Time left at posting: 556 hours
23 days left until we leave San Francisco, so I thought it was a perfect time to post an update.
After the earthquake recently in Nepal, I emailed our guide Raj just to make sure he and his family were okay. Fortunately they did not have any damage or injuries, but they were a bit nervous after such a large quake.
Preparations are finally getting serious and I have been starting to gather my stuff together and make a few last minute purchases so that I have everything ready. Lately I have been shedding some of the things I was planning on bringing, such as a GPS and my Kindle in favor of going old school. We will have a GPS that Jeff is bringing and I don't see the need for two of them, and I really don't want to have to worry about charging or breaking anything. I should still be able to post updates to my blog if and when an Internet
connection is available with the MacBook Air that Jeff is bringing, so
it is not like we won't have our precious gadgets (Although there is this altimeter watch I have my eye on that has been very difficult to resist purchasing, so perhaps I may make this one concession). Otherwise my plan is to go with a paper journal and large paperback book for my reading and writing pleasure. As we are planning on packing as much of our own stuff as we can, no point in taking anything that will only add weight. I can carry more beef jerky and gummy bears this way!
As we get closer to the departure day, I am starting to get the same excited feelings as I did when going to pick up Jack from Kyrgyzstan a few years back. It is kind of an emotional soup with so many feeling mixed in together. There is of course excitement and anticipation, but there is also a bit of guilt mixed in as I am leaving my family for so long. Plus there is always that small amount of fear that something will go wrong, such as getting injured or sick. It's nothing major or anything that would lessen the excitement of my trip, but it is always hanging out there in the back of your mind. Don't worry though as I don't let any of that bother me, in fact it has become increasingly difficult to keep my excitement level down to a point where I can still function at work and school. Trust me when I tell you that I am totally fired up for this trip!
I am sure that the updates will start coming a bit more often now that we are getting so close to leaving, so I will sign-out for now.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
A daughter with a big heart!
Time left at posting: 1292 hours
My daughter Mackenzie decided some time ago to donate some of her hard earned cash so I can purchase school supplies in Nepal and deliver them while trekking. I will be buying about $50 worth of supplies in Kathmandu in her name and our guide will help us to donate them to schools along the way that could use some help. I am so proud of her for doing this, I could just burst with pride. I always knew she had a big heart, but she just put her money where her mouth is. I am also planning on taking some personal notes and self addressed stamped envelopes from her to pass out along with the supplies. Hopefully she will get some letters from the children there in return for her kindness.
I am also taking a few Geo Caching items to place in the caches over there and can hopefully bring a few back with us as well. If you have never gone Geocaching, you should really give it a try. It is a modern day treasure hunt using a GPS. It is a heck of a lot of fun and is a great way to get you and your children outside. You can find out more about Geocaching HERE
Curious if anyone has some suggestions for places to visit while on our layover in Hong Kong. I was thinking that we take the tram up to The Peak, but not sure what to do beyond that. Not a lot of time to play around, but we do have most of a day to see the sights. I will probably be jet lagged and completely trashed from the flight over from the states, but we should be able to get a couple of hours sleep and take in some of the sights before catching the evening flight to Kathmandu. Contact me if you know of anything interesting we should try to see.
My daughter Mackenzie decided some time ago to donate some of her hard earned cash so I can purchase school supplies in Nepal and deliver them while trekking. I will be buying about $50 worth of supplies in Kathmandu in her name and our guide will help us to donate them to schools along the way that could use some help. I am so proud of her for doing this, I could just burst with pride. I always knew she had a big heart, but she just put her money where her mouth is. I am also planning on taking some personal notes and self addressed stamped envelopes from her to pass out along with the supplies. Hopefully she will get some letters from the children there in return for her kindness.
I am also taking a few Geo Caching items to place in the caches over there and can hopefully bring a few back with us as well. If you have never gone Geocaching, you should really give it a try. It is a modern day treasure hunt using a GPS. It is a heck of a lot of fun and is a great way to get you and your children outside. You can find out more about Geocaching HERE
Curious if anyone has some suggestions for places to visit while on our layover in Hong Kong. I was thinking that we take the tram up to The Peak, but not sure what to do beyond that. Not a lot of time to play around, but we do have most of a day to see the sights. I will probably be jet lagged and completely trashed from the flight over from the states, but we should be able to get a couple of hours sleep and take in some of the sights before catching the evening flight to Kathmandu. Contact me if you know of anything interesting we should try to see.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Trek Map
Time left at posting: 2111 hours
I thought I would add a map showing our trek to give everyone a better idea of what we are doing. Pardon the crude attempt at Paintshop, but I wanted to show our route and points of interest. I highlighted our route in yellow and marked our starting point and destination. I also noted Everest Base Camp so you can see where we are in relation to it. Gokyo does offer some very nice views of Everest as long as the weather cooperates, so we should get to see it even though we are skipping Base Camp. The route we are taking is roughly 70 miles not including any side trips and has an elevation gain of 11,300 vertical feet
From our starting point in Jiri, it should take us somewhere around 6-8 days of walking to arrive at Namche Bazaar. Once there, we need to take a mandatory rest/acclimatization day, after which we can continue on with our hike to Gokyo. We will follow the same path back to Lukla (more or less) and fly out for Kathmandu at the end of the trek. We are hoping to have enough time for some side trips. I am pretty sure we will take a day hike while acclimating in Namche Bazaar and perhaps have time to play around in Gokyo a bit more than we currently have planned. We will have to wait and see how our schedule goes and if we can free up some time.
As for the preparations, we are getting ready to send our passports off to get our visas so we don't have to do it after arriving in country. We don't have a lot of time to waste once we arrive in Kathmandu, so it is best to do what we can before leaving. I have to get a bunch of passport photo's in the couple of days for our visas, permits and everything else. I have also gotten my physical and started my vaccinations in preparation for our trip. Nothing major, just 5 or 6 boosters to make my doctor happy. My doctor also highly recommended an advanced medical kit to take along with us as well as a few additional items that we will need, so I am putting all that together. Lots of health related items going with us, but the last thing we need is to get ill while trekking.
I thought I would add a map showing our trek to give everyone a better idea of what we are doing. Pardon the crude attempt at Paintshop, but I wanted to show our route and points of interest. I highlighted our route in yellow and marked our starting point and destination. I also noted Everest Base Camp so you can see where we are in relation to it. Gokyo does offer some very nice views of Everest as long as the weather cooperates, so we should get to see it even though we are skipping Base Camp. The route we are taking is roughly 70 miles not including any side trips and has an elevation gain of 11,300 vertical feet
As for the preparations, we are getting ready to send our passports off to get our visas so we don't have to do it after arriving in country. We don't have a lot of time to waste once we arrive in Kathmandu, so it is best to do what we can before leaving. I have to get a bunch of passport photo's in the couple of days for our visas, permits and everything else. I have also gotten my physical and started my vaccinations in preparation for our trip. Nothing major, just 5 or 6 boosters to make my doctor happy. My doctor also highly recommended an advanced medical kit to take along with us as well as a few additional items that we will need, so I am putting all that together. Lots of health related items going with us, but the last thing we need is to get ill while trekking.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
T - 100 Days and Counting...
Time left at posting: 2405 hours
Just a quick recognition of the fact we have 100 days left before we leave. We now enter the strange and wonderful land of double digits.
Just a quick recognition of the fact we have 100 days left before we leave. We now enter the strange and wonderful land of double digits.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Easy peasy lemon squeezy
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The Space Between
Time left at posting: 2543 hours
It's the old story of hurry up and wait! We are currently at a point where nothing much needs to be done and the lack of exciting milestones in our trip preparations makes it seem as if our departure day is still years away. It is the dead space between those exciting times in planning, preparation and actually leaving for our trip. Pretty much all the major preparations that can be done at this early stage have already been done, and it is still too early to start on most of what is left. I did send a small retainer to our guide in Nepal today via Western Union (did you even know they still existed?), but I have not really thought about the trip much other than that. That I am completely and thoroughly overwhelmed by my Java II class probably has a little something to do with keeping my mind off of Nepal, but I think is also has to do with the fact that my "to-do" list has no priority items needing to be completed at the moment. So I wait!
Up to this point, I have not really told many people about my blog. While I welcome any and all readers, I figure that most of you would prefer to wait until the actual trip starts and there is something worth reading on these pages. I will probably post the blog on my Facebook page in the next few months or so and thereby open it up to the rest of the world, but your more than welcome to pass on my blog address if you feel so inclined. This is not a private blog by any means. And for those chosen few that are out there, please don't hesitate to add a comment or ask a question. I had no idea that anyone was reading this until I was recently asked why I had not posted an entry in the last few weeks. Corrections in spelling and grammar are always appreciated as well. After all, I am almost a collage graduate and have a reputation to protect ;-)
It's the old story of hurry up and wait! We are currently at a point where nothing much needs to be done and the lack of exciting milestones in our trip preparations makes it seem as if our departure day is still years away. It is the dead space between those exciting times in planning, preparation and actually leaving for our trip. Pretty much all the major preparations that can be done at this early stage have already been done, and it is still too early to start on most of what is left. I did send a small retainer to our guide in Nepal today via Western Union (did you even know they still existed?), but I have not really thought about the trip much other than that. That I am completely and thoroughly overwhelmed by my Java II class probably has a little something to do with keeping my mind off of Nepal, but I think is also has to do with the fact that my "to-do" list has no priority items needing to be completed at the moment. So I wait!
Up to this point, I have not really told many people about my blog. While I welcome any and all readers, I figure that most of you would prefer to wait until the actual trip starts and there is something worth reading on these pages. I will probably post the blog on my Facebook page in the next few months or so and thereby open it up to the rest of the world, but your more than welcome to pass on my blog address if you feel so inclined. This is not a private blog by any means. And for those chosen few that are out there, please don't hesitate to add a comment or ask a question. I had no idea that anyone was reading this until I was recently asked why I had not posted an entry in the last few weeks. Corrections in spelling and grammar are always appreciated as well. After all, I am almost a collage graduate and have a reputation to protect ;-)
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Current Mental Status (Questionable)
Time left at posting: 3095 hours
I am so ready to go on this trip! Mentally I am strung out and really need a break from the day-to-day stuff that makes up life. I know what your thinking, but nope, it is not the family. They are great. It's not the job either, although that does play a small part in my stress level. It is going to school every night that has me so tired I can hardly see straight. Every night it is homework, homework and more homework. Even if I do take a night off, I spend the time thinking about how I really should be doing homework. Even posting this blog is taking away time from the homework that I really should be doing. I have until this October, then I will be finished with my classes at the University of Phoenix. No more &%$@ing homework!
It seems rational to think that it is because of all the homework that I find myself daydreaming about a time when I won't have any. And as we are departing for Nepal less than two weeks after I graduate, it really has me looking forward to this trip even more than I normally would. I can't wait to get off the bus in Jiri and just start walking. If there is one thing that I really enjoy about being on the trail is just the lack of mental distractions. My mind is able to let go of many of the day to day drivel that normally occupy my head and can instead focus on more important issues such as the painful blister that is forming on my big toe, or how tired my legs are from climbing up this damn mountain. Instead of thinking about work, I can instead turn my attention to the mental and physical complexities that are involved in avoidance of Yak poop on the trail or falling off a rock face while I am taking my own bathroom break. God am I looking forward to this!
For some people a perfect vacation is sitting on a tropical beach and doing absolutely nothing. Others may like the thrill a minute adventures where they are constantly on the go. While I like tropical beaches and wild adventures, I think I would much rather go to Nepal or some other exotic location and get off the beaten path somewhere. Throw out the schedule and take it one day at a time. Walk when you want to walk, eat when you want to eat and stop when you want to stop. Just be at the airport for your flight home and you're good to go. I guess I just don't like playing the stereotypical tourist. And it is not like we don't have any goals in mind for this trip, but they are all negotiable and not set in stone. After all, we may get all the way over there and not even see Mount Everest due to cloud cover or some other reason. I am trying to focus on enjoying the entire trip, not judging it strictly on whether we get to put a check mark next to everything on our to-do list.
I am so ready to go on this trip! Mentally I am strung out and really need a break from the day-to-day stuff that makes up life. I know what your thinking, but nope, it is not the family. They are great. It's not the job either, although that does play a small part in my stress level. It is going to school every night that has me so tired I can hardly see straight. Every night it is homework, homework and more homework. Even if I do take a night off, I spend the time thinking about how I really should be doing homework. Even posting this blog is taking away time from the homework that I really should be doing. I have until this October, then I will be finished with my classes at the University of Phoenix. No more &%$@ing homework!
It seems rational to think that it is because of all the homework that I find myself daydreaming about a time when I won't have any. And as we are departing for Nepal less than two weeks after I graduate, it really has me looking forward to this trip even more than I normally would. I can't wait to get off the bus in Jiri and just start walking. If there is one thing that I really enjoy about being on the trail is just the lack of mental distractions. My mind is able to let go of many of the day to day drivel that normally occupy my head and can instead focus on more important issues such as the painful blister that is forming on my big toe, or how tired my legs are from climbing up this damn mountain. Instead of thinking about work, I can instead turn my attention to the mental and physical complexities that are involved in avoidance of Yak poop on the trail or falling off a rock face while I am taking my own bathroom break. God am I looking forward to this!
For some people a perfect vacation is sitting on a tropical beach and doing absolutely nothing. Others may like the thrill a minute adventures where they are constantly on the go. While I like tropical beaches and wild adventures, I think I would much rather go to Nepal or some other exotic location and get off the beaten path somewhere. Throw out the schedule and take it one day at a time. Walk when you want to walk, eat when you want to eat and stop when you want to stop. Just be at the airport for your flight home and you're good to go. I guess I just don't like playing the stereotypical tourist. And it is not like we don't have any goals in mind for this trip, but they are all negotiable and not set in stone. After all, we may get all the way over there and not even see Mount Everest due to cloud cover or some other reason. I am trying to focus on enjoying the entire trip, not judging it strictly on whether we get to put a check mark next to everything on our to-do list.
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