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Mount Everest
The last view of why we're here.The Smartest Things Ever Said About… Quitting
It's not in my best interest to say this Frank, but quitting while you're ahead, is not the same as quitting.
- Chinese General in
American Gangster You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
- Kenny Rogers
He who fights and runs away
may live to fight another day.
- Inspired by Demosthenes
Rule number one: Throw in your cards the moment you know they can't win. Fold the hand.
- Jo in
Rounders If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
- WC Fields
Quit while you're ahead. All the best gamblers do.
- Baltasar Gracian
Each month, Men’s Health opens up its magazine with a handful of quotes on that month’s theme. They’re usually interesting and often inspirational, with recent topics such as
quick fixes,
fatherhood and
planning for the future. Given my current state I thought it would be amusing to find a few on a topic that was surely never addressed as a great idea - the value of quitting. Not surprisingly, these were tough to come by.
What brought this on? Deplorable conditions, highlighted last night. As I returned from the bathroom for the fourth time I wondered, has there ever been such a night where two people sharing the same hotel room had to take shifts in the bathroom from severe illness?
Around midnight I awoke with some stomach pains. A few minutes later I led the charge to the bathroom to vomit up something that didn’t agree with me. I wrapped up and
it was Dave’s turn. Then me again. Then him. The revolving door was in full force; as one of us left, the other entered. By my third episode, I grew tired of leaning over the seat and brought the desk chair with me to take a seat. This would get some use until phase 1 (the puking) stopped and phase 2 (the diarrhea) commenced.
During phase 2, phase 1 had miraculously come to a finite conclusion, with only a threat remaining. In case things changed I was prepared with the bucket previously used as a laundry bucket (and supposed to be used as a clean bucket for anal wash water) to catch vomit while using toilet for diarrhea.
After a few hours of our misery, we each popped some Cipro. This calmed Dave down and he started to doze off. This didn’t quite do the job for me as I continued to empty my entire internal system.
Laying in my bed between bouts, I was thinking about my trip to India that starts today and what - through limited personal observation and plenty of stories - will likely be an equally unappealing experience with poor hygiene. I
Kathmandu
Fire kid. began to question whether I should even go as I would not be arriving in great shape and I would be short on proper medical care or prescription drugs as Dave and I used up two months worth of Cipro in as many weeks. As I laid and contemplated, Dave said something about rethinking the India trip. I told him I already was.
Also occurring to me were a couple anagrams of Nepal - penal and plane (panel is a third but that seems irrelevant). Penal - punishment. Yes, I feel like I’m being punished. Plane - yes, get on a plane and go home. Or else be punished further? While I’m not an overtly spiritual man, it seemed like God, Providence or whatever was intervening. Something was telling me not to stay in India. If I still felt lousy when I arrived in India, I planned to reschedule my flight and head home, rather than risk being caught needing medical care in a country whose leading export is its base of qualified healthcare professionals.
Finally around 3:30, though still in pain, I fell asleep. This only lasted a couple hours until we had to get up and
Kathmandu
Thongba beer. meet Ram to head over to the trekking company’s offices where we would be able to catch the bus to the airport.
Before we left, we each popped an Imodium and Cipro to reduce chances of an incident along the way, especially in what surely will be a toilet-less tourist bus.
Ram showed up early - he still needs to fix his watch - and once we were ready we set out to the office. There still aren’t any taxis around because of the strike. Only the tourist buses were allowed on the roads.
As we walked, we saw the tourist bus picking people up but we had to go to the office even though we said we didn’t need tea. Both of us felt it would be much better to just get on the bus and go (knowing that each of us was a ticking time bomb). Besides, neither one of us were in the mood for anything Nepalese, especially food or drink.
After about 15 minutes we left the office to get the bus. One wasn’t there so we waited for it to return. We waited. And waited. One small tourist van pulled up,
Kathmandu
Nervous to fly to Lukla. Deepak talked to the driver then it took off without us. We waited some more.
Finally, we started walking up the street in the direction of the airport. We thought we were walking the entire way. I had enough, making snide remarks as we walked past the moronic demonstrators who had fouled everything up. “You people have no idea what your cause even is. They promise you everything and you will get nothing. You think things are bad now? You have no idea. Communism worked out great for the Soviet Union. And China - imagine when your wife gets knocked up and you can’t have more than one kid. Yeah, lots of freedom there. All you do is disrupt things. And for what? You people are clueless.”
I then turned to Dave. “Do you remember the part in
Weekend at Bernie’s where they got the boat running and then ran out of gas? They had to swim on the ocean with a dead body. That is where I am right now, metaphorically trying to keep my head above water by using a corpse”
We finally came upon the bus, got on and had to wait for it
Phakding
The river. to get full. After maybe 15 more minutes of waiting the bus left and drove to another spot about 100 yards away. We sat, waited and no one came so we went back to original spot where we got on to find more people.
All the while, we worried about being able to check-in (since there isn’t online check-in) and make our flight. Finally, the bus left, making our way past protestors and stopping at a military controlled gas station and the airport’s domestic terminal, each for several minutes, before arriving at the international terminal well after 8:00 for a 9:30 flight. The whole way, I still felt lousy. But at least the Imodium kept things from getting messy.
The airport process went surprisingly smooth though the men’s security line and
cop-a-cheap-feel frisk procedure were lengthy, as always. The women breezed right through. Still, we made it and had a very smooth flight.
Dave must have been feeling better on the flight as he kept gesturing with his left hand about barrier-less posterior wiping and subsequent food preparations and offerings in India. This was not helping things. I told him my mind was made up and I
Namche Bazar
Everest backdrop. was going to get my flight changed to leave tonight. I can’t face India like this. He didn’t believe me and continued to tease.
Dave and I parted ways in Delhi and I went off to check into flights. Around noon I found the Continental office. It was closed until 6:45 pm. Waiting that long to find out seats aren’t available wouldn’t be good.
I went into the departures lounge and managed to get on the Internet to search for flights. After almost an hour, I got in contact with Continental over Skype and successfully changed my flight to tonight. That’s a huge relief. I haven’t had any awful issues today but things still aren’t right.
With a long wait until my departure at 10:55 tonight, I had to stay in the lounge until about 8 pm. I spent the afternoon playing solitaire, reading and getting scolded for sitting at a general table in the food section while not having food (just a bottle of water, imported from the Himalayas,
comforting). I told the rep he might want to give the same reprimand to all the other patrons here since none of them have food, as well.
Namche Bazar
Everest backdrop. He slowly and haphazardly made his way around, starting with the Westerners. What was really strange is that
junior didn’t seem to realize no one was looking for a seat over here but most of the chairs in the general section, where he suggested I go, were taken.
After a very long afternoon of waiting, I finally got on my flight this evening and made my way home. Fortunately, I didn’t have any issues but my stomach is still upset. This Imodium is pretty strong; it can back me up for days.
When I reached the Philadelphia airport following my lengthy flight to Newark and my puddle jump on a prop plane to Philly, I quickly collected my bag and met up with Gene, the same driver that took me to the airport this trip. I told him all about the trip, including the conditions. He was pretty intrigued. After a quick ride I made it home, showered and took a nap. This ended my year-long travel tour.
When thinking back on the past few weeks, I can’t say that I found the trek enjoyable but I am glad I did it. It was a challenge and
Debuche
Laundry. one that I (we) begrudgingly completed. And miraculously we appear to have lived to tell about it.
I do not have to go back and have no intention to do so until they do something about the deplorable hygienic conditions. The hygiene in Nepal, like most everything else there, is a façade. They try to appear to be an advancing country with their cell phones, access to modern music, TV and satellites but they can’t seem to get a grasp on one of the most basic tasks that has confronted humans throughout their existence - hygienically preparing food.
Acknowledging my complaints along the way, I can deal with (or at least overcome) the cold, wind and altitude - some of the allure of such a trip is that very challenge - but the lack of basic hygiene in the form of sanitary food, water and accommodations (just sanitary, not necessarily appealing or even close to glamorous), is such a drawback from an otherwise good experience. And that aspect just doesn’t have to be. It adds no value at all. Who in their right mind considers overcoming being poisoned by food and water a merit-worthy accomplishment?
The closing
Dingboche
Rescue chopper. experience is unfortunate as I liked Ram and Hari and had a lot of fun with Dave. However, I recognize that in the coming days and weeks this will certainly just become a fun and casualty-free war story.
I had hoped to end my travels differently; and maybe will still have the opportunity to do so. Either way, this will be my last large overseas trip at this point of my life. This has been a great year but reality is starting to knock. It’s time to think about answering the door and once again become a contributing member of society.
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non-member comment
Oh no!! sorry to hear about your bad exp but it was pretty amazing reading your Nepal blog. thumbs up!!