I recently felt slightly lost and demotivated to continue writing my online diary here on my blog website. Its a normal cycle, sometimes we are at the bottom of the wheel, sometimes we are at the top. Thankfully, it was only temporary and now Im back writing, transforming all my internal thoughts into words, so that the unseen will be realized. Nonetheless, I’m still travelling as usual, living constantly on the road in search of different experience. But I will now share my writings since months ago that were left unpublished. I will now start since where I left, which was my last hike in Nepal, the Annapurna Basecamp trek…
After I completed the hike in the Annapurna Basecamp trek, I took a few days break and figuring out my next move. Winter was slowly approaching, when the sun left the Himalayas, the coldness came side by side with the darkness of the night. So I decided to spend only a few more weeks in Nepal before finally leaving the Himalayas. Thanks to the social media, I got to know Jody Lee, a kind hearted woman who is behind “The Help Nepal Appeal”, a non profit organization that helps the earthquake survivors in Nepal. I have never get myself involved in any charity work in my entire life. So joining this team for a few days in Nepal is something really new and fresh experience for me.
After our meeting in Kathmandu, Jody, two local Nepalis and me went to a small village of Sisaghat, somewhere between Kathmandu and Pokhara to visit a school there, where they were concentrating on two projects at that time, which were the student leadership council and to raise the level of education for the special need students in the school. I came in more like an observer, where my job is to film the experience and produce a video to be shared on their youtube channel, so that they will have more exposure on things that they do in Nepal. So instead of helping by teaching and entertaining the special need children which I have no experience at all, I was just helping by operating my cameras.
a very colourful and interesting Nepali wedding in Sisaghat
Staying in the village for a few days observing and filming the locals and the activities, I was mostly amazed by the meaning of kindness. For many years I’ve been wondering, if god is the most fair, why some people are born rich, while some children died because of hunger… why some people are living good life while others are struggling throughout their entire life… why wars and natural disasters happen and people have to suffer. Looking at the world from our human level logic, it seems that all these don’t make sense and will make us think that god isnt fair at all. But when I try to look at things from a different angle, some things started to make more sense. This realm we are living is relative based. We define each attributes by its opposite. Beauty will not exist without ugliness. We never will realize the light if there is no darkness. Good and bad define each other. Success will not exist without failure. Positive and negative neutralize each other. Without being at the bottom, we will never climb. Without making mistakes, we will never say sorry or ask for forgiveness. There is a saying, we usually will appreciate something only after we lose it, this is because only then we experience its opposite, thus we realize its importance…
the countrylife
local in Sisaghat
landscape in Tanahun district
So it is the same thing in this case, an earthquake struck Nepal a few years ago which caused many casualties and many others lost their homes. But not long after that, goodness comes out of nowhere, local and international volunteers came to Nepal to offer their help and suddenly, there is a very strong connection between the victims and the helping hands. More people come to Nepal and the country became more exposed to tourism. Here in Sisaghat village, I witness the perfect example of my thought. Jody Lee, the Australian woman who is the founder of Help Nepal Appeal, is now dedicating her life to help the earthquake victims in Nepal. After the news of the earthquake reached her ears, she quickly raised thousands of dollars in Australia and flew to Nepal to help whatever she can. She even work hard and use all her own savings to help the victims. Now one of the project for the organization is to help upgrading the teaching quality of the special need children in this village and also introducing student leadership council program to the school here. If this works out, they plan to implement it to all the school in Nepal.
Sisaghat village
students imagining themselves becoming a leader. hehe…
students imagining themselves transforming into a flower
Jody Lee, the person behind Help Nepal Appeal
Pramod, a local volunteer teaching and entertaining the special need students
Eric Lee, a volunteer from the US teaching the school children for a few days
When I first came to this village together with them, my intention is more towards seeing the local people here since I know nothing and inexperience about charity works. But when observing how they work together especially with the special need children, I find it very interesting and film all the experience. It is such a waste if a tree blossoming with thousands of colourful flowers but no one is there to appreciate its beauty. It is such a waste if a tree bear delicious fruits but no one is there to taste them. It is such a waste if a painter create a masterpiece but no one is there to acknowledge the master work. So here I shared the short film I made for them, so that their kindness will be acknowledged, appreciated and hopefully will motivate others to do good things instead of being wasted and forgotten. You can find out more about them on their website and social media.
http://www.thehelpnepalappeal.com/
First try on my new drone DJI Phantom 4 Professional, filming the frozen waterfall of Perichnik in Northwest Slovenia closed to Austrian border. Its been quite a while since the last time I flew my drone after my previous drone crashed in the Himalayas. Be sure to check out the video in 4K resolution for better experience. More shots coming soon )))
Up here in the mountains, I usually wake up as early as 4am, waking up in peace, quiet and alone. There were no other sound but silence… there were no other light but darkness. Its so refreshing and I have all the time for myself at this moment… using it to further refresh both my mind and body. Starting with my mind, I try to think on all the good things I had that I can remember… that crossed my mind. It takes quite a while since there were many and I took my time to gather all of it… the more I muster all the memories of good things that happen in my life, the more contented I feel. At one point, with all these good thought congregate inside my mind, I burst it out in words…”all praise belong to you my Creator”… fully aware that that the Source that created me and the universe Im living in… is listening closely to me. The process took me a few minutes while Im still lying on my bed… even to say such simple phrase. The stronger the intensity we have in our mind, the more meaningful we give to the word or phrase that we speak… which makes it really powerful. When the word or phrase we express is a powerful one, it gives a huge effect to us when we say it. It effects our subconscious mind. Mind power… a secret that has been taught in many ways since ages through different languages, philosophies and religions…
Then I proceed with my physical body, where I took time to stretch my body to increase the blood flow to all parts of my body including the brain… which is the most crucial especially in the early morning hours. I then do the things that I usually do when Im alone until… until I started to hear human voices communicating in distant… knowing that Im no more alone by myself. After a good breakfast, I started walking back on the trail together with Dinesh, my guide here in the Annapurna basecamp trek. It gets colder now since the winter is stepping nearer towards the northern hemisphere every single day. I started walking in early morning by wearing my thick down jacket. After a few minutes of walking, my body started to produce heat so I took off my down jacket and a few minutes later, I took off my sweater, wearing only tshirt… since the sun was getting higher spreading its warmth to the earth.
During my walk here in the Annapurna mountains, I feel like something is missing. I feel like I dont enjoy the hike here as much as I do when I was walking the Everest trail. The last two days before I reached the basecamp of Annapurna, I started to feel like its a burden for me walking in this trail. I then told my guide to speed up towards the basecamp, since Im already acclimatized, I can rush towards the basecamp which sits around 4000m altitude without worrying of altitude sickness. I think I finally started to get bored of mountains because Ive been hiking in the Himalayas since April from Bhutan. Ive been hiking too much this year and now finally in the middle of November, I think I have enough of it. The hike here is of course filled with beautiful views… such a powerful place… walking the trail here is something special. But since I started to get bored of all these, I failed to appreciate both the beauty and the special moment being here in the high mountains… which is a complete waste to me. Im not the type who go to places to tick off the bucket list but rather to appreciate the place, the moment and to experience. But sadly now, I have lost it.
I still do enjoy being here in the mountains especially when I started walking early in the morning when the earth is still lit by the golden morning light and when Im sipping my tea while watching the incredible view but the feeling isnt as strong compared to when I was walking the Everest trek a month earlier. But at least it feels good when I met my countrymen here which rarely happen when Im on the road. One I met while I took a short break in Machhapuchhre basecamp and another one was a couple I met in Annapurna Basecamp. It feels great to be able to speak my own mother tongue while Im on the road and exchange a lot of stories. And at least… I enjoyed my time while staying a night in Annapurna Basecamp… watching all the beautiful major peaks here including Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre especially on my favourite time, both sunrise and sunset and I was watching in full admiration the supermoon shining the light it bounces from the sun behind the mountains from the basecamp which stands above 4000m. After staying a night there, I walked fast back to Nayapul which took me two days and then back to Pokhara on the same day. My original plan was to walk all of Annapurna, where I plan to continue my walk in Annapurna Circuit which is the bigger route and finally into Upper Mustang in the north close to the border of Tibet. But now I think its not a good idea because I know I wont be able to enjoy it as much. Maybe I will do it some other time. I started to imagine different landscapes now… volcanoes, icebergs, deserts or even the beach. So this is probably the last mountain for me in Nepal…
us Malaysians
stunning supermoon at 4000m altitude
when the supermoon is shining
After I took a good rest in Pokhara, recharging both my body and mind back to their full condition, I finally went back to the mountains, this time towards the Annapurna massif. The original idea was to do the walk in Annapurna Basecamp, then proceed to the bigger trek in Annapurna Circuit and if possible, continue further towards Upper Mustang. But of course when I plan something, I never take it too seriously. Planning each step on my journey is like trying to beat my opponent in a game of chess. My moves always depend on how my opponent position his pieces on the board or in this case, my plan always change according to the external factor. The weather has always been good to me nowadays, so I have the chance to have a beautiful walk in the Annapurna mountains.
After some 2 hours of car ride from Pokhara, I reached Nayapul, the door of my adventure in the Annapurna mountains. From there I started my journey on foot together with my guide, Dinesh, who is a Magar people from Solukhumbu, the Everest region. I was quite surprised that it was quite a climb even on the first day, there were thousands of stairs which is quite steep and seem endless towards Ulleri. Reaching Ulleri left me exhausted. Its always hard the first day, especially after many days of rest and being lazy in the lowland. The good thing is, my physical body got really tired and I got to sleep early again, as early is 8pm. My most favourite time of the day is when I wake up while it is still dark, while every other soul is still not connected with their physical body… its so quiet and peaceful… time moves slower at this time and I have all the time in the world to do my reading or writing. The sun appears on the eastern sky only around 6.20am, thats where I started to hear human voices communicating with each other, starting a new day. After a quick breakfast, I proceed to Ghorepani on the second day, so that I can witness the beautiful sunrise the next morning from Poon Hill…
After sleeping a night in Ulleri, I trekked for a few hours the next day to Ghorepani, ascending almost 1000m in altitude. This time I walked faster and Im not worried anymore about altitude sickness since Im already acclimatized in the Everest region and Ghorepani is still below 3000m anyway. Early in the morning on the third day, I started trekking towards the top of Poon Hill to enjoy the view of all the peaks of Annapurna mountain ranges. It was straight forward with excellent path but packed with so many people. Once I reached the top, I quickly moved away from the crowd and found a good spot for myself to enjoy the rising sun coming from the eastern horizon. Its always a pleasure to witness the changes from night to day, on how the colours of the sky changed slowly from dark blue to purple and finally to shining gold, to see all elements on earth, the grass, the trees and the mountains turned into gold shined by the nearest powerful star that we often refer it as the sun. All the high peaks in the Annapurna massif are clearly visible from here at the top of Poon Hill which sits at 3200m altitude.
My walk here in the smaller circuit around the Annapurna Basecamp is a lot different than my previous journey in the Everest region. One good thing, I dont need to worry about altitude sickness here. The highest I will get is only about 4000m and I probably will only stay a night at that height before going down into the lower land again. But I found the trek here steeper. It was always a climb in Everest Basecamp trek but I was climbing gradually there. But here I always found myself climbing endless stairs. There are more people doing this trek too compared to the Everest trek but thats probably because Im trekking here in the middle of November. I found myself mostly walking in a forest here since Im mostly still walking below the tree line. Tea houses are everywhere here, there is always a place to stop for a tea or coffee every few minutes of walking along the trail. Food and accommodation here are much cheaper too compared to those in Everest region.
After Ghorepani, my walk which was mostly climbing for many hours put me in a small guesthouse somewhere in the middle of the trail between Tadapani and Kimrong. Walking uphill on a steady climb for many hours can be exhausting. Being exhausted can be a good thing because it forced us to stop to catch our breath and when we stop a while, we have the chance to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. Watching the lush forest, the flowing water on rivers and falls and birds flying free in the sky really calm us down… its a medicine for the soul. All these elements are lit by the sun, the same sun that shines to give life to all. The sun that sits alone 150 million of kilometers away from us, yet it is so important, the light that it shines contains millions of unseen things that are essential for us in order to keep living and grow and experience existence. How beautiful every elements in this universe are connected to each other. Something so simple that we often take for granted because we get it all the time, yet when we think about it, each elements are so important to keep the balance in existence. As in each element in existence is like a line of code in a computer software system. Each line of code comes with a purpose… contribute to the main system. A line of code which might seems very simple and unimportant but without it, the whole system will produce error and crash. Often when I feel exhausted from trekking or cycling, I would divert my mind to think about something else so that I could ignore the pain that my muscles endured… letting my subconscious mind to take over the job so that my legs can keep moving automatically to bring me forward often to new places. And this is when my conscious mind could travel to realms that excite me… to wonder, to experience, to explore one magical word…. existence. Something come out from nothing…. a topic that Ive been exploring for many years yet I never get bored of it.
One reason why I love travelling, love being on the road is because I really have the time and chance to reflect everything that was taught to me by my master many years ago. I have the time to disconnect myself from many things that bother me. Life is so simple on the road. Instead of worrying about the upcoming election that is happening at totally the other side of the world that doesnt effect me directly, the only news that I really pay attention is the weather forecast, since the weather can really affect my mood compared to political situation of a country which is thousands of kilometers away that has nothing to do with me. After my short journey in the Everest trail, I took more than a week rest in both Kathmandu and Pokhara, spending my time writing my diary, the script of my film, reading many books and think about many things that interest me on a deeper level. Sometimes… well most of the time, my mind travels to realms that are much more interesting compared to places that my physical body goes…
view of Pokhara and the Annapurna Massif from the balcony of my hotel
Staying in Pokhara, near the lake of Fewa really calms my soul down after many days being in a super crowded and dusty Kathmandu. No sound of honking here and I get to see clearly the Annapurna Massif right from the balcony of my hotel. While in Pokhara, I also stayed a few nights in Sarangkot, a small village located on top of a hill not so far from Pokhara and there… I get to see the magnificent view of both the Annapurna and the whole of Pokhara city and the lake as well. This place immediately becomes my most favourite place in Nepal now.
Sarangkot village
Sarangkot under the mountains
“Guide us to the straight path”… a prayer that is repeatedly whispered by the hearts of billions of people every single day. Such an uncomplicated, straightforward and simple phrase yet requires thousands of words to truly describe its meaning. A simple phrase which has a very deep meaning like the ocean, it looks so simple when we look at it from the surface of the ocean but it marvels us when we dive deep into the ocean floor. After years meditating only on this simple phrase, we will always get into a totally new level of understanding each and everytime we try to comprehend it.
Begnas Lake and the Annapurna mountains
Begnas Lake
A path, which also means a road or a trail that leads towards somewhere, to another place let it be within space or time… which means we are on the move, always travelling, always a musafir. I always questioned myself why it doesn’t say “Guide us to the destination” instead. But when we look everything around us, there is no absolute destination in this realm of space and time… only temporary destination, more like an R&R. When I was walking on the Everest trail, my destination was the Everest Basecamp. But once I reached the basecamp, I stayed less than an hour there and I found myself back on the trail, walking back towards the small village of Gorakshep. The next few days I still found myself on the walking trail walking towards Gokyo and beyond and keep going in a circuit until I reached Lukla. It never ends, a few days later I was back in the busy and dusty Kathmandu and now I found myself in a beautiful city of Pokhara. In a few days time I might be on the trail in the Annapurna mountains.
Village life of Sarangkot
Filming the sunset from Sarangkot
Nothing in this lifetime as our soul travels in the human journey has an ultimate destination. A man who’s dream to become super rich, will realize that becoming super rich is not the ultimate destination. He will not feel content with what he has and will find himself trying to become even richer. A man who struggle to get the highest qualification will realize that the path never ends once he gets his PhD. There are so much new things he needs to learn. If the man stops learning once he get his PhD, he will slowly be left behind… his knowledge will become outdated and no longer useful at some point, decayed by an entity called time. He will eventually lose because he stopped walking on the path, standing still in the middle of the road, in the middle of nowhere. Same goes to the super rich man, if he stops earning and keep spending, he will slowly lose his wealth. He needs to keep walking on the path he chose. Scientists keep finding answers yet there is no ultimate answer… always new things are to be discovered everyday, always walking in a path. We are always learning, always researching, always getting new experiences. There is no true destination in the human journey… only temporary destination. Everything is in motion… a motion that seems endless…
A straight road is always the fastest road towards a destination… and often the easiest. A straight road is usually less risky and less dangerous compared to the winding road. Billions of people praying to be guided to the straight path all the time, so that they will get to the destination the fastest, the easiest and without much risk. And that destination doesn’t exist here in the human journey, in the realm of space and time. That destination is the same place where we came from… where we belong. We are here temporarily only to experience being in a human body and to understand our choices… just like water that origins from the ocean. It evaporates, goes high in the sky to form a cloud. At some point it will fall on the land as rain and makes it way through streams and rivers, experiencing and travels to so many places before finally makes it way back to the ocean… to where it belong… to where it came from…
Pokhara and Fewa Lake seen from Sarangkot
Diary Of A Traveller 