I wrote this the evening before I left for my first trek into the Himalayas...
As I sit here on the evening of my first Himalayan trekking adventure, my heart swells up with gratitude. I recall being a young man in I believe 8th grade reading a book entitled “surfing the Himalayas.” It was a story about seeking and attempting to understand “nirvana.”
Now, as I think back to this experience, I have a slight chuckle, as it was only around ten years later or so I finished a program in Spiritual Psychology, while helping people share stories about being grateful for things such as murder, death and rape.
Crazy how this world works, but anyways let me regress by sharing the strange and incredibly insightful path that lead me to this quiet home here in Kathmandu, the evening before I embark on my first Himalayan adventure...
So, while beginning to plan out the possibilities for this trip, I receive a message from a long time friend of mine who inquires where I may be in the world. After brief back and forth discussion on Facebook, she proposes the idea of doing volunteer work in Nepal. Now, my original plan on this trip was spending around 2-3 months in India, but like the way spirit works, there was another plan in mind.
While working in Singapore, doing my two weeks of time as a reserve naval officer, I attempted to apply for my India visa at the consulate, as the books and traveling friends had suggested. This seemed perfect to me until the lovely Indian consulate head informed me that this would not be possible and I would need to get my Visa from an embassy in the states since I was not a Singaporean resident.
So, my mind began to run, and this was right around the time I receive this message from my friend about Nepal.
Now, let me regress one additional time, a short traveling tip that I learned the very hard way this past summer at the border of Turkey and Syria. I know I am diverting in many directions here, but just stay with me and you will feel why gratitude tears down my face in this quiet lonely moment in Kathmandu.
So, while trying to cross the border from Turkey to Syria, I was with a group of around 12 people from countries across the globe, France, Korea, Canada, Australia, etc. There was just only two Americans; my friend James and I.
Well my stubborn difficult lesson transgressed when the border official gave every other individual in my group a visa at the border and told my American friend and I to simply walk away, and get our Visa in Istanbul.
Now, clever Aaron comes rolling in, and thinks “maybe I will just try another border, and the guards will be friendly...”
Well after three borders in two days, covering entirely too many scary, dark, and just down right strange border towns in Turkey, I was still without my Syrian Visa (even though I had met other American travelers, who had received their Visa at the border, so my stubbornness had an ounce of research.)
James and I were stuck, the only other way I could catch my flight from Tel Aviv back to the states was through Istanbul, so we bused our way back to Istanbul, loved the city where the west meets the east, and kept a challenging yet lesson filled story behind our belts.
So, after that just short regression, my point I was bringing forward was when there is Visa difficulty, I have learned now to just take the consulate official’s advice and simply figure something else. And in this case, I was not about to fed ex my visa across the world back to the Indian Embassy in DC, and hope it would return in time for me after my two weeks of work.
So instead, my plans were two weeks in Bali, followed by a short flight back to Singapore then off to the mountains of Nepal.
Well once again, spirit had new arrangements for me in mind: After two weeks in Bali, I wanted more, at least another week for diving, exploring the neighboring island of Lombok, and filling my heart and soul with Indonesian culture and adventure. Upon checking my email just a few days before I would be flying out, my long time friend messaged me indicating she had a terrible health problem and she would have to delay her flight to Nepal. My initial reaction was one of support, blessings and love for her, but now I realized I could take some more time in Bali, and fly out a week later.
TRAVEL TIP # 459
Always book your tickets directly with the airlines, as usually when you are not in the United States, the airline company will charge you only a minimal fee for a flight change, not the at a minimum $150 fee one often occurs in the states, which often is closed to the price of the initial ticket fare.
So, after changing my tickets, adventuring and playing in Bali for another week, it was time to begin my Nepalese adventure.
I left Bali with strong new delightful friendships, and the taste of sweet mountain air on my eager and awaiting tongue.
Now, see, I am almost back to where I started....
I arrived in Kathmandu, and WOW, its a dirty, smog ingested, motorbike honking gorgeous valley surrounded my small mountains close by with the Himalayas towering in the near distance. My friend Birendra, a couch surfing friend met me at the airport and introduced me to this beautiful land of Nepal and the craziness that exists in Kathmandu. I explored the Thamel area, walked amongst beautiful temples nearby and ate in some of the dirtiest pigeon holed restaurants I could find. The food has been great, the people filled with character and the photography astounding...
So, after just a day in Kathmandu, I once again receive a message from my friend, and she informs me she is listening to her body and health, and flying across the globe is not going to be for her highest good. I once again completely understand, and once again I am at the drawing board, as I had planned to meet her on Friday, a few days after I had arrived in Kathmandu.
So my drawing board was empty and now I filled it up.
Ahh, I sit her now about to hop on a bus in about 6 hours and begin two days of volunteering in a local village, followed by a seven day trek.
Since the power is out in the small house I am sleeping in (this is a interesting part of life in Kathmandu, planning your days around the power outages), I will not post this blog until I return from the mountains, at which time I will be writing and sharing about the magical experience, especially since I am going to be up with the Tibetans for their new year festival!
Wow, this whole experience, this whole journey to this moment, alone, about to embrace upon a new Himalayan world brings a few things forward.
Yes, I would have loved to share this experience with both of the two sisters who were supposed to join me.
Yes, my heart fills with joy to the thought of trekking and hiking for the next week through remote and beautiful mountain side villages,
Yes, I am beyond grateful that I have the opportunity to experience these places and people in this lifetime,
and Yes, I am even more grateful to have this forum to share some of my experiences with each of you and bring travel life to your own personal PC.
but beyond anything, gratitude pours through my being for simply saying yes to experiencing the joy, bliss, surrender, sorrow, shame, freedom and pure spirit exhilaration that lurks around every corner of this globe.
Like I mention to all of you often in this blog
Adventure
Clarity
Freedom
Truly exists around every corner of our life
Whether it be taking a new way home from work today
Whether it be trying that new breakfast organic cereal that is too expensive
or whether it be taking the flight to Kenya, instead of Queensland
let it be known
that our souls desire the freedom to be
the freedom to live within the glory and the creation of our deepest dreams and deepest darrk truths
by laying our life on the table and simply being the ones to play with our food
our dreams become our reality
our reality becomes our life
and our life brings us to the abundance of appreciation that awaits for you inside of each and every day of this magnificent creation of life!
