As you probably know, I was on a trip in India for the next months. However, as expected, nothing gone as expected: thanks God!
There is only one word to describe my trip: Adventure.
It was awesome.
Everything started in India. I have been there for 3 weeks: 3 weeks of pure adventure. It was awesome and really an experience to live for an occidental. Nothing is familiar and everything can happen in India. My motto was: expect the unexpected.
I will not write everything here (I wrote about 40 or 50 pages in French just in emails, to my friends and family, to describe what happened, and not really expected, during the last 5 weeks). However I can say that it was awesome and I would do the same trip anytime.
As I said, I was supposed to be away for 2 or 3 months, and I came back after 5 weeks, so what happened?
Everything ended with my last adventure in the Himalaya. There is the short story:
I flew from Kathmandu to Lukla (the last airstrip before the Everest) and was suppose to go to Gokyo, then getting the Chu La Pass (if the weather conditions were good) then heading to the Everest base camp. (Have in mind that I have been alone all the trip long, meeting a incredible number of people from all around the world).
Click here for a map of the region
So I headed to Gokyo without any Acute Mountain Sickness problems: I was at 4700m of altitude. Everything was going as expected and without any problem except for a could that started 2 days ago, so I woke up the morning after my first night at Gokyo, started to climb the Gokyo Peak (5400m), expecting to go to the Chu La Pass later in the day.
Then the unexpected happened.
I get a HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema): water in lungs. I had only one thing to do from that point: climbing down of 1000m of altitude in the next hours or I could get permanent injuries to the lungs or worse death if I keep myself at that altitude for too long. The problem is that I had to climb down to Phortse to climb down of 900m and it is a 12km or 15km of walk in the mountains, with 25kilos of stock, 50% to 60% of the sea level oxygen, malfunctioning lungs and I was alone, unable to find a porter or even a tourist to help me to carry by pack-sac.
To make a short story, I got to Phortse after around 11 hours of walk: I never been that exhausted. Then the next day I got to the doctor in Kunde ( if the day before I was exhausted, now I was dead after the walk from Phortse to Kunde). Then I found that everything was okay vis-a-vis my lungs, but I got an alimentation intoxication.
It was the worse… I haven’t been able to eat during my last 3 days in the Himalaya because of this intoxication, and I was spending around 5000 calories to get me out of there. So I was not able to go back at the Everest base camp because I wasn’t able to eat, so getting back my energy. My antibiotics were not effective and I wasn’t able to restart to eat after a couple of days so I decided to get out of there in case that it wasn’t a bacteria that I had in my belly. So I found a cargo Helicopter that was flying near from where I was (Namche Bazard) to Jiri (a beautiful old 1960 helicopter drove by by Colonel I. Tchekov).
So I got back to Kathmandu 4 days after my ascension of Gokyo peak, my belly started to get back on track after 10 days, and I am now in Quebec.
My trip was awesome; I lived many many fabulous things during these 5 weeks.
Now I am back, full of energy and ready for the next steps.
Right now I am digging in 5 weeks of web feed aggregation, trying to check what happened in the Blogsphere during the last 5 weeks. So my next posts will probably be in relation with the interesting writings I found.
Sudar
March 8, 2006 — 11:52 am
Hi Fred,
Nice to know that you are fine again. I would have been really happy if you could have climbed Everest. Anyways take care of your health as of now.
Do write about the interesting things that you came across in your trip.
Fred
March 8, 2006 — 12:08 pm
Hi Sudar!
It is a shame that I didn’t head to Chennei meeting you. Unfortunately I never expected that India was so huge! (Canada is bigger, but it is empty compared with the 1.1 billion indiens and thousands of years of history). I only visited the north (Delhi, the whole Rajastan, Agra then Varanasi). I will have to do the sound in a single trip, then meeting you ๐
I really had a great time in India, lived many things, but I have to say that it is really not as I expected, with all I have read. You can prapare yourself for what you will live there (I talk for an occidental person), the only way is by living it.
Yup my health is right now, I will restart my tranning the next week, so everything is back to normal as long as I know.
Now it is the time to channel that new energy into creative work!
So you, everything is going fine in Chennei?
Take care!
Salutations,
Fred
ezee123
March 8, 2006 — 12:25 pm
Aw sorry to hear of your aborted expedition. Maybe you try again next year and not alone. Be a part of a small group perhaps.
All teh best.
@aka
March 8, 2006 — 2:18 pm
What an adventure! I never thought of you in such a danger and I’m glad to hear you back in safe.
— Ataka
Fred
March 8, 2006 — 3:00 pm
Hi!
Aborded yes, but not a big problem as long as I saw the Everest from two different points of view ๐
It is experience, at the start, I wasn’t suppoed to go in Nepal, but things changed during the trip so it was a “sideline” to the normally Indian planned trip.
Next time that I will do it, it is sure that I will go with someone, not only for security reason (because I was most of the time with other people while going to Gokyo), but to have someone to share all the things you see in that place: it is awesome, something to live before dying.
Thanks and take care,
Salutations,
Fred
kay
July 6, 2006 — 8:54 pm
It*s nice to see you are back and well….I saw your photos from India and like to see your view for “real life” …and I have read in your site about your life …things you have done…and you like to do. I wish you the best.
….And look at this website http://www.eckharttolle.com…Eckhart Tolle is the Author of “The Power of Now”. …I think there a things that can interrest you.
He writes about “the ART of life”…and when I read about your way I remembered this book.
greets from Kay
Neuwied (Germany-near Cologne)
Fred
July 7, 2006 — 12:53 pm
Hi Key,
Thanks for you kind words, it is really appreciate. This site is a work of everyday: updating it and opening it (in fact, it’s the more difficult part: changing is mind about the “virtual world” and open oneself to the World with thoughts, texts, photos, opinions, etc). I always like receiving such beautiful comments that help me to continue in that way.
By the way I just checked your website: I like your art work, keep up the good work!
Take care,
Salutations,
Fred