Sometimes s*** happens. When Laura said she wanted to come with me to Everest, I was excited about the possibility. I encouraged her to meet me in Bangkok, but didn’t think that much more about it. I was a little worried about having a traveling companion because I had really enjoyed traveling by myself this whole time, able to do whatever whenever. But since I had been traveling alone, and she had been traveling alone, I figured it could be fun for a while, and if it didn’t work out we could both go our separate ways. What I didn’t think about was what it not working out would be like…Times were good with Laura for the first week or so, but the relationship quickly went past where I had expected it to go (Mostly my fault I am afraid…but with a fair amount on her side). I suddenly lost the elated feeling that had been buoying me up while I was traveling. Through no fault of her own, Laura had become and anchor, pulling me back down to Earth. As open as she was to doing anything and everything, the most free bird is the one who flies alone. I lost the spark of the relationship almost as fast as it had developed. It is just not the time for me to be in a relationship of any kind right now, and it was stupid of me to attempt one.
Other than the above, the trek was, as everything has been so far, amazing. We hiked decent distances every day, sometimes 1000 feet up in a few hours (the two steepest dubbed “Oh My Buddha” and “Oh My God” by the guide). The pictures don’t do it justice. The day involved riding elephants and hiking to our camp. The first night we stayed with a hill tribe on the top of a mountain and hung out on a bamboo porch on the side of a bamboo house listening to Thais sing American songs and drinking Chiang Beer.The next night we hiked to a jungle hut next to a river, hitting two water falls on the way. The sound of the water, coupled with the chilly night mountain air made for one of the best night’s sleep I have gotten in quite a while. Day three found us donning life jackets and pink helmets as we got into a raft to hit some whitewater, followed by 45 minutes on a rectangular bamboo raft that I got to pole down the river.
Cows and Clouds
Check out the bend in his knee… that is how steep this was.
Very cool!