Sam's Trip to China

Poon Hill Trail [4/4]

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

You are awakened by your alarm just before sunrise.

[+30 exhaustion]

[sunrise]
You can:
1. Go back to bed
2. Get up and enjoy the sunrise

We’re not missing two sunrises damnit! Besides, this one doesn’t require an hour long hike, just requires walking out the door.

> sunrise!!!

You struggle out of bed and out onto the balcony to enjoy a spectacular sunrise with everyone else who got up. You all wait with baited breath and hushed words as the sun starts to peak over the mountain range, before finally illuminating the whole scene.

[+50 motivation]

[13 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Have some breakfast
2. Watch longer
3. Pack up and head out

The world is warming up, let’s have some tea and warm up too.

> leisurely breakfast

You order some tea and Osmanthus orders some toast, eggs, and pancakes. You take your time basking in the knowledge that it's only a half day today.

[-₹600][-30 exhaustion]

[11 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Rest a while longer
2. Head out

Today is our last day! The closest Jeep stop is in the town of Ghandruk, over 4 miles away, but an almost entirely downhill trek. It’s been fun, but the sooner I can get back to a comfy, soft bed the better. And change my socks!

> let's go

You pack up and head out, Osmanthus taking the lead again on the downhill section.

You snap a couple last pictures when the trees open wide enough to give you a clearer view of the mountains.

You arrive on the outskirts of Ghandruk. From the top you can see a sea of tin rooves cascading down the mountainside, you estimate that several hundred people live here. It is the largest town you've encountered so far during your hike.

[8 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Get some lunch
2. Head directly to the Jeep station
3. Explore the town

Exploring the town means going down, and then walking back up… Let’s just get some lunch and ask about the Jeeps while we’re at it.

> lunchtime

You make your way in the general direction of the Jeep station while keeping your eye out for a place to eat. There are several options to chose from.

[8 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Eat at Hill Top Lodge
2. Eat at Ghandruk Guest House and Restaurant
3. Eat at Esika Local Home Stay
4. Eat at Hotel Ashish Aama

It… doesn’t matter at all…

> whichever

You make your way into a random lodge and inquire about the Jeeps. The lady sits you down with a menu and tells you she'll phone the station to see when the next one leaves. She comes back after a short while and tells you it'll be leaving in about forty minutes.

[8 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Stay and eat something
2. Head to the Jeep station just in case

Forty minutes is plenty of time. Let’s just get something smaller.

> eat a quick meal

You order and share a plate of dumplings, pay, pack up and walk over. But when you get there you see nobody else around. After peeking into a nearby restaurant and finding the driver you are told you missed the most recent Jeep and if you want to leave now you'll have to pay the full price of ₹6,000 ($50).

Damn those dumplings. Most expensive meal this trip…

[7 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Take the offer
2. Wait for more people to split the cost
3. Try to bargain the driver down

I’d like to wait for a couple more people - $50 is a lot! That’s almost as much as what we’ve spent the entirety of this trip so far! Plus we’re not in a hurry, we could just chill out with a pot of tea…

Osmanthus turns to you and strongly encourages you to consider, for her sake and yours, just paying the full fee to get back to a hot shower as soon as possible.

Uh… well… I guess I’ll try to knock the price down a little bit…

> negotiate...

After some back and forth you fail to get him to come down on the price. But he does promise that for the ₹6,000 he will also have a taxi ready to take us back to Pokhara as soon as we get down to Nayapul. And finally you manage to get him to agree that if he picks up any other passengers on the way down you'll only have to pay ₹5,000.

[7 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Play hardball and walk away
2. Take the offer

One look at Osmanthus tells me I’m done negotiating for now. I tried my best…

> let's go

With a grin the driver opens up the doors and hops in the front of the Jeep. You two settle into the back with your packs and prepare for the hour long ride down the mountain.

The gravel path that winds its way down the mountain is too rocky to make sleep, or even speech, possible. The only option available to you is to stare out the window down the hundreds of meters of mountainside that you would fall if the Jeep slipped off the edge.

Just when you thought the ride couldn't possibly get more stressful, you encounter a small river flowing right through the road.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JEEP VS SMALL RIVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Jeep enters the river and immediately the flow of the water nudges the Jeep ever so slightly left, reducing the several meter gap between you and the sheer drop down the cliff face. [+10 fear]
Your move [pray/do nothing/get out of the Jeep]
> do nothing
You use [do nothing]! You sit and wait to see just how life threatening the situation can get.
Osmanthus uses [resignation]. She's not the one driving the Jeep anyways!
The driver hits the gas and urges the Jeep over the next set of rocks, the river dragging the Jeep another foot closer to doom during motion. [+40 fear]
Your move [pray/do nothing/get out of the Jeep!!]
> do nothing
You use [do nothing]! You sit and think about how long it would take before your family even knew if you died. [+20 fear]
Osmanthus uses [self-delusion]! It's just like an amusement park ride! [-20 fear]
You've almost made it to the end, but the Jeep gets lodged on a large rock. The driver revs the engine trying to coax the Jeep up and over the rock without exploding out of the river like a cork out a champagne bottle. [+50 fear]
Your move [pray/do nothing/GET OUT OF THE JEEP!!!]:
> do nothing
It'll be fine right? It'll be ok, they've done this before, this guy's done this before, just a little bit more, we're almost there...
Osmanthus takes some action. You're too wrapped up in your own thoughts to notice.
The Jeep surges up and over the last rock, making it onto dry land again with a couple of feet to spare between it and the cliff face. Congratulations!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU DIDN'T DIE! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy Christ, I can breathe again. Next time I’m spending the extra day to walk down.

The rest of the ride down continues uneventfully. You think you see a passenger on the side of the road trying to flag down the Jeep, but the driver either doesn't see him or pretends not to see him and charges forward.

After being tossed around in the back seat for another half hour you finally make it back to Nayapul, where your taxi is already waiting for you.

[-₹6000]

You know, the whole trip wasn’t even that hard! Maybe we should come back and do a longer trek.

…next year.

Loading the trunk up with your packs, you give the driver the address of your hotel. Just before hopping in the taxi you turn around and wave one last time up the Annapurna range.

"Goodbye Poon Hill!"

YOU WIN!

End of Game Statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Days taken: 4
Battles won: 3
Other travelers met: 4
Money spent on lodging: ₹1,500 = $14
Money spent on food: ₹9,600 = $90
Money spent on gear: ₹800 = $7.5
Money spent on transportation: ₹8,000 = $75
Total money spent: ₹19,900 = $186.5
Money spent per person: $93
Money spent per person per day: $23

Poon Hill Trail [3/4]

Sun, 11 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

You wake up to your 4:30 AM alarm.

[+30 exhastion]

It's pitch black both inside and outside. As your bleary senses open up you process the sound of pitter patter on the roof: rain.

[-50 motivation]

[1.5 hours till sunrise]
You can:
1. Get up and prepare to set out for Poon Hill
2. Go back to bed

Oh, my god, it’s so early, and I’m so exhausted and it’s raining out, which means that the walk is gonna suck, and also means that it’s probably cloudy up at the top right? So we wouldn’t even get to see the sunrise anyways, which means it would definitely not be worth it, and let’s just go back to bed, you agree don’t you Osmanthus? Yes, you agree…

> sleep more

You set a new alarm and lie back down in bed, drifting off right away.

...zzz...

[-30 exhastuion]

You wake up to your 6:30 AM alarm, feeling much more refreshed. The sun is rising and the rain has tapered to a drizzle.

[+30 motivation]

[12.5 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Get up and prepare to set out for Poon Hill
2. Go back to bed

No no, we can get up now. After all we have a whole day of hiking to do after we go up and down Poon Hill.

> get our lazy asses up

You collect your things and bring them down to the common area. The lodge will allow you to keep your packs here and grab them once you come back down from Poon Hill. You stuff your coat full of snacks and borrow an umbrella from the lodge.

[12 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Have breakfast
2. Set out for Poon Hill
3. Set out for Tadapani

We already missed the sunrise, so may as well have something to eat and let the rain wear itself out.

> breakfast

You order some muesli and load it up with lots of honey, sipping on a Nescafe® instant coffee.

[-₹500][-30 exhaustion][+20 motivation]

[11 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Set out for Poon Hill
2. Set out for Tadapani

Well we’re still gonna go see Poon Hill… after all that’s the name of the game!

> poon hill

The rain has mostly abated and halfway through the hour hike up you put the umbrella away.

You stop every so often to admire the nice views on the way up, gray as they might be at the moment.

But it's the panoramic view of the mountain range that opens up as you crest the top that is truly stunning.

[+100 motivation]

Marred only by the swathes of clouds covering the tops of the mountains.

[-20 motivation]

It's mostly free of other people, and the tea stand is closed, so you figure that most people must have come up for the sunrise.

Fools.

You walk around and snap some pics and have a bite to eat while enjoying the view.

These cookies are great 👌

[9.5 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Stay longer hoping the clouds will clear out
2. Head back to Ghorepani and retreive your things

We still need to make it to Tadapani today. Can’t spend all day waiting for clouds…

> head back

You make the trek back...

... return the umbrella, and grab your things.

[8.5 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Set out for Tadapani
2. Do some shopping
3. Have lunch in Ghorepani

Osmanthus is still afraid of her stuff getting thoroughly soaked again, so she wants to pick up a backpack cover in case it rains.

> shop

Ghorepani, being a larger town, has a shop or two dedicated just to hiking gear. There you guys find hiking poles, water bottles, backpacks, boots, trail snacks, and a backpack cover.

> more water, backpack cover

[-₹800]
Osmanthus [+20 motivaton]

[7.5 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Set out for Tadapani
2. Have lunch in Ghorepani

We’ve spent enough time here. Let’s get out of this town!

> onwards!

The first part of the trek is relatively horizontal, passing over the ridge of the mountains here. It affords some spectaular views of its own looking down into the valleys.

You stop for a quick rest, sitting on a small stone outcropping. Suddenly, Osmanthus jumps to her feet and screams. Clinging to her wrist is a very small leech.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OSMANTHUS VS SMALL LEECH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The leech uses [is gross]! The attack is super effective! Osmanthus [+50 panic]
Osmanthus uses [scream]! The leech has no ears, and the attack fails!
Your move [salt/flick/smash/run]:
> salt
You attempt to use [salt]! The salt is deep in your backpack, and you can't get to it in time. The attack fails!
The leech uses [super gross]! The attack is super effective! Osmanthus [+50 panic][+50 desperation]
Osmanthus uses [smash]! She picks up a rock and prepares to attack the leech!
Your move [salt/flick/block/run]:
> block
You use [block]! You grab Osmanthus and forcefully prevent her from breaking her own wrist with a rock in order to subdue the 1 centimeter leech. Osmanthus [+50 rage]
The leech uses [really so super gross]! The attack is super effective! Osmanthus [+50 panic][+50 desperation][+50 lifelong fear of leeches]
Osmanthus' panic levels are too high and she is unable to take an action!
Your move [salt/flick/smash/run]:
> flick
You steady Osmanthus' arm long enough to [flick] the leech off.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU WIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, ok, it’s ok Osmanthus, it’s ok, calm down, it’s alright, it’s gone now, no more leech, yes I know it was gross but it’s ok, it’s gone now…

After a minute or two you manage to coax Osmanthus into moving again, and once she starts she never wants to stop in case there are more leeches waiting to attack.

After some time you arrive at what you think at first might be Deurali, but quickly realize is just an overlook point containing just two similar looking lodges with identical menus.

[6.5 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Stop and have some lunch
2. Continue on to Deurali

Fake Deurali. But we’re hungry, and Osmanthus needs some time to recover from her leech encounter.

> eat

You pick the lodge with fewer customers and let Osmanthus order whatever she wants (mo:mo and chai).

While waiting for the food, you check yourself for leeches and find a small one clinging to the top of your right foot, just below your big toe. You're not surprised - your shoes are full of holes and practically invite the leeches in - but you're careful not to let Osmanthus see as you dab it with some salt and peel it off. It never even made it through the sock, so your feet are undamaged.

The food comes out and you eat with gusto.

[-₹800][-30 exhastion]

[5.5 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Continue on toward Deurali
2. Rest a bit longer

Osmanthus seems to have recovered enough from the shock to continue forward.

> on to real deurali

An hour and a half of hiking upon the mountain ridges brings you to Deurali. The views down the side of the mountain are still spectacular, but you've had your fill of pictures, and Osmanthus doesn't want to stand still anymore in case there are more leeches.

Deurali is a little larger, and actually has places to stay.

[4 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Continue onwards towards Ban Thanti
2. Stop for a snack
3. Stop for the day

We’re full, we’re making good time, let’s keep at it.

> into the breach

You start making your way down into the gulf that separates you from Tadapani.

As the trail turns into stairs, you suddenly find yourself unable to keep up with Osmanthus who races ahead down the stone stairway, while your knees complain on every step you take too quickly. During the descent you become buried in the foliage and lose the view of the valley. You discover the path follows a gentle river down the hillside.

After an hour, you arrive in Ban Thanti, knees creaking.

[3 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Stop for dinner
2. Continue on to Tadapani
3. Stay in Ban Thanti for the night

The final part of the hike conquers the V of the valley - we’ll go to the bottom then back up, including a brutal set of stairs for about 300 meters. But Osmanthus says she’s up for it, and it’s always nice to have less to do tomorrow.

> grind it out

You continue onward and make it down into the bottom of the valley. All that lies between you and your desitination is a nearly vertical set of stairs.

[-30 motivation]

Oh no, it didn’t seem so bad when it was merely theoretical…

You make the final ascent up the stairs.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PARTY VS STEEP STAIRS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The stairs use [so steep]! The damage goes stright to your thighs! Your thighs are on fire!
Your move [rest/pray/cry/plead]:
> plead
You attempt to use [plead]! Despite your deepest entreaties, the stairs do not let up. The attack fails!
Osmanthus uses [staunch determination]! She ignores your mumbling and strives forwards.
The stairs use [never-ending]! [-30 motivaton]!
Your move [rest/pray/cry/plead]:
> rest
You use [rest]! You give your legs a chance to recover. [+20 motivation]
Osmanthus uses [self-delusion]! The end must be close. Just around this bend... [+20 motivation]
The stairs use [leveling-off]! The attack is innefective! [+20 motivation]!
Your move [rest/pray/cry/plead]:
> push through it!
You use the extra motivation to reach deep within yourself and [push through it]! You surmount the final section of the stairs!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU WIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh god, oh please, my legs have been replaced with fiery pools of lava 😣

After defeating the stairs you stumble the last several hundred meters to Tadapani.

Tadapani is situated on a crest and has some excellent views of the Annapurna range.

[2 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Stay at Grand View Lodge [-₹300][+ view of Annapurna]
2. Stay at Hotel Super Viewpoint [-₹500][+ view of Annapurna]
3. Stay at Hotel Tadapani Guest House [-₹200]

Not even close. Grand View is clearly the best choice. Just gotta climb one last tiny hill 😭😭😭

> grand view

Not only do you get a room on the second floor, looking out at the Annapurna range, but it also has four beds!

[-₹300][+10 motivation]

[1.5 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Have some dinner
2. Admire the view
3. Go to sleep

We have some extra time, let’s take a break.

> admire the view

The sun is already low in the sky and the clouds have not dissapated all day, so the mountain is dark and obscured. But you're sure it'll be an amazing view in the morning.

[+5 motivation]

[1 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Have some dinner
2. Go to sleep

> dinner

The lodge is bustling with other groups of hikers. While eating a filling platter of Dahl Bhat you strike up conversation with the Singaporeans on your left and the Australians on your right, and after dinner listen in on the group of older British men chat about buying a new computer with Windows 10. Nepal is so multicultural!

[sunset]
You can:
1. Hang out in the lodge longer
2. Go to sleep

We want to get up at sunrise tomorrow (for real this time) in order to catch the sun coming up over the mountains, so we should head to bed.

> sleep

You prepare for sleep and choose which two of the four beds you'll be resting in. The rooms next to you also have groups, and they stay up late chatting amongst themselves, their voices carrying through the thin walls. You somehow manage to drift off...

...zzz...

[-100 exhaustion]

To be continued!

Poon Hill Trail [2/4]

Sun, 27 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

You groggily awake to your alarm.

[13 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Have breakfast [-₹1500]
2. Go shopping
3. Set out

Breakfast - with a pot of Nepalese tea of course!

> breakfast

After a hearty meal and a pot of Nepalese tea you're feeling ready for the day ahead. You clean up your room and pack up your things.

[-40 exhaustion][-₹1500]

[12 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Go shopping
2. Set out

Better to stock up on some more water at least. And see if there’s anything fun.

> shopping

The lodging/restaurant also functions as a small general store - packed with sugary candy bars, granola bars, water, first aid supplies, and yak cheese.

Yak cheese!! Let’s try that.

> buy water, yak cheese

[-₹300]

The yak cheese is a very hard, off-yellow substance. It appears to not be meant for direct consumption, but for sucking on, similar to a hard candy.

[11 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Buy more
2. Set out

Alright, no point in delaying any longer. Today is the longest, most vertical, and most difficult section of the hike. The goal is to get all the way to Gorhepani: an ascent of 5,000 feet over 6 miles 😱 Today is the four Empire state buildings day…

> let's go!

You set out towards Gorhepani, crossing the rushing river over a narrow bridge.

Once away from the village, the trek quickly turns into a never-ending stair climb.

You pass some Nepalese school children headed down the mountain, presumably to school.

A sleek black and brown coated dog begins to walk with you on your trek.

Would you like to name him?

You don’t see much point in naming a dog that is almost certainly going to leave when it realized that you’re not gonna give it any food, but Osmanthus has already started calling him “Hachi”, so I guess Hachi it is.

> Hachi

Hachi travels with you for some time. Osmanthus keeps comparing you with Hachi.

"You walk too fast, but Hachi always waits for me."
"Let's take a break, look Hachi laid down, he wants a break too."
"Hachi is so patient, you should be more like Hachi."
"Hachi is the perfect hiking companion."

Osmanthus [+5 motivation]
You [-5 motivation]

About an hour in, the endless stairs start leveling out. You lose track of Hachi as he bounds on ahead, into the town of Ulleri. By this point Osmanthus is too exhausted to be distraught.

[+50 exhaustion]

[8.5 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Stop in Ulleri
2. Forge onwards.

We’re making good time, and deserve a rest after the endless stairs. Not yet time for lunch so we’ll just have some granola bars we packed. And some tea of course.

> stop for tea and granola bars

Ulleri is perched right above a valley and affords an awesome view. You find a place with some great big windows to look out of, only to have the whole scene filled in by clouds.

[+0 motivation]

The tea is delicious, and the granola bars really hit the spot.

[-20 exhaustion][-₹200]

[8 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Rest a little longer
2. Set out

Onwards, towards Ghorepani!

> set out!

The next spot of habitation on the trail is Ban Thanti. Being only a short distance away you find yourself in the tiny four structure outpost before you know it.

[+5 exhaustion]

[7.45 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Stop in Ban Thanti for lunch
2. Continue onwards

We’ve barely gone anywhere, no need to stop!

> keep going damnit

As you approach the edge of the next nature conservation zone (and therefore the end of the lodges and restaurants) the clouds that blocked your view earlier push higher and grow more ominous.

Gotta gear up.

Finally they open, starting with a drizzle before turning into a cascading pour just as you round the corner and reach the final outpost.

[+5 exhastion][-50 motivation]

[7 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Stop for some lunch
2. Continue onwards

Let’s see if we can wait out the rain. Time for lunch anyways!

> lunch

You stop in Fishtail View Point Guest House and find several other waterlogged travelers. Your fancy new hiking backpack has a rain resistant cover so your things are mostly ok, but Osmanthus's backpack is soaked through.

Osmanthus [-50 motivation]

You order some mo:mo and tea, and lay your belongings out to dry in one corner of the dining area.

[-₹1000][-30 exhaustion]

By the time you've finished eating, the rain has abated into a drizzle.

[+10 motivation]

[6 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Wait a little longer for the rain to stop
2. Set out

Daylight’s a-wasting. You figure you’re going to get wet no matter what, so may as well head out now.

> let's go...

As you pack up to head out the rain abates entirely. Lucky you!

[+20 motivation]

The small rivers that normally cross the path have swollen with the rain. Osmanthus, with her new fancy waterproof shoes, simply walks through them, but while you are jumping from rock to rock you slip and fall into one.

Osmanthus [-0 motivation]
You [-20 motivation]

Two hours into the walk you come across a group of eight or so Nepalese digging dirt and pulling trees out of the path. They inform you that there has been a landslide, and point you to a set of tracks that appear to lead ten or fifteen feet up the sheer side of the mountain, track the length of the landslide, and then descend back onto the path. Closer inspection reveals that some of these tracks are sunk half a foot deep in the mud that the landslide has created.

[+30 exhaustion]

[4 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Turn around
2. Plunge up the muddy mountainside

Osmanthus does not look pleased. But I don’t know what she’s unhappy about - she’s the one with the waterproof boots. My shoes are held together by tape and shoe repair blue I bought in China - and they’ve already started coming apart again. I’m gonna have mud between my toes…

But we can’t turn back. No way I’m spending a whole day walking back, spending the night, and coming out again the next day. It’s just a little mud. I’ll just plunge my shoes in the next river and it’ll be fine. Not like they were dry anyways…

> mud

Osmanthus takes the lead and you two carefully make your way up the slope, knowing that just one misplaced foot means a roll down a heap of mud. It takes you nearly ten minutes to traverese the forty feet that the landslide has blocked, and you both breath a sigh of relief when you make it down back onto the firm path.

[+20 exhaustion]

Osmanthus's boots are covered in mud, and you can feel it between your toes.

You two was as much off (or out) as you can at the next stream, but your socks remain brown.

Osmanthus [-10 motivation]
You [-30 motivation]

Another hour of hiking brings you to Nangethanti, the last stop before your destination of Ghorepani.

[+50 exhaustion]

[3 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Stop for some tea and snacks
2. Continute forward

Osmanthus says neither of the two restaurants look good. You figure if you keep up the current pace it’s not too much further to Ghorepani anyways…

> forward!

You have become too exhausted.
Hiking speed is halved.
Exhaustion gain rate is doubled.

Well fuck.

You lead the duo in singing some songs to try and keep morale up, but it ends up sapping energy and tiring you out even more.

[+5 motivation]
[+15 exhaustion]

Osmanthus begins to explain to you how "the mountain makes the path straight if you love the mountain." You begin to worry that she's lost it.

Osmanthus [+10 motivation]
You [-10 motivation]

Just as the sun starts dipping low in the sky you crest the last hill and see the first few buildings of Ghorepani.

[+30 motivation]

There's a registration checkpoint where you hand over your passes to be stamped and recorded. "We must be just about the last set to make it in today huh?" you remark to the guard, figuring there isn't much sunlight left.
He shrugs. "We usually still get a couple more."

Guess you weren't as slow as you thought!

[+10 pride]

You ascend the final set of stairs into the center of Ghorepani.

[+30 exhaustion]

Ghorepani is a bigger town, with more options for lodging.

[1 hour untill sunset]
You can:
1. Lodge at Sikhar Guest House [-₹200]
2. Lodge at Fishtail Guesthouse [-₹200]
3. Lodge at Hotel Deurali Inn & Restaurant [-₹200]
4. Lodge at Super View Lodge & Restaurant [-₹800][+ hilltop view][+ less crowded]
5. Lodge at Hungry Eye Lodge [-₹1000][+ hilltop view][+ private shower]
6. Lodge at Hotel Hilltop & Restaurant [-₹800][+ hilltop view][+ closer to Poon Hill]

You couldn’t care less about the view since it’s gonna be dark soon and it looks like it’s about to start raining again, but Osmanthus jumps at the private shower. Sure, sure, ok…

> hungry eye lodge

Hungry Eye Lodge is already bustling with several other parties, and hiking socks and shoes have been piled and hung around the fireplace. The only remaining room with a private shower is up on the third floor, which means more stairs, but a better view!

[+2 exhaustion][+2 motivation][-₹1000]

[sunset]
You can:
1. Sleep
2. Have some dinner
3. Dry off in front of the fire

Hold up, gimme a sec to relax! Wow what a day it’s been. It’s kinda hard to believe that you can pack so much into just one day, especially when I compare it with some of my days I passed back home, where the whole day would be spent doing who knows what and gone before I knew it. And it’s barely seven! I guess some of it is because of the novelty of everything, the brain makes more memories when things are novel, but I think it’s also a difference of applying one’s body rather than one’s mind as I usually do. An hour of hiking feels way longer, but an hour of reading passes like that. It’s not even like I really remember the hike - just have this feeling that the day was so long…

Alright, alright, I’m hungry!

> dinner!!!

You and Osmanthus make your way back downstairs to the dinner hall where Osmanthus proceeds to order about four dishes before you can stop her, as well as a pot of masala chai, a beer, and a hot chocolate.

She turns to you, batting her eyelids. "Does that sound good?"

[-₹2000]

As it turns out you guys finish most of it. Guess you were hungrier than you thought!

[-70 exhaustion]

[dark]
You can:
1. Sleep
2. Dry off in front of the fire
3. Chat with the other travellers

Let’s dry out a bit.

You stretch out in front of the fire for a while and let your exhaustion make your eyelids heavy.

[+15 motivation]

[dark]
You can:
1. Sleep
2. Chat with the other travellers

Nah, it’s time for bed. We have to get up early tomorrow - ascending Poon Hill is usually done pre-dawn in orde to catch the sunrise. That means getting up at nearly 5:30 to make the one hour hike… I’m not looking forward to getting up that early, but I’ve already set my alarm and mentally committed.

> sleep

Unlike the previous lodging, the showers here have only cold water (or perhaps all the warm water was used by the other residents already!)

[-5 motivation]

You two fall asleep almost as soon as your heads hit the pillow.

...zzz...

[-100 exhastion]

To be continued!

Poon Hill Trail [1/4]

Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Poon Hill Trail!

Start new game [yes/no] ?

> yes

You find yourself in the middle of Nepal, just south of the Annapurna protected region, in the city of Pokhara. Prepare well, for the Poon Hill hike is not for faint of feet!

Adventure awaits!

The bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara had been pleasant enough - $20 got you the luxury seats and lunch was included.

You have a companion joining you on your journey. What would you like to name her?

> Osmanthus

We’ve already done some shopping and gotten our Annapurna passes - let’s take a look.

> inventory

You:
* Ratty old vans
* 30L neon yellow hiking backpack
* Annapurna pass
* 1 kg of salt
* Lots of snacks
* ₹30,000
* $40

Osmanthus:
* Brand new hiking boots (worth ₹8,000 = $75)
* Day hike backpack
* Annapurna pass

Jeez, should I really go hiking in these vans? They’ve got so many holes in em - I tried using some shoe glue to patch em up but they just keep coming apart. But I really don’t want to carry a big pair of hiking boots with me after the hike. Plus they’re expensive! Better to stick with the vans.

Osmanthus says she isn’t as strong as I am, so I’m the one that got stuck carrying the 30L backpack and all the snacks.

> set off

You prepare to set out! The first destination on the Poon Hill Trek is the entry town of Nayapul. Asking at the front desk of the hotel it seems that you can either take a six hour bus ride, or a three hour taxi ride.

[8 hours until sunset]
You can either:
1. Take the bus [₹200]
2. Hire the taxi [₹2000]

I hate parting with ten times as much currency as I have to otherwise, but we really want to make it to Hile today. Besides ₹2,000 is only worth about $20 anyways…

> hire a taxi

[-₹2000]

The fog that has settled over the landscape helps to make the switchbacks the taxi driver takes at breackneck speed a little less scary, as you can't see how far down you'd fall.

You spend the long and bumpy taxi ride up the mountain familiarizing yourself with your route.

We had mapped out the hike mostly based on past experiences of online travel blogs. There were some variations in the routes, but mostly they stuck to a common theme:

Day 1 (yellow): Bus/Taxi to Nayapul, hike to Tikhe Dhunga. Hiking distance: 5.5 miles, ascend: 2,000 feet, descend: 300 feet.
Day 2 (blue): Tikhe Dhunga to Ghorepani. Hiking distance: 6 miles, ascend: 5,000 feet, descend: 250 feet.
Day 3 (red): Wake up pre-dawn and hike to Poon Hill to catch the sunrise. Back to Ghorepani, then on to Tadapani. Hiking distance: 7.5 miles, ascend: 3,000 ft, descend: 3,500 feet.
Day 4 (green): Hike from Tadapani to Ghandruk, where you catch a shared jeep back to Nayapul/Pokhara. Hiking distance: 4 miles, ascend: 200 feet, descend: 2,500 feet.

The Empire State Building is 1,250 feet, so on day two we’ll be going up the equivalent of four Empire State Buildings 😱😱😱

Suddenly, the taxi driver pulls off onto the edge of a switchback. He explains that traffic going into Nayapul is backed up, and points you to a backroute that you can take to make it the rest of the way down.

Peering off in the direction he's pointing you don't see much. You figure you could simply ask him to keep going. He says it'll take another three hours, but if there's no actual traffic it should only take another thirty minutes... On the other hand the hike down should probably only take an hour.

[6 hours until sunset]
You can either:
1. Tell him to take you to Nayapul anyways
2. Hike down

Well, you and Osmanthus are both ready to get started with the hiking anyways.

Bye bye Mr. Taxi Man - and hello Annapurna!

> hike down

You strap your gear on and hike down the mountain.

The hike leaves you winded - you're more out of shape than you thought.

[+30 exhaustion]

Crossing a small bridge, you arrive in the village of Nayapul. A T shaped junction that mostly serves as the closest bus stop to the Annapurna protected region. There are some Jeep drivers offering their services, which would turn the one hour hik to Birethanti into a ten minute ride.

[5 hours until sunset]
You can:
1. Stop for a meal and some tea [-₹500]
2. Hire a Jeep to Birethanti [-₹500]
3. Hike to Birethanthi

Definitely ready for some food.

> meal and tea

You pick a lodge close to the edge of town and sit down for a Dal Bhat and a pot of Nepalese tea.

[-₹500][-40 exhaustion]

Wow that was the best damn Dal Bhat I’ve had in my entire time here in Nepal. These people up in the mountains really know how to cook!

[4 hours till sunset]
You can:
2. Hire a Jeep to Birethanti [-₹500]
3. Hike to Birethanthi

We’re fired up from that food and tea. Let’s get hiking!

> hike

You trek your way over to Birethanthi, being passed by one or two jeeps on the way, and meeting some local chickens.

As well as officially crossing the border into the Annapurna conservation area!

The river, swollen from the monsoon rains, rages down below.

[+15 exhaustion]

Arriving at Birethanthi you stop in at the Annapurna checkpoint and register your passes that you applied for down in Pokhara. You have officially entered the Annapurna region!

[+3 enthusiasm]

[4 hours till sunset]
You can:
1. Stop for some tea and snacks
2. Continue onwards towards Tikhe Dhunga

Still feeling fueled up from the food. Got plenty of water. Let’s hit it!

> continue

This part of the trail, although still wide, is much more steep. Your pace is slower than before. You hike for an hour.

[+20 exhastion]

Another pair, more well outfitted than you are and hiking at a faster pace, passes you. Osmanthus deems this "unacceptable". You hike for an hour.

[+20 exhaustion][+1 determination]

You arrive at Sudame. You are an hour away from Tike Dhunga. Osmanthus announces she needs a break.

[2h till sunset]
You can:
1. Refuse, and push on till Tikhe Dhunga [+Osmanthus anger]
2. Acquiesce, and stop for some tea

Well we have enough time, and I could use a break too…

> tea

Another pot of Nepalese tea and some time off your feet is just the ticket.

[-₹200][-15 exhaustion]

[1.5h till sunset]
You can:
1. Lodge here in Sudame
2. Push on to Hile
3. Push on to Tikhe Dunga

May as well make it as far as we can!

> tikhe duna

You push yourselves a little faster and ignore the temptation to stop for the night in Hile.

You arrive at Tikhe Dhunga just as dusk closes in, making any further hiking to dangerous. You shop around for lodging options.

[sunset]
You can:
1. Lodge at Laxmi Guesthouse [-₹200]
2. Lodge at Manisha Guesthouse[-₹200]
3. Lodge at Chandra Guesthouse [-₹500][+ waterfall view]

You would prefer the cheaper option, but Osmanthus wants the waterfall view. Chandra guesthouse it is…

> chandra

Upon walking in a second time the manager announces that he's offering a special rate at ₹200 a night.

[-₹200]

By the time you make it to your room it's pitch black outside and the waterfall is hidden in the darkness.

[dark]
You can:
1. Have some dinner [-₹2000]
2. Go straight to bed

Are you kidding me? Of course we need dinner!

> dinner

The plastic laminated menu contains the usual selection - ranging from the more traditional Dal Bhat, Muesli, or Momo to the more clearly-westernized Chicken Mushroom Soup, Scrambled Eggs and Toast, or Spiced Omellete. And of course the ever present Nepalese tea.

You order and eat an excessive amount, washing it all down with a pot of Nepalese tea.

[-₹2000]

There is another group of people in the dining area consisting of two young women and two young male Nepalese guides.

[dark]
You can:
1. Chat with them
2. Listen in
3. Go up to bed

Too lazy to chat. Let’s listen in a sec.

> listen

They appear to be moderately drunk. The young men are doing what young men do and hitting on the girls. Nothing of interest passes between them.

[dark]
You can:
1. Chat with them
2. Continue to listen in
3. Go up to bed

Yikes. I can’t imagine being those girls and having to spend the whole trek dealing with that.

> bed

You wash up and are pleasantly surprised that the showers are hot! But the air outside is so, so cold. You climb in bed, the sound of the waterfall soothing you to sleep.

...zzz...

[-100 exhaustion]

To be continued!

Vipassana

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

He awoke to the four am gong. Feelings of grogginess were quickly replaced by excitement and apprehension as he hopped out of bed and began preparing for the four thirty am meditation. The first sit of the day was two hours, two of the ten hours they would sit each day. And today was the first of the ten days. Ten days of ten hours a day would be one hundred hours - equal to three hundred days of meditating twenty minutes a day. “Much more efficient” he thought to himself as he plugged his fitbit in to charge for a couple of minutes.

He had thought he would have to give up the smartwatch when he surrendered all of his other electronic devices. But to his delight, watches were allowed, even digital ones. He was looking forward to seeing all the data it would collect about his sleep and heartrate during the meditations. He tapped the watch face to wake it up. Four twenty three. Time to get going.

Growing up in the West he had understand meditation to be mystical nonsense reserved for monks and hermits. His conception had been that it was about removing thoughts from your mind or reaching God or Nirvana. But recently science had slowly started to prove that meditation worked remarkable changes on the brain. And the West had come around to it as a secular exercise for neural wellbeing. He had followed the literature for a while, but only got started last year with the help of a guided meditation app. Signing up for this course, Vipassana, he figured, would be the next step towards deepening the secular benefits of his meditation practice. He had heard good things about the neutrality of the program, but was still mentally prepared to discard any non-materialist nonsense they might try to sell him on.

Still quite groggy despite his excitement he stumbled across the cold stone pathways that had yet to see dawn and sat on his assigned cushion in the meditation hall. He would come to look forward to the morning mediation as the easiest one - despite his best efforts it would be spent slipping in and out of a half-asleep trance while his mind kept bouncing back to thoughts of breakfast.

Real work began after the morning meal (and nap). Eight more hours of (now focused) meditation broken into seven sessions, with a break only for lunch (and a nap) at noon, tea (and sometimes a nap) at five, and the instructional discourse at seven.

The discourses were what he ended up looking forward to the most everyday. They would watch recordings of the late S.N. Goenka charismatically explain the theory and practice of Vipassana, intermingled with charming and educational stories that reinforced the teachings. Communication of any sort, speech, hand gestures, and even eye contact, was forbidden between students during the course, so besides the occasional necessary communication with the staff, Goenka was the only form of human interaction he had every day. Freed from being trapped in his own head, he would listen attentively, laughing faithfully at every joke.

And at the end of the first, second, and third days he faithfully plugged his fitbit in to charge for several minutes before turning into bed. Having no phone, he had no way to check the watch’s battery level and frequently fretted about the possibility of it losing power and, consequently, losing precious data.

On the fourth day, after the lunch break (and nap), they began the actual process of Vipassana. The previous three and a half days had been training with a less intensive technique known as Annapanna, but the remaining six and a half were to all be devoted to Vipassana. It was not easy, and when the gong sounded to signal the end of the meditation he stood with relief, checking his fitbit to confirm that they had only meditated an hour (it felt like so much longer). But to his horror the screen just flickered and sputtered at him, white lines and dots scattering across the display in what amounted to static.

He continued to check it obsessively as the day wore on, but it continued to worsen. Finally at the end of the day, when he plugged it in before bed, the screen showed nothing. Simply black.

In the morning it was the same. He plodded down to the pre-dawn meditation, feeling unmoored with the dead smartwatch clasped to his wrist out of habit.

All beginners shift and move and open their eyes and check the time and sigh at the slow progression of the minute hand and he was no exception. A year of meditating twenty minutes a day had prepared him less than he had hoped for sitting an hour at a time, and before he would sneak peeks at his fitbit with incresing regularity as each session drew to a close. But now the fitbit offerred nothing, no confirmation that time had passed, no solace in knowing precisely how much longer he had to sit. There could still be five minutes or there could still be fifty - time moved so slow!

By day seven he was out of his mind. He was out of his mind with pain - the pain in his glutes and his shoulders had only worsened as day after day of sitting had hardened them into knots. He was out of his mind with fatigue - his body had not adjusted to waking at four every morning and despite napping at every opportunity he still felt the mental dullness that accompanies insufficient sleep. But mostly he was out of his mind with boredom - they had been sitting and observing their bodies ten hours a day for three days and there are only so many sensations to be observed. Every time he sat for a meditation his entire body screamed “I don’t want to do this anymore, I’d rather walk a bed of coals, I’d rather swim a frozen lake, I’d rather run five marathons, at least then I’d be doing something!”

Doing something. That was the crux of it. He needed to be doing something. He was craving the sense of accomplishment that accompanies finishing a task. He was an addict to the little rush that comes from checking an item off a todo list. He sorely missed the sense of assurance that comes with making measurable forward progress. To sit here being attentive to his body was a waste of precious time in which he could be being productive!

It was the middle of an afternoon session and his eyes flew open, his heart pounding in a frenzy. He got up and walked out of the hall, pacing around meditation center grounds in a panic. “I can’t stay here” he thought to himself. “I can’t stay here, I have to leave, I have to get out of here, I’m going crazy here.” He paused and collected his thoughts, but his mind just kept saying one thing: “I can’t do this.”

His frantic pacing unwittingly brought him back to his room where he collapsed on the bed. “Maybe I can just take a nap instead” he thought to himself morosely. Unthinkingly he brought his fitbit up to check the time and it’s blank, dead screen jolted him into anger. He tore the watch from his wrist and threw it deep into his suitcase. Rubbing his wrist where the fitbit used to be he flopped back down and closed his eyes. He watched as the red pulse of his heart on the inside of his eyelids gradually slowed and faded away. Heaving a sigh, he opened his eyes and rose from the bed, walking back to the meditation hall, finally ready to fully submit to the technique. No checking the time, no graphs, no data, no analysis, just breaths.

Later that afternoon he realized that the need to be doing something was itself a sensation to observe - a mental pain rather than a physical one.

But the challenges were still far from over. On day eight he fell into despair. He was so weak - weak of body, weak of mind. During the beginning of the course, before the silence was in place, a second time student bragged about having managed to not once move or open their eyes (a determined sit) during a two hour session - yet he couldn’t even make it one hour. He pawed through old memories searching for examples of inner strength, but all the challenges he had ever overcome were petty and insignificant - often resolved in a matter of days if not hours. All afternoon he desperately tried to stay still for just one hour - only one hour! - but every failure was just a confirmation of his mental fragility. Drfiting off to sleep at the end of the day he thought to himself “this is crazy. How can sitting still for ten hours a day be the hardest thing I’ve done in my life?”

He only made it through day nine by swearing to himself that he would never come back again. He would make it all the way through this Vipassana for the sake of his pride, and then abscond with the technique. His meditations at home would continue, but never again would he sit for ten hours in a day. Just this last day, he kept telling himself. Just this last day.

And finally, on day ten, the silence was lifted. They congregated in the courtyard and a hundred hours worth of words came spilling out of their mouths. They shared their stories and experiences - some spoke about the same boredom he had felt, confessing that at times they would tune out and watch a movie in their heads. Others spoke of the pain and silence being so great they broke down in tears while in private. Yet others bantered on about their great spiritual awakening, and their deep understanding of the ingenuity of the technique. He spoke of his surrender - surrender of action to observation, surrender of body to pain, surrender of pride to despair, and surrender to the technique.

Packing his bags in the evening he found his fitbit buried at the bottom. Pulling it out he tapped it unexpectantly, but to his suprise the screen lit up with the current time as if it had never been broken. Fastening it back to his wrist with a grin he synced it to his phone which had been recently returned to him. Scrolling through the charts he saw that his fitbit had had no idea what was going on - meditation so resembled (light) sleep that it often thought that he was sleeping until mid afternoon! “How could I possibly have been sleeping in that much pain?” he chuckled to himself.

Boarding the bus back to the city he reflected that he didn’t feel much different. But when he stepped off the bus he realized how wrong he was. The noise and the bustle were overwhelming as they once were, but no longer bothersome. The heat was oppressive as it once was, but no longer unbearable. As he went about the rest of his day he never felt that things took too long, or weren’t good enough - a real feeling of peace had taken hold. But most importantly the little energizer bunny in his heart that kept telling him to “do something do something do something” was quiet for the first time since he could remember. He supposed that when confined to the small, isolated and regulated space of the Vipassana center it was hard to observe the changes being wrought, but back in real life it was pretty clear. It felt so good!

A week later his girlfriend started asking him questions about it. She had noticed the change as well: the man she welcomed back into her life was more patient, more accepting, calmer, and more mindful. She loved it. He explained as much as he was allowed (Vipassana strongly encourages people not to share the technique lest they unintentionally spread misinformation) and reiterated that it was incredibly tough.

“I think I might want to do one” she said thoughtfully. Looking at him with big puppy dog eyes she added: “would you do it with me?”

Mike says:

excellent writing and expression of your experience…I almost felt your pain. Second time around will be a breeze. especially since you will have a good partner 😊

Nathan says:

Loved this - thanks for sharing sam

30 Hours to Kathmandu

Wed, 06 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

“Look I’m telling you” Max warned “we can’t take the general sleeper class car. I had a guy show me a video he took while traveling in one of those and it looked completely miserable - the pervading background noise was one of human moaning and misery.”

“Well,” I responded “all the other tickets are gone. Your guy still hasn’t gotten back to us about the straight shot bus, so I’ll just book these as backup. They’re only five bucks a person anyways.”

“Hello. You are Maxwell, yes?” The Indian man was loud enough over the phone that I could hear him despite it not being on speaker. “Yeah that’s me” he responded casually. “The bus from Varanasi to Kathmandu will not be running tomorrow. Very sorry” the other side of the line continued. “Well what am I supposed to do now?” Max asked the phone, rhetorically. We both knew what this meant: a sleepless night in a moving box of human misery. “Very sorry, very sorry” came the reply.

The train was scheduled to arrive at Varanasi at 12:35 AM and get to Gorakhpur at 6:55 AM. It was now 1:30 AM at the Varanasi station, an hour overdue and counting, with no train in sight. But we still considered ourselves lucky - we had, as an act of desperation, asked our hotel manager about any other options for getting to Kathmandu. He said he could get us tickets on that same train but in second class instead of sleeper. Incredulous, I checked online again and found that a couple of higher class tickets had opened up sometime in the last couple of hours. We declined the manager’s offer and booked them directly in order to avoid his 50% surcharge…

The reviews for our train...

“Max” I said turning to him “I think we need a set of rules for this trip.” He turned to listen, curiosity showing on his face. “Rule number one: no using phones anymore than we have to. It might be thirty hours before we have access to another outlet.” He nodded. “Rule number two: no sleeping at the same time. One of us, or the other, must be awake to guard our stuff. Rule number three: check the estimated arrival time for the train every ten minutes - it keeps changing. Don’t want to be caught off guard.” I paused to think.

“Rule number four!” he said with a grin on his face. “Always more chai!”

I laughed and volunteered to go get the sweet, milky tea this time, while checking the train status billboard.

The train finally pulled into the station at half past two in the morning. The trip hadn’t even started and we were already two hours behind schedule. Max and I wearily climbed aboard and, without discussion, tacitly agreed to break the newly minted rule number two as we both hauled ourselves into the bunks to pass out. Luggage usually doesn’t get stolen in second class.

Waiting for the train.

Sleeping on the train was a little surreal. Your drifted off, feeling yourself being carried in a direction perpendicular to the one you were facing, slipping in and out of sleep as the train softly went thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk over the tracks beneath you…

It was a nice view once the sun came up 😊

We arrived in Gorakhpur at nine. The next leg of the journey was a two and a half hour bus ride to Sunauli, the India-Nepal town where we would walk across the border. We secured a double seat for ourselves and our stuff, and Max went out to scavenge for food as I stayed to guard our things.

I struck up a conversation with one of the few other foreigners aboard the bus. While we were chatting, an Indian teenage girl boarded the bus and started going from seat to seat shaking a pan of coins. It seemed that this was a normal occurrence, as the driver and the other passengers paid very little notice as she made her way down the aisle. Nobody was giving any money and she would only shake the pan for a moment or two before moving on, but my foreign countenance marked me as an easy target. When she got to our seat she planted herself firmly within my field of vision and rattled the pan directly at me with much more spirit than she had done with the Indian passengers.

I know the arguments. Sparing a couple dollars in a foreign country is worth much more to them than it is to us. It’s the foreigner tax. It’s reparations for colonialism. I get it. But I don’t believe in giving money to panhandlers. I have sympathy for these people, but my money is not going to solve their problems long term - only make them more dependent on begging and more likely to hassle other foreigners. Sometimes with children I will try to offer a bit of food I have on hand, but never cash, as children more often than not have older children or adults that they report back to and cough up their earnings.

I tried to wave the girl off, but she would not quit. Instead, she escalated to poking me, steadily, on the arm. Nobody likes strangers touching them and my displeasure showed immediately on my face. I tried to draw back away from the aisle but she pursued me further, finally switching to poking me right on the cheek. I didn’t know what to do. Should I call for help? Should I physically restrain her? Could that get me arrested? Was this a scam where someone else would pretend to be a police officer if I pushed her away? Should I just give her some money or would that make her intensify her efforts? I sat stock still, breathing deeply, frustration coursing through my body. Finally, after a long minute of prodding, she gave up and moved on, stamping her feet in a small fit of anger. The Indians further down the aisle seemed amused by the show and gave her a couple of rupees.

I only sighed with relief when she finally got off the bus.

The jam packed bus.

Max came back onboard with some small bananas and a bag of hard, cashew shaped, processed bread things. I gave him a questioning look and he shrugged - “it was the best I could do.” The bus took off a few minutes later, and we passed some time by telling a story together, one sentence a time, about a small town donkey named Rahul who falls in love with a stripper, but the stripper is selected for the king’s harem, so Rahul has to go and rescue her, and then accidentally knocks her up, before fleeing to go achieve enlightenment on the top of a mountain.

By the time the bus pulled into Sunauli we already knew we had missed our chance at catching the day bus to Kathmandu. So while the natives stampeded off before it had even come to a complete halt we took our time collecting ourselves and trudging out into the scorching, post-zenith sun. Ignoring the constant honking and calls of “Gorakhpur? Taxi to Gorakhur?” we trudged down the side of the dusty, two lane road that served as connection from India to Nepal. “Immigration Declaration BEHIND you 500m” one sign read. “India-Kathmandu border AHEAD 300m” said another. I remembered reading online that the office was “just before” the border, so I set off in that direction, and Max, trusting me to lead the way, followed.

Nepal here we come!

We walked straight under the India-Nepal arch. There were no lines, there were no guards, there was no border control at all. We could have walked right past the Nepalese immigration office and boarded the next bus to Kathmandu with no questions asked - but of course it would have caused problems when we tried to get on a plane out of the country. However, in order to be properly processed with Nepalese immigration, we needed an exit stamp from Indian immigration. But with no Indian immigration office in sight, it was clear that I had led us astray. So we began the fifteen minute trek back the other way…

It's really not a very pretty arch.

“Y’know” I remarked to Max as we waked over the border for the third time, this time our passports stamped and processed appropriately, “according to our passports we don’t belong anywhere right now. We’ve checked out of India but haven’t checked into Nepal… We are in no man’s land.”

“Well we always can get back into America!” he replied.

The Visa is on arrival and costs $50 per person - but they only accept bills in pristine condition. We had a close call but the bills that Max happened to have on him just barely passed their inspection.

“THIS IS THE BUS TO KATHMANDU” yelled the man who had just barged into our negotiations with the bus driver. “YOU GO OVER THERE TO BUY THE TICKETS” he continued forcefully, gesturing widely was if we were small children “IT LEAVES AT TWO.”

“WE. KNOW.” my brother bellowed back, before folding his forehead into his hands, too frustrated to continue.

“Look,” I spoke up addressing the newcomer “we know. We’re trying to get our luggage from the two pm bus and buy tickets for the four pm one instead.”

“THIS IS THE BUS-“ he started again, but the Nepali we had just been talking to grabbed him by the shoulders and said something in his ear, unintelligible to us. The loud man shrugged him off and stomped back to where he came from in frustration.

“Ok,” the bus driver said, seemingly finally able to understand what we had been trying to say for the last five minutes, “I give you back your bags and you buy the four pm bus. Ok?”

“Mister look! Mister look!” A Nepalese kid, maybe eight or nine, came running over with his younger sister in tow. He pointed to her ankle, where I could see a small open sore, and then clapped his palms together 🙏 I shook my head, a gesture that actually carries a different meaning in Indian/Nepalese tradition, but he understood all the same. “Mister please!” he exploded, throwing himself onto his knees and grabbing my calf, which were bared in the heat. He started squeezing it alternately, moving up and down the muscle, fascimilating a massage.

“Stop. Don’t touch me” I said, pulling my leg away and walking backwards a step. “Noooo” he wailed, beating on his chest. He crawled forward trying to grab my calf again, and his sister joined as well, fumbling for my other leg with her tiny hands.

“Stop” I reiterated, backing away from them, having no idea what else to do, “Stop.” I had backed myself into the bus, which we had congregated around when it started getting close to departure time, not wanting to get left behind. I turned and climbed up the stairs into the oven that was the interior, sighing in relief when I saw that they were not willing to follow me.

Instead, they turned their attention to Max.

Running over to the other white man, they proceeded with the same song and dance - showing him the same wound he had just watched them show me. But when they started to knead his legs he tried for a less agressive approach, simply crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes, hoping they would lose interest when he didn’t respond. Instead, they seemed to interpret the gesture as a dare, and started smacking his body as far up as they could reach with increasing speed and intensity - until after several long moments of me watching with bated breath Max exploded. “STOP” he roared, stepping back and sweeping his arms out. “STOP, stop TOUCHING ME.” The kids backed off, but looked like they were ready to make another approach, until one of the bus company people walked by. “HEY” he shouted at the kids, then continued in loud Nepalese, making a “get lost” motion. They giggled to each other and ran off behind the busses.

I emerged from my stifling fortress into the relative relief of outside, and Max patted himself down. We both sat again, waiting for the bus to show any signs of heading out.

The Bollywood movie had begun again for the third time. I had tried reading, but the mountain roads were far too bumpy to make that possible. Rule number one, the phone ban, was still in effect so I couldn’t listen to music. And, despite my exhaustion, my body was not yet desperate enough to fall asleep inside of what felt like a roller coaster ride up and down the mountain. So instead I just lay, sunk back into the oversized, plushy bus chairs, wrapped in a thin blanket to protect from the sub-arctic AC setting, eyes half lidded, and watched the rather pudgy Indian protagonist sing the intro song for the third time. Every time the bus hit a particularly rough bump the power would go out for a half second, causing the DVD player to reset. However, instead of skipping forward to where it crashed, the uninterested attendant would just play it again from the beginning. Not that I could understand any of the Hindi anyways…

Max started to crack. Curling up into a ball on the seat he rested for a few minutes, trying it out, before switching to a new position. “There’s got to be a way” he muttered to himself as he rotated between kneeling on the floor with his head on the seat, stretching himself vertically across the seat back up and face planted in the headrest, sitting cross legged in a meditation post with his back straight, before finally settling with his back down against the seat and his feet up on the back of the headrest in front of him.

We stopped around midnight for “dinner”. An endless refill of rice and potatoes topped with hot sauce for about $3 - we gorged ourselves and stumbled back onto the bus, finally finding the sweet sweet embrace of sleep.

I woke up as the bus was rumbling down the side of the mountain into the valley of Kathmandu, and peered out across the sea of brightly colored buildings fighting valiantly against the dismal gray sky above. Max was still passed out in the seat next to me, breathing gently under the coat that he had covered his face with sometime during the night.

After pulling into the parking lot and gathering our belongings we hooked up with the two other foreigners on the bus to see if we could all split a taxi to the hostel district.

A wet and cloudy welcome.

“Look it’s good money” the young Italian man told the taxi driver. The driver eyed the four of us skeptically. He clearly thought he should be able to get more than ₹500 ($4) a head, especially in the drizzling rain, but seemed to think better of trying to negotiate in English. He waved us into the car, and after filling up the trunk to the brim we piled in with our extra luggage on our laps, dripping onto our already damp clothes. I gave the driver the address of the hotel I had booked online, and watched streets pass by with bleary eyes, already dreaming about the soft bed that awaited me…

“So are you looking forward to your meditation retreat?” my girlfriend asked over our video call. “Jeez” I said, rubbing my eyes, still tired even after a four hour nap, “after what I just went through I feel like I’m ready for anything!” Little did I know how wrong I would turn out to be…

Dad says:

This was well written and entertaining, but I don’t think I want to visit India now.

The Warzone of India

Thu, 09 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I woke to the pitch black of my windowless room, the AC rattling along, doing it’s best to fight the oppressive Asian subcontinental heat. Rubbing my eyes I checked the time - 9:30. Turning on the lights and picking up the bedside phone I ordered something tasty sounding off the breakfast menu. I dressed and the food arrived along with the absolute delicacy that is masala chai tea. I sat and ate, enjoying the precious few moments of peace I would be getting that day. Then, I prepared for war.

Double checking my phone’s charge I slid my extra battery pack into my back pocket. I plugged my conspicuously bright pink headphones into my phone and wound the wires around the backs of my ears before slotting them into place so as to more firmly secure them. I counted out a reasonable sum of money for the day’s expenses and tucked the rest under a pile of dirty laundry deep in my suitcase. And finally, slipping on my shoes, I started a playlist that I had carefully picked out to be upbeat but soothing, something you could sink into and away from the world, but still kept you peppy and energized. Bumping the volume way up I strode out the door and onto the streets of New Delhi.

India was by far my most difficult traveling experience.

Early on I developed a rule: “if they speak English they only want your money.” Every day I was approached by people in the streets, chatting with me, saying they only wanted to “practice their English.” At first I would entertain these conversations, but after the third or fourth time I had someone try and direct me to their tourism agency, or upsell me a train ticket, or try to convince me to come to their shop or restaurant, I just resorted to pretending I couldn’t hear them through my headphones.

I visited a Sikh temple where you have to cover your hair. I actually had a great experience there - a fluent English speaking Indian guy was an exception to my rule as he was super friendly with no strings attached. He gave me a tour of the place and helped me join in on the free food and tea the temple gives away to thousands (!) of people daily.

The Qutub Minar. They used to let people go up, but after a panic stampede caused by an electrical failure in which several people died they closed off the stairs.

I once had a popsicle stand man short me ₹10 (¢14) in change. When I pointed out the discrepancy he just stared at me in exasperation and rolled his eyes at being caught, languidly handing over the final coin.

Bargained hard for this.

The worst of it was my train ride. Not the ride itself; I bought second class air conditioned tickets so that was pleasant enough. The trouble was at the station. I had done my research and found a way to get my tickets online, circumventing the need to buy with a possibly dubious tourism agency. My train was at 6 AM so I arrived at the station at 5:30 AM and started heading towards the bridge to the platforms. Two Indian men dressed in uniform spotted my tourist-looking face and came over to assist.

“Which train are you taking?” they asked.

“Uh… The one to Varanasi, platform one…” I responded groggily.

“Ooooh, Varanasi. Ok, first you need to go inside.”

I had come to the station the day before to scope it out and knew that platform one was up over the bridge. “No, I think platform is up over the bridge” I responded, confused.

“No no, you need to go inside and ask at the front desk, to ask about the train” they insisted “because the track might have been flooded, the train might be cancelled, it’s the monsoon season you know?”

And that was what did it. I grabbed my bags and pushed passed them, saying “no, I’ve been here before, I’m going to go up the bridge” and they didn’t come after me. Scammers will always try and tell you that your destination had been burnt down, or gone out of business, or closed due to holidays, and in particular they like to say it’s been flooded by the monsoon rains. And if I had been a little more clueless, a little less prepared, and listened to the men in uniform and gone inside to inquire about my train at the front desk, I would have been informed by the friendly Indian clerk that yes, my train had been cancelled, but I could buy a last minute ticket for a later train going to the same location at only a small markup. And a portion of the scam money would have gone to the fake personnel who directed me to the desk, a portion to the ticket salesperson, and a portion to the real guards who are supposed to step in and prevent exactly this from happening…

But they didn’t get me this time. I crossed the bridge and found my train and boarded and sat and fumed for the first hour of my journey. “How mean!” I kept thinking to myself “to pick me out because of the color of my skin when I’m already stressed about making my train on time and it’s this early in the morning… just how mean!”

An ancient tomb of an ancient king I found wandering through the Lodhi Garden in New Delhi.

As I understand it, the situation in India is actually pretty similar to the situation in China 10 or 15 years ago. China also used be rife with similar scams - a friend told me her own personal experience of a swindler at a train station convincing her that she had missed her train and selling her a bus ticket instead. But nowadays in China foreigners are treated more as a novelty than a bucket of cash, and besides the normal price hikes in touristy areas I never really experienced any true scams. Nothing like the men at the train station in India.

My theory is that it’s correlated with the rise of the middle class. China has seen an explosion in their middle class in the last decade, and people simply aren’t as desperate. But India hasn’t seen the same economic success with a similarly sized population - and in tighter situations people resort to deceit. I’m hoping that as India gains economic power the situation there will get much better for tourists - but that won’t be for years.

A common form of transportation is an auto-rickshaw - or an auto for short. Small, boxy little vehicles they swarm the streets and are usually both cheaper and more convenient than a taxi. Just kinda loud and bumpy!

Beyond the stress from the constant defensiveness I developed, India was simply loud. Besides the people (and animals) that were shouting or mooing there was the honking that never stopped. People drive cars and motorcycles and mopeds and rickshaws and hitting the horn is often used instead of hitting the brake. People honk when they’re going down small alleys, they honk when they’re changing lanes, they honk when other people are going too slow, they honk at an animal when it’s in the way, sometimes they honk for no damn reason at all, just holding down the horn as they blast their way down a totally clear and empty street.

The music was the only way to shut it all out.

The Red Fort - so named for the red sandstone it's made from.

And I think I had more people ask for photos in one day at the Red Fort then I did during my entire time in China. One person approaches asking for a photo and as soon as you agree everyone in the immediate vicinity rushes over, wanting their own photo with the foreigner. I tried to ask everyone their name and where they were from but sometimes people were just so speedy in running up and taking the photo and running off that I didn’t even have a chance…

This place was expensive, but was the absolute best paneer I had in all of India.

It wasn’t all terrible. The food situation was absolutely amazing. It was so good and so cheap and very vegetarian friendly. The paneer was always fresh and the naan was always hot~ You could pick up little cups of masala chai on the street for ₹10 (¢14) that tasted like heaven.

Max and a delicious dosa.

I can't name them anymore but they were all so good 😁 I learned that up north they like to eat raw onions as an appetizer, sometimes with a little bit of lime.

All in all I spent about two weeks in India, one in New Delhi and one in Varanasi, next to the river Ganges. I went just after finishing up my month long trip with my family in China - Dad and Eli flew back to America, and Max had flown to India a couple of days before me. I linked up with him in Varanasi; he had been making his way through Rajasthan for about a week and a half before that. You should ask him about his own scam experiences 😂

Hanging out in the famous river Ganges. It was honestly really muddy and disgusting (Max and I saw a dead cow floating through it one time) but bathing in it is supposed to forgive you of all sins!

Max in the Ganges - neither of us dared to go deeper than our feet.

I think India probably can be an awesome travel experience, just Max and I did it wrong. Every other foreigner we met talked about what a great time they had - out in the countryside. I’ve still got many other places I want to go see, but if I ever do make my way back to India I’d definitely do it very different!

Despite it all, there were still some amazing moments!

Dad says:

You better get back, honky cat

Living in the city ain’t where it’s at

It’s like trying to find gold in a silver mine

It’s like trying to drink whiskey from a bottle of wine

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

My Chinese last name is “马”. It’s a common last name, often used by Muslim-Chinese, and it’s literal meaning is “horse”. My first year Chinese teacher picked it our for me because it’s an approximate transliteration; the character is pronounced “mah” kind of like the first syllable of “Maynard”.

So when my whole family, Dad, Max, and Eli came to visit, we were four 马 running around. We took to calling ourselves the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Shepherding the three of them around was not easy! Eli had spent the last six weeks up in 上海 (Shanghai) as a camp counselor and had learned just enough Chinese to get himself into trouble. The other two knew nothing, besides, of course, 你好 (nihao “hello”) and 谢谢 (xiexie “thank you”). Max managed to pick up phrases like “I wish you peace” throughout the course of the trip, but certainly nothing useful like “I want two bowls of noodles” 😂

But we made it through in one piece! The nearly 900 photo album on google attests to our adventures - and below you’ll find a distilled version of it. All four of use went through every item and voted on inclusion. Items receiving three or four votes (a majority) made it to the commenting stage, where each person individually wrote up their thoughts on photos they felt inclined to. No one could see what anyone else wrote (besides me of course 😈).

The general route was 香港 (Hong Kong), 阳朔 (Yangshuo) (where we met up with Eli), 昆明 (Kunming), 峨眉山 (Emei Mountain), 成都 (Chengdu), 天水 (Tianshui), and finally 北京 (Beijing), as with all trips there were significantly fewer photos towards the end, but still enough!

Sam: Our journey began (a member short - Eli was still up in 上海 (Shanghai) being a camp counselor) in the towering city of 香港 (Hong Kong). My Chinese was useless half the time here, as the locals speak Cantonese, which is entirely inoperable with the Mandarin I had learned. But I’ve already talked some about Hong Kong before!

Dad: A beautiful city wrapped up in an ugly power struggle. Didn’t see any violence during our brief stay, but our hearts go out to those who do.

Sam: Our first (and only!) dimsum of the trip - dimsum is not too friendly towards vegetarians, of which we had two (Max and I). Still, if you go to Hong Kong you have to get dimsum, so we went to 添好運 (Tim Ho Wan) one of the most famous spots in the city. What I’m holding is fried milk - absolutely delicious.

Max: Fried milk blep!

Dad: One of the Eightfold path: right focus.

Sam: Found by Maxwell at the Hong Kong Museum of History, he sent it to our group chat and we all cracked up when Eli responded “pls no”

Eli: 我是小人，请别打我！(Editor’s note: Eli has taken a semester of Chinese in his first year of college and is showing off here 😂 This means: “I am the little person, please don’t hit me!”)

Max: Ancient china was indeed a land of sophisticated beliefs and cultures…

Sam: Taken in the 广州 (Guangzhou) train station when we were transferring. My favorite part of the photo is the cell phone in the little girl’s hand that she can barely hold!

Eli: (Not pictured) There was a setup in this building with three TVs side-by-side with an advertisement playing across all three of them. If I remember correctly, the TVs would also move. (Editor’s note: Eli was not actually here, and so must be remembering a different train station)

Dad: They’re actually the same size - it’s all a matter of perspective.

Sam: Our second destination - 阳朔 (Yangshuo) ! The Chinese have a saying about this place - 桂林山水甲天下，阳朔山水甲桂林 (Guilin shanshui jiatianxia, Yangshuo shanshui jiaguilin “Guilin is the most beautiful place in China, and Yangshuo is the most beautiful place in Guilin). We spent about a week here and it was incredibly hot and humid and filled with other Chinese tourists - definitely not a gentle introduction 😂

Eli: Yangshuo was surrounded by these enormous beautiful karsts. The city was pretty flat, so the karsts always claimed the top half of your vision.

Dad: Our home - for about 2 days too long.

Eli: The karsts loom.

Eli: Dogs and cats would roam wherever you went. Going about your day as normal, you might meet several wild animals on the way.

Max: The cutest pup at an off the path hostel near the Taiji academy where I was training. The owner was a really cool guy who played music in the bars at night and had me spray-paint his wall when he found out I was an artist.

Eli: There were a huge number of street vendors in Yangshuo that seemed to be making a living off of selling very cheap novelty items. I’m not sure how.

Sam: I’m with Eli on this one. Frankly a large part of the Chinese economy baffles me. I remember staying in a block of hostels during my time in 秦皇岛 (qinhuangdao) where in the tiny little alley leading to my place there were four convenience stores. Four! I think what us Americans fail to grasp is that China is four times as populated as the US - so everywhere we would expect only one of a certain business to survive there’s room for four.

Sam: Our first 火锅 (huoguo “hot pot”) meal of the trip! We were joined by Raven, a friend of Eli’s who had been a counselor with him at the summer camp up in 上海 (Shanghai). She and Eli were actually here on the dime of that program and they spent the whole week together. The four horsemen didn’t officially start travelling together until our next destination, 昆明 (Kunming). (PS if any friends of Raven’s are reading this you should ask her about her train ride to 成都（Chengdu))

Max: Eli loves it!

Sam: One of the most famous attractions of 阳朔 (Yangshuo) were the bamboo boat rides down the rivers. Only one is pictured here but there must have been thousands that went down the river every day during the peak season. Dad and I would rent mopeds and drive out to bridge over the river and watch the endless horde of raft guides pole their way down the river…

Dad: This is actual bamboo. Many of the boats on the river were made of PVC pipe.

Sam: And the king of all the raft rides was the one past a particular spot on the 丽江 (lijiang “Li river”) which is featured on the back of the 20元 (yuan) bill. Dad kept insisting that the view didn’t match the drawing, but I think his eyes are just getting old…

Eli: If I remember correctly, there was some debate involved in finding the right angle that matched the bill.

Max: Tourist photo :P

Dad: When you’ve seen yuan, you’ve seen it all! :O

Max: The ride down the river was nice to look at but it made me very sad - the roar of the engines (I had to wear earplugs), the plastic boats, the incessant stream of people coming and going. It made me think of the fish and the birds whose home this place is.

Dad: It didn’t really look like this. But it could have.

Sam: Max sums it up well here - we were required to wear life vests and we weren’t allowed to reach out of the boat and touch the water or anything. All we were allowed to do was sit there and squint up at the karsts and be deafened by the engine. Next time I’d just find a teahouse and enjoy the view there.

Sam: Sometime during the week Max wandered into a 太极 (taiji “Taichi”) school over on the East side of the city. He fell in love with the place and spent the remaining days in 阳朔 (Yangshuo) coming here, and with Eli hanging out with Raven, Dad and I got to roam by ourselves. Max invited us to come visit and so on our last day we went to see what he had learned. He taught us push hands, which he’s doing in the picture above, and both Dad and I gave it a shot 😁

Max: This school was amazing. From the first day I arrived they welcomed me like family (uncle Zhang cooked some of the best food I had in all of China) and taught me the best they could. This is where I learned to truly love taiji, and learned something more of it’s martial applications such as Toushou (push hands), pictured here.

Dad: Cloud hands! (Editor’s note: I think he means “push hands”, which is the name of the activity that Max is currently engaged in)

Sam: One time Dad, Max and I took the mopeds down to a small “beach” (mostly rocks) on the side of the 丽江 (lijiang “Li river”) and spent the afternoon swimming 😊

Eli: WITH NATURE HATH WE BEEN BLESSED

Max: Once when I was swimming in the rivers I saw an old man way out in the middle, floating along, singing/chanting at the top of his lungs. Love that dude. I want to be him in 50 years.

Dad: I think this says it all

Sam: Our next stop was 昆明 (Kunming), the capitol of 云南 (Yunnan) province. We transferred trains in 贵阳 (Guiyang) which is where this picture was taken. It may look huge, but this isn’t even a particularly big train station by Chinese standards!

Eli: 人，很多 (Editor’s note: this means “people, many”)

Sam: Also 贵阳 (Guiyang) - again, just an average sized train station by Chinese standards!

Eli: many trains for many people (not shown)

Sam: On our first night in 昆明 (Kunming) I found a 麻辣香锅 (malaxiangguo “spicy drypot”) at a nearby underground mall. The service people were so delighted that I spoke Chinese that they insisted on helping us take a picture, and also taking pictures with us!

Eli: Dry pot! Spicy noodles with toppings but no broth. Sam told us that it’s considered a snack, but it felt like a full meal to my non-Chinese tummy.

Max: Never hath a more characteristic photo been taken…

Dad: Best food in all of China. Possibly the worst setting.

Sam: I personally love this photo. We went to a Buddhist temple in 昆明 (Kunming), the first of many (much of touring in China is going to temples. I’ve heard it’s similar in Europe, but instead of temples it’s churches).

Sam: More of the temple.

Dad: Nice contrast. Who took that photo?? (Editor’s note: it was Dad)

Sam: We happened to show up to the temple on a day where there was a performance or rite of some sort. I asked a nearby woman who worked at the temple when it would be starting and she said “very soon.” We sat and waited and five minuted turned into ten into twenty into nearly thirty… During this period Eli found and befriended a cat who seemed to be a temple native.

Eli: this kitty was kinda fat and super chill

Max: Eli and I named him “Fat Belly Boy”, which I now forget how to say in Chinese and was probably saying wrong in the first place anyway. (Editor’s note: that would be 胖肚子 (pang duzi))

Dad: Fat cat pets stray animal.

Sam: I was not present but Eli apparently just passed out on the couch of some random tea house…

Eli: Tea shops were awesome. Drink some tea, play cards, drink tea, drink tea, eat peanuts, drink tea. Very relaxing. Great place to get work done or read, I’d imagine.

Max: Geisha Lounging in Tea House (1874)

Dad: Some things, like jumping in puddles, are universal.

Sam: 昆明 (Kunming) was actually having one of it’s driest seasons in years, so I think a little bit of rain was very welcome by the locals. We had been thinking of striking further into the mountains of 云南 (Yunnan province), but the dry season made us decide otherwise.

Eli: I smoked those losers on a hike and spent my excess time at the top sketching the temple.

Sam: 昆明 (Kunming) has a pleasant mountain hike on the North-East side of the city. Dad and Max had a friendly habit of saying “你好” (nihao “hello”) to everyone coming in the opposite direction - some people just brushed past but many were delighted and a pair of women even started trying to converse with them at which point I had to step in and translate 😂

Sam: At the end of the hike we treated ourselves to some tea - Dad spent about five minutes trying to coax a nice photo out of us and in the end this was the best he got 😂

Eli: It’s not visible, but this place had a great view; you could oversee the whole city. There were several groups of high-rises, each of which appeared to be the same building duplicated twelve or thirteen times.

Dad: Robbie, Chip and Ernie. (Look it up!)

Sam: This was the view that Eli was referring to above.

Eli: The Chinese seemed to really love their light displays. I saw several roads and rivers decorated by brilliant multicolored light strips. Really astounding-looking stuff. (Editors note: although this is true, I believe that this photo simply has a little longer exposure…)

Sam: Hungry from our hike and caffeinated on 普尔 (pu’er) tea we grabbed a 滴滴 (didi, their rideshare app) back into the city and hit up a local night market. Night markets are some of the greatest places to walk around and get absolutely every manner of unhealthy food in snackable sized portions.

Eli: xiao chi—little eats. (Editor’s note: Eli is translating the sign here: 小吃) Not sure if there was actually anything else to do there but snack.

Eli: Street food! Fried tofu. I also had some fried pork which was really good but kinda stopped being good about halfway through.

Max: Take your medicine, little boy…

Dad: Feed the hungry, clothe the poor.

Eli: lost in the chinese night markets

Max: Sam was always leading the way, even when it was the wrong way.

Dad: Sam always led us in the right direction.

Sam: ^^ Now I discover who had faith and who didn’t

Dad: “There was a sky somewhere above the tops of the buildings, with stars and a moon and all the things there are in a sky, but they were content to think of the distant street lights as planets and stars. If the lights prevented you from seeing the heavens, then perform a little magic and change reality to fit the need. The street lights were now planets and stars and moon. ” ― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream

Sam: The end of our 昆明 (Kunming) adventures! Our next stop was 峨眉山 (emeishan “Emei Mountain”), one of the four sacred mountains of Buddhism (but not one of the five great mountains, nor one of the four sacred mountains of Taoism). It was conveniently on the route northward to 成都 (Chengdu) so we decided to stop by for a day or two!

Eli: kids these days

Max: “Regulate anybody but myself!”

Dad: Words to live by.

Sam: This was an absolutely terrible computer generated translation that was on the main tourist map of the town. Although it’s true that there is English in most areas of China, the quality of the English is not necessarily decipherable. In my own travels I even found typos and misspellings at the Summer Palace and The Great Wall…

Sam: In 峨眉山 (emeishan “Emei Mountain”) there is only one thing to do: go up the mountain. You have two choices; you can either go up on foot through all the various temples scattered along the side of the mountain, or you can take a bus straight to the top and peer off the edge. We opted for the hike. It can’t be completed in a single day (we took a van back down from the halfway point) but the top was all fogged up so we didn’t miss anything.

Dad: “I think I bent my fingernail.”

Sam: An interesting modern exhibit within the gift shop of an old temple - the gift shop sold carvings made from wood that had been chopped on the side of the mountain and blessed by a resident priest for over 1,000 USD 😱

Eli: The tetrahedron here is being suspended in the air via fishing line. No idea why the exhibit was created, but it was cool.

Dad: Sam with Inverted Pyramid, 2019

Sam: Further into the hike up the mountain…

Max: Drunken Masters. Later we would be running up the steps on all fours.

Dad: “Dance little sister, Dance.” - Mick Jagger

Sam: We stopped at (another) temple for some food and afternoon pick-me-up tea. I’m not sure what I’m explaining to Eli but I’m very sure that he was wrong.

Eli: A man joined us at this table. Through Sam, the only one of us who could speak with him, we learned that he had been living nomadically for a long time—like ten years. For some reason, he insisted that I was Chinese. (Editor’s note: the man was using the word “怀疑” (huaiyi “American born Chinese”) and even after I confirmed that Eli had no Chinese blood whatsoever the wanderer continued to insist that Eli was an ABC.)

Max: i cri

Dad: Exactly!

Sam: An excellent mistranslation spotted on the mountainside 😂 时时 (shishi) here actually means “from time to time” but each character translates just as “time”, to make “time time”.

Eli: a young explorer braves the dangers of the chinese jungle (circa 1914)

Dad: That’s a very happy child.

Dad: V is for Victory. Unless you’re hanging upside down from a tree.

Eli: zoom in

Max: A challenger approaches…

Dad: The Mysterious Dao.

Sam: The further up we went in the mountain the fewer people there were - this temple was completely devoid. Max and I used the opportunity to do a photo shoot of his 太极 (taiji “taichi”) moves.

Max: Can you feel it??

Eli: Dad looking over us chilling in a river. The water was supposedly godly for some reason, but was actually kinda gross. It was super cold, had litter in it, and pipes lined the bank.

Max: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.”

Sam: Just after this we were approaching the bus stop to take use back when it started to pour. We took shelter under one of the roadside noodle shops that litter the mountains and the shop owner offered to help us call a van. Without him we would have missed the last bus…

Sam: Safely back into the city and cruising for dinner!

Dad: “I hear the rabbit is fresh.”

Sam: After 峨眉山 (emeishan “Emei Mountain”) we hopped on a train just a couple hours north to China’s hot pot capital: 成都 (Chengdu). 属九香 is absolutely one of my favorite spots and what I took us to immediately upon arriving 😁

Eli: I look bored, but I was actually usually pretty excited to eat it. I was too weak for the spicy broth, though, and I think I was probably missing out.

Max: I always came out of Hotpot buzzed, stuffed, and feeling saucy.

Dad: Somebody’s tired…

Dad: And Max said, “Let there be light. Only make it LED.”

Eli: Bikes were super common. There were several companies ala Lime, so you coulda basically get a bike wherever you were. Mopeds were also really common. Cars weren’t uncommon, but some places in China—Shanghai in particular, I believe—has a limit on the number of cars allowed in the road. (I think the US should copy this.)

Dad: “I told you never to text me when I’m commuting without pants!”

Dad: Bats. Outside the belfry.

Sam: Walking around 成都 (Chengdu) during the evening… We had moved further north so the heat was a little more bearable now (or we had just adjusted to it 😂)

Sam: One of the big attractions of 成都 (Chengdu) is a night market called 宽窄巷子 (kuanzhai xiangzi “Wide and Narrow Alley”). Eli and I had fun!

Max: Idk about you but this is terrifying

Sam: One of the shops in 宽窄巷子 (kuanzhai xiangzi “Wide and Narrow Alley”).

Eli: For some reason, dad and I were often on the hunt for a parasol. We kept seeing fancy umbrellas, but never actual parasols. This is where our search ended.

Eli: crouching tiger, hidden 大哥 (Editor’s note: this means “eldest brother”)

Sam: Another attraction we went to in 成都 (Chengdu) was the restored thatched cottage of the famous Chinese poet 杜甫 (Dufu). They had turned the whole space into a garden which was actually quite pleasant. Dad took this photo and put it up on Facebook…

Sam: …which I subsequently took and turned into this 😂

Sam: At this point in our trip we re-separated. Max, after doing some sniffing around online, had found out about a Taoism class taught up on 武当山 (wudangshan “Wudang Mountain”) and was dying to check it out. So he bought some train tickets to strike out East as Dad, Eli and I turned North-Westward. We arrived at the ancient city of 天水 (Tianshui) in the province of 甘肃 (Gansu). This picture was taken at the 麦积山 (maijishan “Maiji Mountain”) grottoes - some of the oldest and largest Buddhist carvings in all of China. Carved into a sheer cliff face you took some pretty steep stairs to see them up close.

Eli: I’d like to put the disclaimer to these photos that they are satire

Dad: “Please, dear Buddha, don’t let the stairs fail.”

Max: Is it just me or are the Buddhas judging him…

Dad: Gods don’t like Pepsi. Gods like Dr. Pepper.

Sam: The clothes Eli is wearing, the pepsi bottle, the sunglasses, the backpack, the camera in Dad’s hands - I can’t imagine anything more tourist about this photo.

Eli: i donno if this one should be put in guys

Dad: My Morning Meditation.

Sam: Meanwhile, Max had made it to 武当山 (wudangshan “Wudang Mountain”) …

Eli: on the brink of death

Dad: Beautiful!

Dad: Gorgeous.

Max: This place was incredible. A secret sanctuary of esoteric knowledge made by a 60 year old man who had been studying taoist arts since 6 years old. He rehabilitated an old temple by himself up in the Wudang Mountains (the mythological birthplace of Taiji), and for years has been teaching Westerners willing to make the pilgrimage and sleep on hard cots in basic cabins. (Oh, and pay money).The community of people there was very genuine, from various walks of life, all seeking something and somehow finding their way to this place. I didn’t want to leave.

Dad: Amazing place.

Sam: Meanwhile we went to a temple of our own in 天水 (Tianshui) and I caught this guy straight up snoozing on a pole. The legend.

Dad: If you look at the bottom of the post, you can see he is making progress! Good job! (Editor’s note: I can’t figure out what Dad is talking about here)

Sam: A fruit market in 天水 (tianshui) that Eli insisted on wandering in to. I let him flounder on his own for a minute or two before going to his rescue. This was hours before the great dumpling disaster - a story you should ask Eli about if you get the chance 😁

Eli: i got some grapes i think

Max: It’s that simple, folks.

Dad: It does indeed. (Editor’s note: I believe that Dad and Max are talking about the sign up top here)

Eli: Another questionable Chinese -> English translation. Sam said that it’s simply because they didn’t care that much about having accurate translations. One in a hotel had a display with the current date and “week 4” on it. Week 4 of what, we wondered? Turns out it meant Thursday, because days of the week in Chinese literally translate as “Week” + 1/2/3/4/5/6, where 1 is Monday and 6 is Saturday. (Sunday isn’t 7 but instead gets the character rì, meaning sun, or the character tiān, meaning day)

Max: Jesus will forgive.

Dad: Never!

Sam: Although you can’t tell, we’ve made it to 北京 (Beijing) already. This was taken at the 天坛 (tiantan “Temple of Heaven”). Eli and Dad spotted this guy in the crowd and Eli apparently spent a good couple minutes pushing past people to where he could take a picture.

Eli: There were shirts all over the place with really silly or downright wrong English on them. This may have been the most egregious offender.

Dad: This is why he couldn’t open the pod bay doors.

Eli: this took quite a bit of practice

Dad: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (Or if you’re into Spanish, “Nosotrooooooooooooooooooooossssssssssss!”)

Sam: Still in the 天坛 (tiantan “Temple of Heaven”), over by the sacrificial altar.

Eli: The Bee store! I loved this place because every time the door opened, a cute little jingle would play. I took a recording.

Dad: I think the disguise was probably a good idea.

Sam: I’ve talked before about how awesome the convenience stores are in China (in Asia in general). They made a perfect stop to grab a quick bite to eat, or check out some fun Chinese snacks, or just take a pit stop in the middle of the day.

Eli: 跳舞跳得真好 (Editor’s note: “Great dancing”)

Max: Love :)

Sam: Max and Dad were both highly interested in the Chinese Museum of Art - Eli tagged along cause he was a good sport 😂 They have some permanent exhibits around calligraphy and, of course, the famous Chinese style ink paintings, but this time when we went they also had an exhibit on Tibetan artists. It was incredibly pro-Communist and obviously heavily filtered - Dad walked right by the exhibit muttering something about “not even wanting to look at it.”

And that about wraps it up! We did so much more than what shows in the photos, especially in 北京 (Beijing) where photo taking had dwindled due to exhaustion. Dad hauled his camera around the whole time and many of these photos are his, but you should check out some of the other ones he took here as well!

If you asked me what my favorite part of the trip was I would probably say it was being able to eat together with my family. I had been abroad for over half a year and during the last four months in particular I mostly ate alone. So it was wonderful to have a big ol’ hotpot meal with giant bottles of 2.5% alcohol by volume beers, an infinite flow of food till we burst, and friendly faces to share everything with 😊 As for what the three of them liked best… well you’ll have to ask them!

Hong Kong

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I was actually in Hong Kong for one of the protests, I just didn’t realize it. One of the earlier ones, before they became riots. My dad and my brother Maxwell arrived a few days after that.

(For those who may not be so up to date on the situation in Hong Kong you can read more here.)

The first time I visited Hong Kong was just after I had finished my internship and my first impression was “this is exactly what I had expected Beijing to be!” With over five times the population density of the capital, Hong Kong fulfills the foreigner’s imagination. Huge towering buildings, looking rather precarious in their old age, looming over avenues filled with pedestrians and British style double decker buses. Beijing is populous but it’s large and sprawling. Restaurants close at ten and everyone is in bed by eleven. Hong Kong, by contrast, remains bustling into the wee hours of the night - I loved it!

My dad and my brother summed it up well. Dad’s plane arrived first, and when we stepped off the airport metro into the sweaty hot tropical air he craned his neck up at the buildings towering above and said “it’s just like a cross between New York and Miami.”

My brother got in the same day at midnight, so while Dad was attempting to sleep through the jet lag I went and picked Max up. As we were walking back from the metro station catching up on each other’s lives he said “you know, Hong Kong really seems just like a cross between New York and Miami.”

New Miami if you will.

While exploring the city on my own in the couple of free days I spent hanging out in Hong Kong waiting for them to arrive, I stumbled across a huge protest wall down in one of the underground pedestrian tunnel. It was so fascinating I tried to capture the whole thing in a couple of panoramas and stitch them together - it didn’t come out so well but you can still make out some interesting parts. You can scroll through it below, or click on it to open the whole thing in a new tab.

There were a couple of interesting parts I took photos of in particular.

Carrie Lam, the current head of Hong Kong government. Particularly hated by the protestors. The gun target motif is foreboding - especially given the recent violence.

A list of "crimes" that these three government officials have committed. Carrie Lam, on the left, is again particularly targeted.

This one is pretty straightforward.

D E M O C R A C Y

This was in reference to an incident where a group of men wearing white shirts assaulted a group of black shirted protestors in a metro station. It was rumoured that they were linked to gangs in Hong Kong and that the police had been paid off/cooperated with them.

Another reference to the same event.

When I brought Max and Dad by to give them a look Max took one of the provided sticky notes and added a message of his own 😂

Out and about in the city of Hong Kong life continued mostly as normal, but we still managed to stumble into a few signs of the protest.

Walking around one day we found this - July 21st had already passed, but this remnant remained.

One day we ran into four student protestors sitting in the harbor area of Hong Kong ferry.

I haven’t followed the protests too closely, but I know they’ve been growing more and more violent. During 国庆 (guoqing, the Chinese independence holiday celebration) police fired on and injured a protestor for the first time and things have only been getting worse since. In the US and Western media in general the protests have been painted as Democracy Loving Youths fighting to throw off the restraints of the Oppressive Communist Government - but there are some pretty terrible things happening on both sides:

Monday in Hong Kong, a man who openly disagreed with radical protesters was poured gasoline over by rioters and set on fire. Radical protesters in Hong Kong have started behaving like ISIS members. pic.twitter.com/Hugh5ymnr7
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) November 11, 2019

The account that this is linked from, 胡锡进 (Hu Xijin), is the “Editor-in-chief of Chinese and English editions of the Global Times” and provides insight into the Chinese viewpoint. He points out in another tweet that the “revolution” in Hong Kong is very similar to the events happening in Catalonia - but no Western leader seems so eager to support those protests.

I’m not well versed on this issue and don’t know much besides the few articles I’ve read. This faithful child of the enlightenment believes that democracy is good - but violence leads to violence and I think that the tactics being used by the Hong Kong protestors are undermining their own cause.

I know two mainland Chinese currently studying at Hong Kong University and when I asked them about it they seemed to just wish it would quit interfering with their research 😂 !

A Year in China

Mon, 28 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

On October 28th, 2018, exactly one year ago, I stepped off a 14 hour flight from Washington DC to Beijing. The very start of Sam’s Trip to China! I had been talking about this, planning for this, applying for documents for this and dreaming about this for the past two years. I walked down the terminal grinning ear to ear as I delightedly tried to read all the Chinese. I had made it!

View from Microsoft office

But besides excitement there was fear. This was only my second time traveling to a foreign continent, and my first time traveling to a country where I needed a Visa. I was afraid that something would go wrong at customs. I waited for my bag at the carousel so long I was convinced it had been seized. I thought Microsoft was gonna cancel my internship when they realized I wasn’t attending a real grad school. I’m pretty sure my bank came very close to refusing to open a bank account for me, without which I would not have been able to receive my wages. The registration officer at the police station stared at my Visa so long I was sure I was going to be arrested. But none of it came to pass. The most trouble I’ve ever gotten into in China is when a public transportation officer noticed that someone hadn’t paid proper fare and assumed it was me since I was a foreigner. I don’t always understand all the rules and regulations posted, but I actually had paid properly that time!

China is a funny place 😂

I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to spend my first six months at Microsoft getting settled in. My two years of college Chinese were definitely not enough. I remember trying to order a coffee when I first arrived - I had to ask him to repeat, several times, every single sentence he said 😂 I could barely navigate the metro, I dreaded getting a call from a delivery driver, and booking a place to stay on my own was out of the question. But one Saturday afternoon, four months after my arrival, I walked into a restaurant all on my own, picked out a dish, ordered, ate, and paid all without a hitch. I felt ready to strike off on my own 😎

Summer Palace in Beijing while snowing 😍

Of course, I still had two months of my internship left 😴

But I waited patiently, and at the end of April I packed my bags and moved on from the tutorial zone, eager to make the most of the next half of the year 😁

My current vocab level, according to some random online quiz. I should go find some middle school kids to hang out with...

Ok, strictly speaking, it hasn’t been a year in China. I’ve made it out of China several times (sometimes due to the necessity of resetting my Visa’s validity period). Over the course of a year I’ve been to (in chronological order):

北京 (Beijing)
Seoul, Korea
北京 (Beijing) (x2)

Beijing at night can be enthralling

香港 (Hong Kong)
北京 Beijing (x3)
洛阳 (Luoyang)

Me and the giant Buddha sculptures at 龙门石窟 (Longmen Shiku "Longmen Grottoes")

西安 (Xi’an)

Just outside 西安 (Xi'an) climbing 华山 (Huashan), one of the five holy mountains of China

成都 (Chengdu)

Can't go to 成都 (Chengdu) without seeing the pandas!

昆明 (Kunming)
大理 (Dali)

The lake in 大理 (Dali) is a gorgeous place to while away an afternoon

北京 (Beijing) (x4)
秦皇岛 (Qinhuangdao)
天津 (Tianjin)

天津 (Tianjin) had some crazy buildings

北京 (Beijing) (x5)

Where I met up with my friend Alan Du!

杭州 (Hangzhou)

Contemplating 西湖 (Xihu "West Lake") in 杭州 (Hangzhou)
Photo: Alan Du

上海 (Shanghai)
Manila, Philippines

Fiesta parade I stumbled into in Manila. I was walking through some back alleys to get to the river, and an older lady starts calling out to me, insisting I have to pay to see the parade. A younger woman walked by laughing and said "pay her no mind, she's just tripping" and continue on her way

Seoul, Korea (x2)
Busan, Korea
香港 (Hong Kong) (x2)

Reunited with (most) of the family!

阳朔 (Yangshuo)

阳朔 (Yangshuo) had some absolutely incredible karst geography.

昆明 (Kunming) (x2)

A bite with the family at a night market in 昆明 (Kunming)

峨眉山 (Emei Mountain)

Going up 峨眉山 (Emei Shan "Emei Mountain") - I call this piece "my brothers are buffoons"

成都 (Chengdu) (x2)

川西坝子 (Chuanxi Bazi), a famous 火锅 (huoguo "hot pot") place in 成都 (Chengdu)
Eli (the one in shades), upon walking in, declared that he had found heaven on earth

天水 (Tianshui)

The littlest brother with some of the Buddhist carvings at 麦积山 (Maijishan "Maiji Mountain")

北京 (Beijing) (x6)
New Delhi, India

The imperious Red Fort in New Delhi

Varanasi, India

Taking a dip in the Ganges River in Varanasi

Kathmandu, Nepal

Took an "Everest Express" (a flight that does a fly-by of Everest) in Kathmandu. Everest in center!

Pokhara, Nepal

Four day hike in Pokhara, Nepal had some stunning views 😁

北京 (Beijing) (x7)
青岛 (Qingdao)

青岛 (Qingdao) of Tsingtao beer - they sell bags of the stuff on the street

北京 (Beijing) (x8)
石家庄 (Shijiazhuang)
保定 (Baoding)
北京 (Beijing) (x9)

Managed to finally see the great wall on my very last day in Beijing

大同 (Datong)

I stayed in the Old City in 大同 (Datong) and really enjoyed seeing the city walls wherever I walked

武汉 (Wuhan)

The 长江 (Changjiang "long river") in 武汉 (Wuhan)

南京 (Nanjing)

For those who like numbers, in sum it’s 38 visits to 26 unique destinations 😎

Inevitably the question comes: which was your favorite? Beijing really feels like my home here in Asia, as you could probably guess from the sheer number of times I ended up returning to it. It’s the city I’m most familiar with and I have a couple friends there. But I can’t say it’s my favorite - living in Beijing is really convenient but it’s also crowded, congested, polluted and too big. My favorite city I’ve ever had a chance to visit is probably 杭州 (Hangzhou). It has the country famous 龙井 (longjing, “dragon well”) tea, it has the lively 宋街 (songjie, “Song Dynasty Street”) for picking up a bite to eat, and it’s got the got the gorgeous 西湖 (Xihu, “West Lake”) which, in contrast to Beijing, is where both the tourists and the locals go to while away a day.

Massacring pineapple at 西湖 (Xihu "West Lake")
Photo: Alan Du

成都 (Chengdu), 南京 (Nanjing), 武汉 (Wuhan), 大同 (Datong) and 青岛 (Qingdao) are all runner ups, but it can be difficult to pull apart how much you enjoyed a city from the conditions you visited it under - I visited most of these cities outside of peak tourist season which makes a big difference.

Outside of China, I was also a huge fan of Seoul both time I went - the city is so dense it feels like no matter where you go or what corner you turn there’s always something new to see/do/eat/drink. My four day hike up Poon Hill in Pokhara, Nepal was also pretty incredible, but you’ll see more about that in a future post!

Eric Poon:

Poon hill looks great!

Love,

Eric POON