Thursday, February 4, 2010

February 4, 2010
Welcome to my travel journal, for a trip in spring 2010 that will take me to Japan, Cambodia, Thailand (very briefly), Nepal, India (briefly), Turkey, Ireland, and the UK.
Several years ago, about the time I turned 60 (long before the movie “Bucket List” came out, incidentally) I realized three things: (1) I am lucky to be in good health and good physical condition, and I can’t count on my good health lasting forever, (2) there are many things I’ve long wanted to do, and places I’ve wanted to visit for many years, that I’ve not felt I could do for one reason or another, and (3) if I can’t find someone else with the interest or flexible time to go with me, most of these adventures do not require a companion: I can do them perfectly well on my own. Some of the adventures that interest me require good health and good physical condition, which implies that I should either do them soon or decide they don’t matter. I made a list, and organized them by priority. Several National Parks in the U.S. were near the top of the list. About that time, in a bit of serendipity my sister Alice asked if I wanted to go with her to visit Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. So I did that, and also arranged with my brother to go hiking in Glacier National Park. About the same time, I talked my wife into going to Belize on spring break. Not long after, another bit of serendipity brought an unexpected invitation to participate in a workshop on metaphor analysis in England, at the universities of York and Leeds. The workshops were great, and I allowed extra time on the second one to do some trekking in northern England – the Yorkshire Moors and the Dales. This experience only whetted my appetite for more trekking.
With sabbatical coming up, I also thought about longer trips that I wanted to do. My wife was unable to take a long vacation this year, but several of the adventures that interest me have little or no appeal to her (cold and wet, high places, sleeping on the ground, walking all day, and biting insects have no part in her idea of a good time). Once I ruled out the adventures that LaJean is interested in, trekking in the Himalayas rose to the top of the list. I had already committed to spend two months in England working on a research project with Lynne Cameron, so the trek turned into a trip around the world. I got out the globe, looked at other places I have always wanted to visit that lay roughly along the path to Nepal or the path from Nepal to the British Isles, and added destinations until I realized that it was in danger of becoming too much.
Planning for the trip was itself an adventure. I began with Nepal, which is really workable only in spring or fall, and filled in the other stops from there. I considered an REI-organized trek in Nepal, but after spending some time on some of the travel blogs (Lonely Planet is especially good) I decided to give up the comfort, luxury, and low ambiguity of an organized group trek and go with an independent guide, Raj Nepal, highly recommended by former clients. I also found good recommendations on Lonely Planet for India and Cambodia. The rest of the trip then fell into place quite easily.
Packing: warm clothes for Japan, tropical clothes for Cambodia and India, dressier clothes for my workshops and lectures in Europe, rain gear and a large day pack for trekking in England – and I really did not want to lug around two huge suitcases. Raj assured me that I can buy anything I need in Kathmandu at a reasonable price, so I decided to start with what I would have to have in Japan, plus my well broken-in hiking boots and trekking poles, then add in as much additional gear as I can get into a carry-on plus one mid-sized duffel bag.

No comments:

Post a Comment