idea what internet options, if any, I’ll have along the way, so before leaving I prepped a few of these emails just in case. I’m honestly not even sure I’ll want to connect to the internet, even if it's available. The thought of completely disconnecting for a couple weeks sounds lovely… maybe even necessary.
By the time this email is sent out I'll be very deep into the two week trek and I'll likely be filthy, heavily bearded, exhausted and smelling pretty similar to a donkey. But hopefully I am meeting incredible people, feeling immense gratitude, taking amazing photos, and learning a ton about the area, about life and about myself, while being surrounded by the glorious peaks of the Himalayas. "Mountains are silent masters and make silent students." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe If you are reading this, I am still on my Himalayan adventure and have not had the opportunity to write a new post for you. I’m currently writing this from California, before even departing. Last week I shared with you the struggles of packing for this trip. This week I'll share the trip itinerary.
My adventure begins in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, where I’ll spend a few days acclimating to the time zone, photographing the city and enjoying the local cuisine. After a few days I’ll meet up with my brother and his wife, as well as our guides, at which point we will drive to the village of Dharapani, where our trek officially begins. We will pass through canyons and forests, cross rivers, past rice terraces and farms, and through local villages, all the while surrounded by gigantic mountains such as Manaslu, Pisang and the iconic Annapurna. I expect it to be stunning. On day six, in an attempt to prevent altitude sickness, we will spend a day acclimatizing in Manang, a small town located 11,300’ above sea level. We will then pack up and head to Tilicho Lake, Nepal’s second highest lake (16,138’ in elevation). A few days later, we will encounter what’s likely to be our greatest challenge—the Thorong La Pass, a mountain pass located at a whopping 17,769’ above sea level—by far the highest I’ll have ever been. It’s high, it’s steep, it's long and it has potential to be cold and windy. But the best part about reaching the highest point is that everything is downhill from there, literally and figuratively. We will celebrate the accomplishment by soaking our weary muscles in some natural hot springs—I'm already looking forward to it. Once we’re back on the trail, we will pray for good weather as we climb to the top of Poon Hill (10,482’ elevation) for sunrise, to (hopefully) catch a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains—it’s supposed to be a photographer’s paradise. Finger's crossed. To finalize the trek we will continue winding down through more villages, farms, rivers and occasional waterfalls, until we arrive at Pokhara, where we will stay the night before driving back to Kathmandu. In total, we are estimated to hike over 140 miles--my legs are sore already. "Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you are climbing it." -Andy Rooney I am writing this the day before I leave for Nepal. And, depending on when you read this, I have hopefully arrived safely and am either about to begin, or have already begun, a two week trek through the Annapurna portion of the legendary Himalayas. I must admit that packing my bags for this trip was particularly tricky because I’m not only having to pack regular clothes for the days before and after the trek, but I’ll also need to bring my warm, bulky, outdoorsy clothes in preparation for the actual trek. I initially made a big pile of all the “ideal” things I’ll have with me, knowing full well that I’d likely have to make some sacrifices. To start I made sure I had a fresh pair of socks for each day, plenty of underwear, lots of t-shirts, a whole array of different base layers and some extra mid-layers in case some got… stinky. God forbid. But once I began packing things into my bag I found out pretty quickly that my “ideal” list was not going to work. Because, remember, even if I get all this stuff to Nepal, I’m still going to have to lug it around the freaking Himalayas for two weeks. Yes, a porter will be provided to carry one of my bags for me, but I also don’t want to place a burdensome and heavy load on someone else. So I started reading some trekking forums to try to uncover how other people handle these things. And, no surprise, the consensus was… to take as little as possible. Like, a couple pairs of socks, a couple pairs of underwear. A base layer (maybe two). One mid-layer. One outer layer. Forum after forum expressed the same: “you are going to stink, your clothes are going to stink, but everyone around you will also stink, so get over it.” So here I am, feeling completely under-packed, and slowly coming to terms with the fact that I will likely be very unpleasant to be around for a couple weeks… just like everyone else.
"If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it’s lethal." -Paulo Coelho |
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