The other problem with Facebook is that it is highly addictive, as I am compelled to see what my family and friends are doing multiple times of day, so I can comment and bla bla bla, instead of living my life, living my life.. 

So how to live with this monster residing in my computer, I-touch,-Iphone?? I am essentially a On or Off person , no rheostat build in. So this is going to be difficult at best, I am going to try to limit my visits to once a week  ,, nooo  , okay twice a week ( Wed. and Sunday ) I will get back to you about how succesful I am

Long agoI had heard about  a volcano called Rinjani, and for the past 2 years have been trying to organize a trip their. Before climbing Kilimanjaro, I was told “go to Rinjani it is a prefect training mountain”, Why? because of the scree? Now you might ask “what is scree?” the political equivalent would be to pass a Health care bill in the U.S., you know ?take 2 steps up , slide one step back.   I was planning to go last fall, but than Rinjani did what all volcanoes do, started  erupting! not enough to cause evacuations but enough for the authorities to shut the mountain down. Than , a couple of months ago , I received  an E-mail flier from Java Lava , for folks that don’t know who these folks are? it is a loosely bound club formed in the 60′s by a few young western  drug importers, and like everything over time they have become respectable to the point where they have a web page, as well as a lady ( Jenny D.)  who is in charge of the organization. They are based out of Jakarta, where most of the participants come from? well they really are ex-pats from U.S. Ireland, Germany, Australia, Quebec, and even some Indonesians that live in Jakarta. These folks work in Jakarta, and like to get out for hikes on a regular basis , but don’t have a lot of time to organize , the flights, Losman or hotels, guides, porters, and all of the other bits and pieces that needs to be done when you are hiking in a country with 300 volcanoes   spread over  15, ooo islands  which are also spread over 3,000 miles.

I asked Kahlid if he wanted to go, as he is in pretty good shape for a youngster. Kahlid  goes to Yoga 12 times a week as well as hikes Singapore mountains every week, so I figured i would not have to wait for him and would probably have a hard time keeping up with him.  This is a 3 day hike, so we would need sleeping bags, tents, but not food as the trekking service provides porters and guides, The porters carry food and any bags you don’t want to carry. Don’t ask! The porters also cook all of the meals, including a stop for lunch, which they cook over an open fire. The greatest value they bring is the water that they carry for everyone. wonder how much  water 15 people go through in the tropics over three days?

WEll the first adventure or disaster we had, was when we  arrived in Mataram on Lombok,  and realized that  ”They Lost The Luggage!!!!!!! MY shoes, hiking clothes, tent poles, trekking poles, ear plugs, and contacts. I did have my pack, a warm hat, sleeping bag, and my tent without poles. So we were off to mataram to find boots?? well maybe running shoes along with all of the other clothes. Just a note to myself ” X-large is not American X-large, and they don’t sell XX-large .

This next picture is a few minutes out.

Actually the first day was walking through high grass, luckily it was over cast, otherwise it would have been a little warm. My big worry was leaches, but none showed up. We had 2 sons and a dad with us? I am guessing they were in the 10 year old category, they were very comfortable with the group and hiked up front as much as possible. It was fun hiking with kids, reminded me of mine ;-(

There are two ways to carry a load in Indonesia, one is with a pack the other is with a bamboo pole with a load on either end. The porters carried fresh eggs ( 10 dozens) . All the vegetables were fresh with roots and all, The benefit of the bamboo pole is that you can rotate the bamboo on to either shoulder with little effort? for them anyways!

This was the scene whever we were having lunch or dinner? or as the Australians say “Tea” which means Lunch or Dinner? always on an open fire, they have been their so many times they know where standing dead wood is. They bring and Ax, start chopping down tops of standing dead trees, about 2′ long, than split it 10 times into little sticks, and presto, dinner is around the corner

This guy is about 20′ up the side of the tree.

Now dinner or Tea is being prepared, while the wood is being cut, another few folks are peeling and chopping up vegetables.

And dinner is served, similar to ramen , except everything is fresh.

Oh yes the Egg in the middle is a nice touch of protein .

Of course I had to try out this Porter carrying arrangement, so during one of the breaks I tried it out! Not to bad actually, well I think I grabbed the lighter  loads.

This is the last push before we top out on the ridge where we camped. The high grass, with all of the views was very different for me, could have been extremely hot, but with the cloud cover , quite nice.

This picture is of the  ridge before the tents were put up, very idylic

The view to the right was of the Caldera, which has filled in with water , and is now called., “Child of the Sea” The mountains surrounding the lake are actually the edge of the crater? I think this blew around the 1300? but it has been a long time.

Because Kahlid is now advancing light years ahead of me in the cosmic Yoga universe, he is able to do head stands where ever and when ever he chooses. Of course planing your head on the side of an active volcano, enables you to commune more efficiently  with mother volcano. The goal being to get some inside information , sure she is not going to blow her top in the next 3 days

That evening we decided NOT to leave at 1 Am , and forgo the sunrise  from the summit? Instead we started around 6Am? Of course some of us never slept, seemed like their are Water Buffalo’s wandering  in our campsite, funny how they breath, very loud! Almost like sleeping at the end of Changi airport with 747′s jets landing every 5 min. And of course my ear plugs were  with my lost luggage.

We woke up before sun rise to a great banana pancake breakfast, and started off  with head lamps.  About an hour latter we were treated  to a  fantastic sunrise. Actually I think this was the sunset? oops

And about 1/2 hour latter we were treated to a volcanic Blast!  It looked just like an explosion? well duhh. One was cool, was that it kept rising and rising. I should explain that the Original Volcano blew it lid in the 1300, subsequently the crater has filled in with water to form a beautiful lake. On the side of the lake a cone  has been building up over the years, which is where this explosion came from. We were about 2000′ above it and maybe 1/2 mile off to the side.

This is the blast cloud getting higher , now into the sun.

How could anything be better than that? A beautiful sunrise, fantastic explosions! Well it di d get better Now we got to  enjoy the scree, yumm and I particularly enjoyed it, for I did not have my hiking poles with me , as they were on that darn plane.  This is the picture looking down slope to a couple  from Australia. 

To get an idea of how far we had gone , you can see our tents in this picture , and we  were still awhile from the top. The tents are just below the second bump on the ridge.

Almost at the Top now . looking at the ridge line we had just come up, nice silhouette.

Well finally on the summit! yeah. This was definitely a hard hike, heck this was just the beginning of the hard! we still had to hike back to the tent, than drop another few thousand feet to the lake. Than the following day hike  up and over the ridge line, a couple of more thousand feet back up, than down, and down and more down. It was hard but definitely worth it.

Looking down from the summit , you can see the  lake and cone. I can see why this is the most beautiful volcano in Indonesia.

Now, we got to have some fun, glissade down a scree slope, which is really a lot of fun.  Of course Jungle Jane  had no need for shoes!

Next stop the lake. Not much for views but still, with the fog  it was very peaceful,

The Fog  seemed to come and go,  but we did get some views as they appeared 

The next day we had another great breakfast, and started climbing immediately, but first Rinjani had  to have another blast, and this one was even more magnificent.

The climb up out over the ridge took a few hours, the next picture  is of some of the smiling folks . The sides of this trail dropped at least 45 degrees, their were some places were we stopped , I had to look away.

This next picture is Kahlid with Eric and the guide, naturally they are in front.

We eventually reached the ridge than hiked down the other side , had another great lunch ( It was raining at this point) Than another hour or two and we were out. Thankfully they had our new found luggage waiting for us. So after 3 days in the same clothes I was finally able to  change.

This was the entrance or exit  depending which directions, although at this point I think the direction we went was perfect.

This was a great hike, and I would definitely do it again! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!  as much as I have.

Take Care

Well the decision was made, Kashmir! For folks that don’t know it,  Kashmir is a state/province in India, which abuts Pakistan, Nepal, China . So needless to say there are some mountains in this area, called the Himalayas?? also to make this a little more fun, this is probably the most contested real estate in the world! It was always amazing when I told folks that we were skiing in Kashmir! India?  The look on their face? was They have snow their? It also didn’t help to have Mike  send me regular news flashes of political killings, avalanches!!

THe plan , was to fly to Mumbai late, stay over night , than catch the early flight to Shrinagar , via New Delhi, Jummar, . No

problems, just stay on the plane and watch the change of passengers at each airport. This picture is in Mumbai arranging for our Taxi,  they have a good system, just  seemed a little  bit chaotic after living Singapore’s efficient machine. So they threw the skis on top of the cab and we were off, essentially moving closer to the domestic terminal, so we could catch the early flight in the morning to Shrinagar.

Oh, did I mention that ? Mike agreed to keep me out of trouble , and ski if their was time. Here ,he  is inspecting the rope system ,  make sure it was meeting spec. We  would have included more Mumbai pics. but we got their late and left early , never saw light.

What a fantastic view out of the window! first view of the Himalayas

When we got to Shrinagar our contact was their, so it was  just

a matter of getting gear and skis . What we realized, quick enough was that we were not the only skiers, and their were a lot of nationalities their. We ended up sharing the truck with  4 Italians.

If you look close you can see folks , standing on top of cars, loading skis.

On the way to Gulmarg, all we could see were  houses in construction. The area was booming. Who would have thunk?

Nothing like a gas stop, but their was

petrol! I think it was a joke, or when they really did not have gas, the sign was their.

While we where fueling, I had  the chance to full fill one of those long-lost  dreams ” driving a steam roller”! well maybe not drive it but certainly sit in the drivers seat!

At some point on the way up to Gulmarg , you might see something that reminds you ( like a horse and carriage? not a tourist ride) , that you are not going to loon mountain. This was on the main road.

Hmm the next stop is Telemarsk, where we traded vehicles from no chains to one chain and also to note the monkeys sitting on the roof.

The idea of a monkey at high elevation is hard to get use to, I kept thinking they would  jump on me! yikes! but they seemed to be more scared of me. Here one is picking lice off of the back of the other.

here we are unloading and actually surrounded by SNOW!

This is the store /lunch  canteen at the lower gondola lift

This is one of the lunch places I went to,  .

The guy was more friendly than he looks

The next group pictures are mountain skiing? the first day it was pretty bullet proof for me, although some folks seemed impervious to it, I just need to get out more .

As you can see it was snowing! not a lot but every day a couple of inches was all we needed

The first time or maybe everytime, it is generally wise to get a guide, When this was first getting arranged we wondered how the local guides would be, but it turned out that they were great and could ski anything! this is Faziz and Mike.

This is an old avalanche run out? they said it was not because the mountain was so far away?? but still

This picture is hard to capture the true magnitude of this but, it was more apparent at the top, looking up to the mountain .

Well , after a hard on the slopes we had to relax, and there is nothing like a beer to unwind with. Looks like Mike is dropping off. Sorry mike but could not resist!  

Mike ended up leaving a couple of days before me, so we wanted to get a  good pic. of the 3 of us.

As you would have it, the day after Mike left the clouds blew out and  the sun came in!  Than we could really see what was above us.

Looks Like?? hmmmm India??? really . Hell we could have been in Idaho

Holy Moly! that is awesome. You can see the lift on the left side, kind of the best of both worlds, back country with out skins!

One of the fun aspects of skiing here, is the amount of different countries represented here. They may be in the alps, but the area  is so small, as far as the  gondolas .

While we were their we ran into ( literally ) in to folks from Finland, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, US, and Russia.  the next picture is with a russian couple and her brother. All snow boarders! I think they are taking over the world.

We did have a couple of shots with clouds coming in.

I have a couple of more pictures ?? yeahh right , maybe 300!  but the next 2 are pretty good after that , I took off to Shrinagar

Untracked Snow, nothing is better than that.

High stuff

The last part of the trip was to be spent in Shringar on lake dal, on a house boat! but first we needed to drive down the mountain, on essentially  a lane and 1/2  road, with on coming trucks and buses, all chained up?? well mostly chained up.

On the way up we only had one chain ? which means that the wheel without the chain will get all of the power and, much fish tailing In this picture  we were almost down so he was taking the chain off.

This is what many of the Kashmiri men do for income, they pull people on sleds up and  down this road. Most of their customers are  either Chinese from Hong kong, or Singapore , as well as Indians from down south. Check out the snow banks? and these are not plow banks. Off to the right is the gold course,  which is at the highest  elevation in the world. Wonder how far golf balls travel their.

This is yours truly on the boat being row’d out to the house boat.

Back in the day,this is one of the  few places where Indian Raja’s went to escape the heat,as well as the Brits .I don’t believe I saw any motor boats, the locals were very aware that it was important to keep the Lake in pristine condition, after all it is a destination point for many tourist.

Some of the House boats or House barges had some pretty interesting names:

Their was also the Neil Armstrong house boat, and many more;-) . All of the floors are covered with beautiful carpets? “You want to buy one? good prices?

The next few pictures are of lake Dal and the mountains surrounding it.

This looks like a couple of guys heading off to work.

One of the interesting points, is that these folks were  very focused on letting me know that they loved us, and their country was safe! that was the big message, Kashmir is safe. On another note, I have never seen so many soldiers in my life, because  Pakistan would love to include Kashmir in its territory. I asked a few Kashmiri’s and their responce was that they would like to be their own country?? So we will see what becomes of this little Gem of a country.

When I first arrived at my house boat, they started calling me GodFather like the movie, Than they gave me a beer and I understood, it was pretty funny. I was the only one in the boat, looks like each boat had 3 bedrooms.

Well this was the last night in Kashmir, hmmm wonder what the light means? No one can say I am not the brightest bulb?  It was a great trip, I think the skiing had me a little intimidated, took me a few days to get everything clicking, I passed on some runs that I should have taken? So if I am here next year I will come back, but instead of end of Feb, maybe the first of Feb. Hope ya’ll liked the pics! Take care

I must say that the politics in the good old U. S. of A is about as dismal as I can remember.  I can not think of a better  policy for the Government to get involved with than to improve ”Health care/Insurance” . Every year the premiums increase? I wonder who is benefiting from   keeping the Status quo ? maybe some republican politicians, or talking heads?  How can anyone support Pre-existing conditions?? and on and on. From my 30 min. research, it looks like America pays more for health Insurance than anyone in the world , by 20% ! Yet Americans don’t have the best health care?? well let me clarify that a bit, most americans don’t , but I am  more than confident in saying  that Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck, or maybe the Republican Whip Eric Cantor  have the best health care in the world. In fact Americans as an average ,score around #20 in the world, based on longevity or infant mortality. 

Its funny because we Americans generally feel that we  are no 1 in the world, But we are not, and  we are slipping down that slope that so many before , have careened down .But please take the time and research exactly where we are on health care, education and on and on  in the world? 

An I must say a thing or 2  about the Tea party,  how much are American’s  really taxed ? more than Australia, Ireland, france, England ?. Your right we Americans pay less than all of those countries?  Hell maybe that is why our  roads, subways, infrastructure is  in ruin . Please send Tea activist to  countries that pay little taxes and see if they would like America to turn into that? You can’t be no 1 and  not pay your way! quite whining and pay up or move to Congo. No taxes, no roads, no education, no EPA, no FDA, no Social security, and no police.

These folks that are intent on hijacking the U.S. government ( sounds like Iraq invasions again) . As Jim Beck said last week ,  their  goal is to remove progressive policies that started  with Woodrow Wilson, that means no Social Security, no Medicare, no Pubic education, no unemployment Insurance. Which if you don’t know, started  in response to the depression ,offer the public protection during economic trauma. Hmm, wonder what party is most responsible for these Socialistic programs? Can you imagine what Republican would do /say if Obama was trying to pass a Medicare?

During the last presidential contest , it was stated that the republican party is  the “Do nothing party” ,, wait no that can’t be true?  no they did try to tie our “Social Security” into Wall Street/Stock market. Hmmm , that would have worked out well, Wonder if their would have been a windfall for  the Republicans?

In some situations the market will reward the best company? But not always. How about cell companies?  America is no 1? I have been in the middle of Cambodia , with better cell coverage than I can get between Milford and Manchester NH??. Oh, oh, this may be  a shock  ( another socialistic cell) but many countries cell tower system is nationalized, they put in the towers to get the best service, what a concept.

My biggest worry is that our American System seems to be more dysfunctional than usual. In our 2 party systems,  the goal is to work together to move  forward  the business of American government ( pass bills for the betterment of all American citizens). But if one party is committed to disrupt and obstruct for no other reason than to see the other party lose, than  All of us Americans lose.

I have no issue with Republican, hell I agree with eliminating waste, and implementing what is truly effective  I just believe there is a fringe element  that has hi-jacked  the  right  wing media,  that misrepresents  the truth for no other reason  than to  manipulate the american population  for their purposes. 

But as they say people in countries get what they deserve.

Good night, I will not do this again. I will post a Ski trip to Kashmir next week!

 Thanks to Patrick, who told me about surf camps, this seem to be the best way to go to a place where you have never surfed at , and  actually even if you have been their before. Surf camps minimise the amount of wasted time,  finding a place to stay, finding a place to surf, finding a place to surf that is not to crowded , not to mention  getting  a couple of surfing tips, for me, many many surf tips .

The funny part of this trip, is how Pat arranged the flight which is completely contrary to my style. I made the reservations for the surf camp, and Pat made the flight arrangements. Three weeks before we were to go, Singapore Air  web page indicated that their where no seats available??? hmmmm. At this point I am ready to get a flight with garuda? But pat pulls me  back from the edge, But, noooo. Pat kept insisting that I should not worry, easy for him to say, I am use to having everything schedule 2 months ahead. two weeks no seats available, 1-1/2 weeks a couple of seats  show as being available, but not the days we want, A week  before seats start becoming available, a couple of days before we are able to get are return tickets on the day and time we wanted. So Pat’s systems works!! Seems that  travel agents book the seats months in advance, until the last week when they start releasing them.

here are a couple of pictures of Padang Padang Surf camp http://www.balisurfingcamp.com/, doesn’t look like the camp  that I remember as a kid?

This is from the eating  area,  looking at the pool and one of the units with 4 rooms.

Here we are all packed and ready to head out, think we have enough surf boards?  generally one Bali surfing dude per 2 surfing neophytes

This is the access to some of the surf areas, as you can see,  if you have not been their before, you would never find this surf spot. A little US boonin

This is one of the ?? places that sell food or drinks along this beach

not me

Another surf break.  their is a golf course  over looking the beach and surf, beautiful.

Slot stairs to access Beach

This the access to Padang Padang surf beach. Definitly not enough room for oncoming traffic? could get more intimate than you would like?

Notice that this is the only way up or down, so it can be interesting as folks try to get up or down , not to mention the locals that are trying to bring products up these stairs.

As you can see this beach is at the bottom of a cliff, it was nice to see  rugged terrain as opposed to Singapore which is for the most part flat.

surfers at Padang Padang

More surfers, this is not me either, but one day???

Beach Padang Padang

Here is some of the shore line ,  the water was not as warm as Singapore, but plenty warm compared to Hampton Beach

Surf babes

This is  Suzy and Lisa , they stayed at Padang Padang surf camp.

Surf boards on the beach

Part of the beach where the surf boards are kept, along with local snacks and drinks and tourist gifts.

Love Birds

So this is how it went:  see the  happy couple to the right ,now I will tell you why  they are soooo happy. During the morning surfing session, after swallowing a gallon of sea water, I decided to come in and wash all of that salt water down  with a  couple of beers, as I am sitting their i noticed  Suzi’s friend Lisa?,   putting a white lace??? on the beach with a couple of champagne glasses ( see it coming??) . I figured this was one of those Scottish  Celtic surfing customs,  you know: Drums, dancing , beach fire pit, body paint, chanting?, so I ordered another beer, sat back, and  prepared for the firewaorks.  Little did I know that  just before, as Suzi and Stuart were bobbing in the surf, Stuart pulls  a diamond ring out of his shorts ( i think he a string tied to it) he than proceeds to seal the deal? asks her hand in  marriage, around the same time  he slides off the board  trying to keep his head above water. Evidently Lisa  was part of this event, and had prepared all of the toasting pharaphernalia etc. So it was fun watching all of the happiness, as well as the beginning.

Below is a picture of folks fishing off a rock

Fishing in Bali

                                                                                                                                                                       

 

 For folks that didn’t want to surf their was a couple of routes up this wall. This couple was from Santa Cruz.

Surf Board transport

 

 

 

This is the one of the best ways to move yourself and board around the Island.

 

 

 

 

 

Budda

 Another weekend and back to work, learned to drink a  gallon of water, practice many underwater yoga positions and most import

met some great folks .Hope this was fun for you.

Love, Ivan

In a past/former  life , Rebecca and I went  skiing with a backcountry skiing company  out of Driggs, Idaho ( Rendezvous Ski Touring  http://www.skithetetons.com/       ), It was always ranked as one of our  best back-country skiing trips we had ever been on. Fast forward 3 years to Singapore , and I find myself bragging about all of the powder, fantastic terrain with Jay, well before you know it I  am e-mailing Diane and Jeff  in  Driggs about availability  in May for spots in Feb. Like i said it is a sweet trip and folks that have been on it tend to come back, so if you want to go, start booking at least 6 months ahead. Although, when booking this trip you should understand that Diane and Jeff are either skiing in the winter/spring or surfing  in the summer( it s rough life, at least someone has figured it out) so they may not get right back to you , but they will get back to you.  At the time I wanted the whole yurt which can accommodate 6 people, the  2 guides sleep out in a tent.  The program we picked was,  a day-trip back-country skiing out of Teton pass and 3 nights at Baldy knoll ( Baldy knoll is a yurt , 3 miles and a few thousand  foot elevation in the Targee national forest ). Jay put the group together, it included his brother  Adam,and  friend Jim,  Dan  from Seatttle. We had one open space, which Rendezvous filled with a great skier ( Steve) out of Minnesota .

Nothing like traveling in 24 hours from Singapore  at 95  F deg 95%  Air/Water ,  to Driggs Idaho’s  25 F deg. Feels liberating to use F instead C with out having to justify/defend America’s way of life.

I know i look cold , but i am really roasting inside, with a smile on my face and a song in  my heart

The program Rendezvous has set up( and their are many programs) for folks staying at their yurt, is to bring them to Teton Pass the first day, one reason is to assess their endurance and skill.

For this group it was all about making turns in a beautiful environment,  the first of many  beautiful days. Folks that don’t know about back-country skiing , the first thing you learn is that if you want to go down, you have to go up, and the only way to go up is the old fashion way, by your own two legs. Some folks like the up as much as the down, good time to reflect on the scenery, chat . They call it earning your turns?

As you can see , the scenery is breathtaking, which means that you need to stop every once in awhile and catch your breath while enjoying the scenery. Jeff is taking the lead here, shortly after this picture, Jeff did fall down, probably the first time in 5 years . Evil of me to say, but we all enjoyed that fall and brought it back to mind through the week.

Some of the potential runs, and their are literally  these type of slopes everywhere you look. Of course the only way to get their is still the old fashioned way, that’s why the place isn’t any busier

The following day, we loaded up the truck and headed out. After a few hours skinning up the valley or draw? we came to the Yurt, doesn’t look like much,  but it is sweet. The Yurt is what makes these trips so much better! to come back from a long day in the mountains to a warm yurt, cocktails , hordeovres!    Because this is a national park,  every spring they have to take down the Yurt and reassemble it in the fall.

the one problem we had , were blisters, I have never seen so many blisters. definitely need to start with your feet wrapped in duct tape, for those long  4 hour ups.

This is the inside , as you can see , plenty of room, off to the right side is the wood stove with the snow melting pot . Water is the biggest continuous activity,  probably the best source of water as well. What a happy looking crew, although by the end of the trip it was  getting a little ripe.

One of the nice aspects to this yurt  are the views, Actually their are so many great views, after awhile it’s “ho hum oh another sheer cliff, another beautiful ski run speckled with pine trees,  more blue skies , another sunset, yawwwn yawwn.

One of the important safety concerns, are avalanches, I have heard,  this area tends to have less, snow pack is more stable than many other areas, predominantly because of  less temp swings.

But the rule is any slope can slide at any time, so treat it accordingly. That is one of the main reasons for having a guide  (plus their jokes), the other precaution is to wear avalanche beacons. At  the beginning of the trip they always have a little beacon training. Note Jay looking  for the buried skier, no , I mean the buried beacon.

Here is  Parker , going through more Beacon instruction. One of the activities, as we head out, is that the  Guide will stop about 100′ ahead of the group with the beacon on receive, than  as each person skis past him, he will hear that the beacon is sending a signal .

We had heard rumours of trees jumping  out in front of skiers. Not sure who this is, I had the same thing happen to me , skiing along happy as a clam, and the  next thing you know a spruce has you in a bear hug.

One of the skills one develops  in the back country is economy of motion, their are continuous activities of taking your pack off, changing gloves /hats/ helmet,  taking skins off, putting skins on ( Skins are something you stick to the bottom of your skis that allow you to travel uphill). So if you can combine 2-3 activities together it is faster and less tiring, its all about conserving energy ( economy of Motion) but more importantly you don’t have 4 people ready to go, giving you the hairy eyeball.  So, here is an  intrepid skier combining a rest break with a pee break, now that is a thinking man. Usually you will see this when some one is so drunk they need that 2 point contact to stay upright while they concentrate.

This is Jay with Driggs Idaho in the valley , and I think that is Dan to the right?I do have an exorbitant amount of Jay pictures, the reason, is that we broke into a couple of groups, I tended to follow or be followed by Jay for most of the week.

I did have energy problems , just came off of a 1 month Singapore bronchial thing a ma jig, so sucking wind.

This is on top of Zimbabwe, hey that is Africa! so the story goes: A guy( Many years ago)  camped at the bottom of this north facing  slope for a week , enjoying the powder and solitude, at the end of the week as he was skiing out, he ran into a group of acquaintances who asked him ” where have you been skiing?” not wanting to disclose his newly found stash he said “Zimbabwe”!

This was probably one of the best slopes, as I write this I would like to go back and ski this a few more time, try a couple of different lines.

Here we are all heading back to the yurt , after a hard, extremely satisfying  day in the mountains

Hi,

Almost to the end now!  This is the view of a sunset from the Yurt, pretty marvelous,  don’t you think?

The trip out is always exciting, normally like a luge run, this time a little powder, a little luge, a smattering of breakable crust, and of course open water as a closer.

Here we are  , a few pounds lighter, and a tiny bit wiser!

On another note: Rebecca had mentioned that she was heading to Hong Kong? somewhere in Asia the end of Feb. So I never mentioned that I was going Skiing with Rendezvous on my birthday Feb 25, ( Turned the big 6—0  ) At  any rate, their where some e-mails back and forth,  and Rebecca mentioned that she had organized a trip with Rendezvous in Feb, ?? I than told her that I was doing the same in Feb. Quite funny, I think her group went in the week before us. It would have been quite funny to run into her on the trail as I was skiing up. I wonder what Diane and Jeff though about this, because they saw all of this transpiring. When i got to the Yurt Jeff gave me  a nice note from Rebecca ( Always a classy lady!).

Well hope you liked this, i do apologize for not having many pictures of  the other members jumping off  cornice’s , helicopters, 780′s?? Well maybe the next trip.

Ivan having a beer

 Hi folks,

Hope all is well on your side of the world. Two weeks ago, I visited Chiang Mai which is the largest city in  northern Thailand, and  is someplace I have always wanted to go, mainly because it is in a mountains region, less developed, nor as frantic as Bangkok. What i did find out was that Chiang Mai is a destination point for many westerners, which is good?? well kinda of.

  Maybe I have been here to long, but I do take exception when I see that a restaurant has ” Cornflakes” on its menu.  Come on folks suck it up, eat local

Moat

The old city , which  is where I stayed,  has a moat or wall built around it. In a couple of location they have fountains, or aerators. Also saw folks swimming in it?? yeeaaa

Wall

    This is the wall around the   old City, this section was relatively new, but their were many sections that seemed quite old, very crumbly.

 This is the standard Tuk Tuk, not sure why it is called that? maybe if you say Tuk Tuk real fast over and over again  it will sound like it. At any rate they are a lot of fun and very convenient. Good idea if you have a card from your hotel, if the driver can’t speak any English, although that isn’t a guarantee either, some times they are illiterate? No seat belts, but its all in good fun, because it is open seating you get a real feel for the city

This is the night market. On a couple streets they either close the street down or line it with  100 vendors, selling everything from jewelry,  material, lamps, and more than I can list. But unlike some places i have been at where what you see are items destined for walmart, this stuff was all hand crafted of high quality

  This is some of the food vendors. I cannot speak  enough about Thai food, even these outside vendors, no fly”s, and I have never been sick from eating out! that literally means out. One of the other tourist activities that is set up, is Thai cooking schools, everything from a 1/2 day to a week of going to the market picking out the food and cooking it up. This is definitely something I want to do, my plan is when I return to the US to be able to cook  a number of Thai dishes

One of the sights that I never thought I would see , was this chopper

It looked like it belonged an American lady sitting at the bar, i should have introduced myself?? One thing I did notice was the number of what appeared to permanent living  western folks in Chiang Mai. Hey why not, its cheap, plenty of activity or not depending on your interest.  Just another option

One of the benefits of being in a tourist area , is that there are many thing to do, like ride elephants through the jungle, take bamboo rafts down a river, and a very New Hampshire custom which is to hang out in a river under water falls. Or of course you can visit one of the 300 Buddhist temples here, the oldest was built around the 1300. 

This is a picture of some other folks on a elephant ride before they go into the jungle.

Baby Elephant

Later that day we passed these 3 elephant moms, surrounding a baby elephant  taking a nap? they were waving their trucks over the Baby to cool ? maybe shoo away the flies. We passed them on the river, so it was probably a protective maneuver as well. I figured that out,  because they were making a lot of protective sounds as well.

And this is the classic New England water falls, with many western people swimming and just laying in the water enjoying the coolness

From the water falls,  the guide had a hard time getting us to  Leave? Please one more dip??. But to no avail, off we went for  lunch , we also visited a Thai ethnic Mountain Village,  to purchase a few home crafted gifts. everything these folks made looked great, mostly material, bracelets, etc.

So after lunch it was off to take a Bamboo raft down the river. The rafts were about 30′ long ,essentially just a bunch of bamboo ties together, The guide was in front and one of us poled from the back. The other job of the guide was to splash water on the customers, or what he really like to do was to step back then run forward , but stop with a jump , which shot the raft forward and promptly threw all of the clients off of the raft. The water  ranged from 6″ to 2′ deep. Even so some folks were wearing life preservers? not us though

On Sunday before the flight we took a trip to a Buddhist temple on a mountain top, about one hour from town. The taxi ride up was not unlike driving up Mt Washington except  twice as long, many many switchbacks. This temple is called “What Prathai Doi Suthep”. This is one of the nicest temples i have been to, their were a couple of traditional Thai dances .

Nara starcase

This is the last staircase approach to the temple, note the Nara on both sides ( 7 headed serpent) guarding the staircase, hence the Nara Staircase

I had to take a picture of this Flowering tree, if any ones knows what kind of tree this is, please let me know, it actually originates a full floor below

Well this is last picture  from Doi Suthrep. What can I say but Chiang Mai is a beautiful place. Hope you enjoyed the blog. I will return.

Ivan

I did find a geat small hotel in the old french quarter, perfectly located.  I  have always wanted to get a feel for Hanoi? the food, architecture, the people.

One of the best reasons for living in Singapore is the ability to fly out for a weekend to discover fantastic  places that you might have heard about but never could justify a 24 hour  flight . What better time to go to Hanoi, than for Thanksgiving weekend?  No one could or wanted to go, so this was an Ivan solo trip.

This was Sat morning, and as you can  see the place is really revving up.

 Smog is a huge issue here, as well as every other city in Asia. After a couple of days i could definitely feel it in my lungs.  Wonder what the lung cancer rate is going to be in 20 years??

This is one of the prevalent sites , through out  Vietnam, street vendor with double baskets, i did not expect to see this in the city. Their is no product that is exempt from this means of transport, could be bananas , french bread, sewing services, shoe repair, every type of fruit available. The other constant, is that all of these folks are predominantly women. No smog with this means of transportation.

Than there is the whole issue with crossing  streets through traffic.  ( at least her alignment is right) Boy, are we lucky!

  This is the view of  Jade Island with the “Morning Sun light bridge” connecting it to the mainland.  Jade Island on which the Ngoc Son Temple (Jade Mountain Temple) stands. The temple was erected in the 18th century. It honors the 13-century military leader Tran Hung Dao who distinguished himself in the fight against the Yuan Dynasty, Van Xuong, a scholar, and Nguyen Van Sieu, a Confucian master and famous writer in charge of repairs made to the temple in 1864. Jade Island is connected to the shore by the wooden red-painted Huc Bridge (The Huc, meaning Morning Sunlight Bridge).

A picture of a couple of Bonsai trees on Jade Island looking south over the lake

Here is OM in Jade Mountain temple, Hey look ,long sleeved shirt!!!!  Must have been about 70 deg. perfect weather.

  Hoan Kiem Lake is to Hanoi what the Common is to Boston. It is a focal point for people to meet and what makes the city so vibrant. Early morning is  the best time to to visit and see all of the locals practicing Tai Chi,  or just stretching. The name of the lake means lake of the Restored Sword and comes from the legend about such a magical instrument given to the  local Emperor to drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. After the war, a giant golden tortoise snatched the sword from him while he was fishing and took it to the bottom of the lake. The Rus or the Tortoise Tower  is off to the left,on a center island of the lake.

Folks my age starting the day.

Good picture of the bridge, with another person practicing Tai Chi

The boulevard /walkways around Hoan Kien had a contemplative feel to it. As opposed to everywhere else in Hanoi, which felt like NY on Speed.

After visiting Hoan Kiem lake I wanted to visit  Uncle Ho’s museum,  really the George Washington of modern Vietnam.  My feel, is that it is time to move on but i feel the same about most dead leaders.

This is were they keep Uncle Ho (under glass) I did not go in. But their was a long line of folks , just wanted to see how he’s doing. I  am sure he is pretty happy with all of this attention.

I don’t know about you,but their is nothing like a mausoleum  to get my appetite  bell ringing, so off to the market and  ultimately a street cafe  serving Pho Ca , with my limited knowledge of local food, seems like Pho is a national treasure! the heck with Uncle Ho, man this is were its at!

One of the many markets

In Asia, this is how you keep your fish fresh, keep it alive.

Fresh shrimp and other unknown living creatures.

I read an article last year that said that Vietnam was the largest exporter of Rice in the world? how can a country this small do that?!

Oh, I recognize this!  No matter where i looked , everything i saw was fresh.

In fact I found a street  cafe ( 5 chairs on the sidewalk, not to fancy) where they served beer that they made the previous day in their basement? tasted like Miller Lite.

 Now where to eat, hmmmm what are the options?not matter where one goes in the world, there always seems to be American  fast food outlets around. I should have taken a picture of the menu.

Some folks travel the world and only eat  McDonald’s or Subway, what a waste. Oh well, more  for me.

Now we are talking! some spinach? egg something Pork roll, rice , and the Pho is coming. Plus bottled beer. Now , that’s the good life )))

As you can see, most of the places are out side venue. You get the whole experience, traffic, folks walking by, talking ,arguing, laughing. This was the most alive place I have been at in awhile!!

After lunch I wandered through shops and traffic. Because of the smog many people wear face  smog mask, what was fun was that folks have turned the boring white dust masks in to a fashion statement! you got to love humans for that attribute. The other discovery i made was that you can not cross traffic  in Vietnam like like  in the western, you know, look for an opening than make a dash. The problem is that on one way streets their are a number of motor bikes driven the wrong way. So as you make your dash, you could get nailed from the other direction. I did notice that locals were getting across, in fact, some  bikes were pulling u turns  in the middle of the maelstrom, how did they do it? Well , they walked slow and purposely so all motor scooters and cars could see their  intent, and  move around  them! As Rex said” walk like and Egyptian”.

To put this to a test, I slowly walked out into the middle of a busy intersection and stood their taking pictures of all of the folks with colorful dust mask. Folks just drove around me, I felt like Moses. , probably looked like a an escaped insaneact.

I wonder what is going through this little guys head? Looks like he can’t breath.

So , the following is a collection of dust masks,  and Hanoisions,  in a busy intersection i!

This is probably my favorite, i think she has a strawberry.

It definitely seems like the women are driving the fashion bubble here, just like NH.

And, I did not create any accidents.

 The next few picture have to do with how big a load  or what you can carry on your motor scooter.

55 gal.  barrels, at least their empty.

And than their is always the  dining-room set.  

So, if my old company was operating in Hanoi this would be Mike Whittemore Delivering pipe from the shop? hope they have the paperwork with that pipe.

One of the first things I learned from Lee H. was that his preferred method for moving material in a vertical manner was  with  a tugger, and here I am in Hanoi watching  the same type of operation . I wonder what would happen if the bags on that shaft were moved? Note the PPE.

This was pretty interesting , a couple of kids practicing ” break dancing” spinning on their head, in front of this ancient Vietnam Hero

And of course , I guess their is no escaping it? Christmas? after all it is Thanksgiving weekend and the real start of  Christmas shopping . Just because I am in Vietnam i should expect to be able to escape ! no their is no escape. Their were a couple of streets dedicated to nothing but selling Christmas decorations, trees, bulbs, lights, tinsel and on and on.  Hum bug!

Well, that is pretty much it.! Regarding the American War,  seemed like Vietnam is no longer interested , unless it could be turned into a  money  making business model.

My intent in coming here, was just to hang out,  try not to walk like a tourist, talk to as many locals as i could, and eat and drink everything local. One of my takeaways was  to note how industrious these folks are? every one is trying to make a buck, whether it is grandmother coming down  stairs and sell Pho on the side walk,  #  1 son is renting motor bikes , daughters have opened a stall selling clothes. Everyone is  trying to make it.

I will come back, and  probably travel north to SaPa, their is a night train from Hanoi every evening. Sapa is  in the mountains where a few ethnic  mountain tribes live.

Thank You , and hope you enjoyed this.

Ever sense hearing about John Kottos climb up Kilimanjaro, it has seemed  like a great idea!, Singapore is closer to Africa  than Boston. The earth is warming and that glacial on Kilimanjaro  will soon be gone . Also i must mention that Kilimanjaro is one of the seven summits, their is a club based on that! the goal being to climb the highest mountain on all seven  continents. Obviously this old man can not climb all of them,  but this is my first!!! so there  we will be an abbreviated list?

I noticed an Ad  sometime in October 07 at my local camping store ( Campers Corner) from someone called ” Uncle George”for a climb up Kilimanjaro in August 08. I  e-mailed Uncle George about the climb in December, he e-mailed me back , said ” i should e-mail him after Chinese New Years? So a few months latter,  multiple  e-mails went back and forth, seemed like we had a group of 5, than 4 , than 3 than no e-mails?? I sent an e-mail out asking folks if they were going or not?? a little frustrated?? Uncle George , re-iterated my concern? Hey Fish or cut bait , finally we had confirmation from all 3 and the trip was on. Uncle George than let us know we could not get into Tanzania with out a yellow Fever vaccination, hmmmm. While getting that the nurse mentioned that Polio is coming back?? so i got a Polio vaccination. This whole process at the hospital seemed like they were up-selling? you know when you buy shoes the sales person than asks you if you need socks?? Also, they suggested that i buy Anti malaria pills, which i did, but someone suggested that i check out side affects, which i did,  i notice one of the possible side affects is permanent Depression???? Not sure if my prescription was the same as what was listed, but i will take malaria before Depression anytime?? But in the end, i never saw a mosquito in Tanzania

In the mean time, realizing that i was equipment limited, I called Nathan and asked him to check  my storage unit for gear, because i was definitely going to need a few items, like a warm sleeping bag, good shoes, not to mention a pack and sleeping pads. I think I had the clothes covered, but just to make sure i wanted him to  send my expedition down parka. Rebbecca and her mother and father  had helped pack all of my stuff, so i knew it was  labeled, boxed,  probably with a spread sheet cross referenced  by usage, color code,  even smell index, etc ( thanks to the Shannon’s). I also need to coordinate with Nate who was going  to dig through these highly organized labeled boxes, pull out what was on my list, and hand it off to Mike P who was in Portsmouth and had volunteered to bring my duffel bag back to Singapore. ( thank You Mike!!) . Well, it went smoothly , not one problem, I called Nathan while he was in the storage unit and we went through the list and came out 100% successful. It is kind of amazing ? I am speaking to Nathan over Skype to his Cell from Singapore, While he is in my storage container in Peterborough , New Hampshire?? ( also Thanks go to Nathan for doing all of this grunt work for the old man)

The group end up being Appasamy, Rheza, and Stevanus. Rheza and Stevanus were going to meet us in Arusha . Also some of the pictures in this Blog , if not a large proportion belong to Stevanus , we tended to take the same pictures, he has the better camera.

 This was a picture of the stewardesses getting ready to clean the plane. Funny picture? i wonder what they are saying?

This is the plane we took to Aruska from Del es Saleem in Tanzania, it was about a 1-1/2  hour flight. Actually this is the first time i have been in a turbo prop, sense i have been Asia. The last time  we were in a Turbo prop, was a flight  from Denver to Jackson hole which was the scariest flight i have ever been on. Ask  Rebbecca?

Well finally we are ready to start, the next couple of picture are of the Machame gate, the Que of customers . I think on that day, on that trail we had about 100+ clients with us. not sure how many guide services were involved? Maybe 20? .The machame trail to the summit  can take around 6-8

days, depending on the acclimation you would like, or how many days in a tent or outhouse you can deal with. The Machame trail is the second most used trail, but it is billed as the most picturesque.

This is a picture of the porters waiting to go, ( permits)

i have a lot of thoughts about porters? My experience, is, if you want to hike, than carry your load. If you can not carry your pack than you should not be on the mountain. You know , New Hampshire!! “Live free or Die”"

But, when you are talking about Africa or parts of Asia, where there is  limited job opportunities, these jobs are the only way folks are going to be able to survive.  To give you an idea  of the amount of revenue that is brought into the area, based on the amount of clients spread over a typical 6 day hike on only one of the trails could amount to( 1200) , to support the 1200, it averages out to 3-4 ( porters/cooks,guides, etc) per 1 client.  So, 3000 to  4000  Tanzanians have some money coming in, there is more than that because most porters will go home for a few days to a week after an expedition, before going out again. Needless to say, for Arusha and other neighboring villages, Kilimanjaro offers a large chunk of the economy. Not to mention the Safari business? which also adds another chunk of the pie.

The next couple of pictures are the first day , on the way to Machame hut (first camp site)

My pack on the way to the summit on Wilfred’s head!

 There will be a lot of these type of pictures mainly because i am still in Awe of these folks ability to move heavy loads over difficult terrain, with a smile and  greeting”Jumbo”!

This is the weight station at machame camp site, the park weights in all of the Porters load ( not to exceed 20 Kilo’s). If they have exceeded their limit than, some of the weight needs to be shared with other porters?

Well we finally got here, this a picture of the cook (Mohim) in the kitchen tent. By the way the Cook is the second most important person on the team , behind the guide.

 This was first nights dinner: string beans, roasted potatoes and Talapia with a tomato type  sauce. We had these type of meals every night, along with a desert  ( banana fritters)with tea. This was quite civilized. My biggest worry was getting sick  from the food or water, i asked Nixon (our guide) how the water was, he indicated that they had  good sourse. Well it has been 2 weeks and i have not gotten sick yet! Also no mosquitoes???

                        First night , tent city!!

 That is China,   and silver ware that is not plastic

On the left is the following day, like i said all of the porters are carrying our stuff up the mountain.

This seemed to be the most prevalent flower, everywhere i looked in this climate zone  . Felt  like straw flowers back home!

This is the Senecio Kilamanjaro, it can grow to 5 meters tall.  It flowers around every 25 years, after it flowers the parent plant forks off ( no pun intended) and in 25 years that flowers ?? that is how you can tell how old they are? Count the branches?? some are in excess of 500 years old?

 This is William the assistant Guide. Notice the umbrella, they all have an umbrella.

This is Nixon, our Guide, always calm and always seemed to be in control of the situation. I tended to be the disobedient client. The program they have devised ,for the highest success rate, is “Pole Pole” which is what they said to us and all of the other guide services to their clients, it means “slow slow” which really is the best strategy, keep going, but at a slow pace and before you know it, you will be on the summit? Well, i had this habit of skipping ahead, way ahead. If i was Nixon I would have been a little frustrated/? but he seemed to be okay with it.  If you want him to guide your trip his e-mail address is  nxnltrmsh@yahoo.com

Nixon was great, if i ever go back, it will definitely be with Nixon.

Nixon had an interesting tattoo on his hands, pretty cool. He really was the perfect guide.

This the middle of the second day , you can definitely see a change in the vegetation.

This is the only African creature that we saw. I believe it is called a white throat Raven. Once we got out of the trees they accompanied us every where.

 Lemah and Willfredy on left and Lemah being cool below

Rheza with a little extra energy, trying out his Kungfoo trekking poles.

 Here is Appasamy on the left and Stevanus on the right.

Appasamy and I tented together, he was a great tent partner. I guess the only issue is snoring? and more snoring, But i got use to it on the fifth day.

The hike is over for the day, so now is the time for hanging out and enjoying the warmth before the sun sets, we will have a frost tonight

This is Mt Meru in the background, with the clouds under us! i love to be over the clouds.

A little latter the sun is setting with Mt Meru. We seemed to be have Mt Meru in out view for the whole week.

Pretty nice!!

 So,   here is the proof, frost on  the tent in Africa!!

Based on the number of tents,to the right you get the idea how many people are on trail, 

 We are on to the third day leaving Shira camp and definitely into a desert climate. the temp must be around 70f not to hot . nice and dry ( especially for a singaporean). It seemed like we could see for miles, and miles.

This is a neat rock cleft the trail goes through, the area is called Lava Towers? see the trail heading up the hill on the opposite side.

Here is the crew heading out, for some reason folks tended to bundle up, but i found the temp perfect for hiking in a light tee shirt.

Good view of Kili from Barranco camp site

This is the trail just before arriving at Barranco camp site, A walk through Dr. Seus trees.

The next morning we hiked up a steep canyon and came to this flat area, where all of the porters could pass us. Mt Meru in the background.

Here the trail heads down than back up, i enjoyed being able to see what was ahead of you. Not always an option in life!

Nixon on the right “Pole Pole” ,  from this picture it definitely does not look like we are on a mountain. Nixon is setting the pace.

Being that their is no vegetation, it was surprising that we can see the trail behind us.

We are at the last camp site Baranco, so this is the last out house ?  Actually a row of 4, almost like a row of town houses . As you can see these guys are mounted on the side of a cliff. what was amazing , as most folks know, sometimes in a outhouse there is a weird up-draft phenomenon this is no real big deal deal except for a nice cooling effect. In this case the up draft was so strong you could not flush the paper down the chute, At some point i ran out of the outhouse , bits of toilet paper flying around in a cyclone effect.

This  is the out house for the porters, which is facing the client out house. This is the only out house for the porters. Never saw a Que?

The next morning we are scheduled to leave around midnight, get up at 11:30 pm, but Riva was sick so we pushed the start out by an hour. Not sure why Riva was sick, he seemed to have gotten dehydrated and was feeling out of it, the previous day.  Being sick is really the worst case situation, you spend all of that money and time, and now you just want to hug a toilet bowel and there are no toilet bowels on Kilimanjaro.  Yuucckk

As most pre summit evenings go, it is difficult to sleep,  but i did drop off for a couple of good hours. Ready to climb the next day, the whole week i was planning on wearing my Limmers,( heavy , heavy leather boots that i have hiked in for 15 years) . I had bought new Salomon trail running sneakers for the  5 day approach hike? now what? use the Salomon to the summit? will my feet  be to cold, will the limmers be to heavy and cold as well???????  In the end i figured it would be cold but not so cold that i would hurt( frost bite toes) so i went with the light agile trail runners. On the climb up the summit my feet felt numb, I  ended up just ignoring them and  once on the summit they felt perfect and even better on the way down. Abscessing, abscessing????.

I have to say this was the coldest hike i have ever been on? not numb frost bite cold, just shivering the entire way up. In NH in the winter i have never shivered, even in -10 f hikes? because of the altitude i could never go fast enough to build up a surplus of core heat, I tried, left my group and jumped to another group than jumped to another and so on, till the summit, never got warm till the sun came out                                        

This is at Stella point just before sunrise , essentially at the craters edge, the summit is a few hundred feet higher , but maybe a 1/4 mile away, once you are at Stella the work is done. When i got to this point i was emotionally blown away? heavy moment!

And the Glaciers, here they are!!!!!

 And here it is , on the summit! the top of Africa! 

I actually think there is a “Ski Stow” sticker on the sign? What was a little wacky is that, unknown to me , there were a lot of people on the summit that wanted to take a picture of the summit sign with their  club banner, or there cause banner ( Cure Arthritis). Well there was so many of these folks that there was an actual Que? that might be a stretch? just who ever pushed there way in front got to the front of the mob? Oh well? Hence no picture of me in front of the sign

 Here are the trail runners , showing off , hanging over a Glacier in Africa? How cool is that!  i guess the Limmers have been retired. some one should pass this along to Salomon for a little real marketing

On the left is a pack that one of the porters was  using. through the various trips a lot of clients give their gear to the porters,  unlike Asia, porters here are actually wearing shoes and carrying their own pack with their own clothes< sleeping bags, etc. I took this picture because i have neve seen a pack that that was this thread bare.

I hung out at the summit for a good 45 min,  started heading down and ran into my group, went   back up, hung out again for 1/2 hour for pictures, than my chest starting hurting, a  constant ach in my right lung, like one of my brothers punching me , not pleasent, so i headed down, it eventually went away,  around the 1/2  way point i threw up, Nixon said it was becasue of all of the dust??.  a lot of dust..

Here is the trail about 2 miles from the end, nice to get under some trees, Thsi was one of the few times where i was by my self. Nice and quiet.

An interesting point is that the trails are arranged so you do not go down the same trail folks are going up? with this amount of folks it makes a huge defference.  The hike/climb was a huge success and would not mind going again as well as organizing it. Here, we are getting ready to get back on the bus, but must enjoy a Killamanjaro beer first. Don’t look to bad for not having a shower in 6 days.

Great Hike, hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

The tallest mountain in southeast Asia  is called Kinabalu it is in Sabah, Malaysia, which turns out to be a 2 hour flight across the south china sea from Singapore . Kinabalu is actually in Borneo, which is a large island ( 16 Million people) which is part Indonesia and Malaysia with a little dot that is Brunei. Kinabalu is 4095 Meters high, making Borneo the 3rd highest island in the world, it is also billed as having the “most varied human social groups “. 

 I was researching how to climb,  what permits required, guides required, where to stay ? availability, airline tickets? ?  not to mention coordinating all of this? holy moly i have a job ,  when i realized “I can’t spend time doing this”. So i did what i usually do , hand the hard work to someone else( a travel agency) this one specializes in trips to Kinabalu, so it was just a matter of plugging in the dates, transferring money and off to the travel agency for the orientation. www.pacwest.com.sg. These folks where fantastic, everything was as it was listed? guides, drivers, airlines, meals, cabins,  all were where they needed to be when they needed to be there.

We had a threesome: Jerry who is the Bovis PM on the Lonza project, and Khalid who works for the major electrical contractor (Wahloon) out here in Singapore.

As on most trips there is usually a little drama, never know if it is at the end, in the middle, in this case we started off with it. The flight was with Silk Air which is  Singapore air’s low budget carrier, so the flights are usually right on ,as well as the service, food, etc. We were to leave at 8:30am, at the airport we were told that the flight was moved back to 11am, okay, I should have checked on the flight status before leaving ?? but i could still do e-mail work, review specs etc.  yeaah Right!. Finally got on the plane, all seemed normal, we taxied from the gate, after about15 min the plane stopped, , seemed like the engine sounds were running up than down, mixed in with hydraulic sounds, hmmm. Another 20 min of this and the pilot gets on the PA, and tell us that they are not able to get one of the engines started (seems important), we have to go back and have a mechanic check it out, hmmmm. Back at the gate we wait for the mechanic for awhile, eventually the captain gets on the speaker and lets us know that the  mechanic was successful and the engine has  really started, we all cocked are collective heads trying to hear it,  yeeaaah , now we can leave??? No, no, no at this point 5 passengers have lost what ever comfort level they had, and have decided to get off the plane as fast as they can, so off they go, and for the next hour more and more people get off the plane,  we end up having a total of 24 people dis-embark, the more people that get off, the more nervous the other passengers get, finally a tall  German (not picking on the Germans, hell he could have been Russian, but definitely was not American ) looking man gets up and walks to the front of the plane, the next thing i see, is that he is pushing the stewardess around trying to get off the plane,, drama, drama, finally a  police officer shows up, walks down the aisle and asks if if anyone else wants to get off the plane, this is there last chance. At the same time there is a young Australian couple with a 5 year old boy, they than proceeded to ask their son if he wants to get off the plane??? what the hell is this world coming tooo? Now we have to wait  for Silk Air to unload all of the luggage  and sort out who got off the plane  and who didn’t .   We finally  take off around 3pm

Here is Jerry looking concerned, He is happy he can strech out his 6’7″ frame.

   Looks Like Khalid is pretty nervous??? Well the good part is that we all had plenty of extra room.

During all of the Drama I was SMS’ng  Aileen at PacWest, so she could let the driver know,that we were going to be a little late? 5 hours late. Once we landed in Borneo, the driver was there, now it was just  a matter of sitting back and enjoy the scenery and relax for tomorrow.

As we were driving along, it seemed like i was seeing way to many churches?? for this part of the world.

I asked Khalid, who said that Sabah has a very large Cristian population? who would have thought? So i tried to count how many churches and crucifixes along the way ( lost count) but here is a picture of one of the largest crucifixes. I have the capacity to throw in a few witty comments about this and inadvertently insult a large group of people, so lets move on.

The drive from Kota Kinabalu ( Capitol of Sabah) and the mountain is about a 2 hour drive, this is our first view of the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia. 4095.2 M or for Americans 13,453 feet.

The first night we stayed at Rose cabin , which is 5 min. from the park entrance. The place looked like a motel  anywhere in NH, Whites. This is the back side of

Rose Cabin~. They even have pine trees here, feels like home, yeeahhh I am going home in 2 months!!!! i cannot wait!!!!

Down below is our Guide (LoLah) and Jerry . Not what i would have envisioned as our guide? LoLah is the mother of 3,  and she leads folks up and down Kinabalu3 times a week.  She use to be a porter, eventually passed her test and now she is guiding, makes a few more dollars and it is certainly easier on her back.

Also, it is a requirement to have a guide, helps lower the un-employment, And lowers the amount of folks that get lost.

As soon as i heard her name, i could not get the lyrics out of my mind “  She walked up to me and asked me to dance” Well I am not the most phisical guy” ” but when she squeezed me tight she almost broke my spine” “Can’t understand why she walked  like a women but  talked like a man”.

At any rate Lohlah was a great guide!!!!!! but it was funny? i wondered if whe knew the song?                    

 This is the gang, ready to go, all smiles 

The next couple of pictures are of the trail. Stairs are always the hardest.

 This part of the trail looks just like a trail in new Hampshire, just a bunch of rock steps.

As we got higher we started getting above the clouds.

As most of you know when ever there is a hut system at high elevation, there is only  a couple of ways to get supplies to the top. In Kinabalu there is only one way, on someones back. There are 3 huts, with the largest serving a full buffet breakfast and dinner . Along with construction there was a continuous line of porters bringing up food, drinks, and then the parts for construction  which included steel beams, washing machine and here we have a mattress. 

I was about 5 min from the hut when i looked back and noticed a mattress catching up with me, No way was that going to happen, so I dropped down one gear and was just able to keep up with this mattress.

 This is the guy driving the mattress. He does this every day! Not the matress everryday? but something on his back everry day!

Well we all staked out our bunks and sorted our gear and here we are on the deck after dinner. Khalid was cold so we tried to keep him between us, like the penguins. 

This is Jerry studying the route. Note the dining /hanging out area, very nice place, clean and the staff were exceptionally helpful. They supplied sleeping bags with liner as well as breakfast and dinner. The only thing they did not supply was snoring suppressors, which we all could have used,  except Kahlid? no Khalid did not loose,  not even 5 min. worth of sleep? i tried the shoe method, which only lasted 5 min,  maybe i was using the wrong shoe application? oooohhh that’s right , maybe the shoe goes in the mouth?? . By the way these huts are about 10,000′ high.

So the deal, is, you wake up at 2:30 AM, but if you never went to sleep than it’s not a problem. The purpose of waking up early is to catch the sunrise! but as you can see below, we were blessed with a little sleet with a

little rain with little wind.  But it was still goodYou can see a few people behind Jerry , if I was to guess i would say there was  at least 100 people scattered over the mountain. The mountain is big, so it never got that crowded, except at destination points, like summits.

 Here on the left is Khalid and Lolah just coming down from the summit. Kahied said that it was so cold he could not feel his lips. We kidded him and told him that it didn’t seem to affect how much he could talk.

This is the terrain below the summit , all rock slabs. Those 2 rocks sticking up are called the donkey ears.

 The next few pictures are just below the summit, this area is very barren, all granite slabs, they do have a large rope stretched from the  the last ranger check in point to the summit. Like the White dot trail? But still folks do get lost

 See the rope, even if you are in a fog bank? you can always pick up the rope and follow it. But folks still get lost.

Another one of those weird Ivan traits? Just figured out how to stand on my head, so on every mountain that i climb i will be spending some time on my head. The  head has started getting flatter, so this seams like a good use of it. ( the head !)

Here is Lolah and the boys, Lolah tended to stay in the back, but  always seemed to be near us when we started to stray?  As these boys will do.

To the left is the last Ranger station before the sumit. Everyone climbing this mountain,  are funneled through this station. The ranger has a spread sheet with everyones name that may climb that day, so as you go through the gate, the Ranger checks your name off and hands you a survival whistle? when you return  he verifies you have passed this check point  heading back, and gets his whistle back? hey its there system.

One of the options we had was to climb the last section down to the hut via a series of fixed steel cables. It is called the “Via Ferrata”  there are a few throught he alps, this happens to be the highest one in the world.

Here is Khalid going throught the steepest section

The guide put me in the front, i think becasuse i was the oldest? most expendable .

Here is Jerry walking the wire, over a gorge! Yikes, he doesn’t seem to worried

This is the wall the Ferrata is on? pretty impressive

Jerry and Lolah on the final stretch

I think Khalid’s lips have thawed out

Well, we had a good time, it was hard but definitely doable, the best part was getting to climb this mountain with friends. Feeling cold wind , sleet on my face.

Before I finish i wanted to show you a picture of a couple of the porters, most people ( not us) hire porters to carry their pack, it turns out to be a  way for local to pick up a few bucks. There are not a lot of prospects in this part of the world.

That’s right some of the porters were high school kids?

Most of the folks climbing seemed to be from Singapore although, as we were climbing up a group of 40 japanese tourists were coming down. They were the oldest people i have ever seen? All of them must have been over 70? it was quite amazing. I wish I had taken a picture of them.

Well, time to say good by for now! i will be attempting to climb Kilimanjaro in Africa new week and will be posting that trip as well.

Hope all  is well   and you find this somewhat interesting.

Lova You All………………Ivan