TOMORROW!

Tomorrow. This all becomes reality tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will be flying off on the journey of a lifetime. My flight is early evening tomorrow and my route is Toronto-New Jersey-New Delhi-Kathmandu. There is a 10 hour overnight layover in New Delhi before catching a 6:30am flight into Kathmandu on the morning of October 2nd.
Life has been a whirlwind for weeks leading up to this moment. Now I sit amongst my things and try to put order to the chaos that is packing for this journey. Three months in Nepal followed by Thailand, and hopefully Vietnam and Cambodia. Nepal is the purpose of this journey and the rest is some sweet add-ons like catching up with my sister Theresa for Christmas who will be teaching in Bangkok and the potential to keep on trucking.

In keeping up with Outward Bound form here is an outline for my first 48 hours in Kathmandu.
As mentioned in an early post I was offered an amazing opportunity to consult on behalf of my longtime friend Kate Wannan who is the Executive Director of Eco-librium Adventures http://www.eco-libriumadventures.com/. Kate has put me in contact with John Child from Friends in High Places (FIHP) http://www.fihp.com/ and we will be meeting upon arrival into Kathmandu.  Kate and John are in the beginning stages of becoming potential business partners and I am consulting on Kate's behalf. Someone from FIHP will be meeting me at the airport and bringing me into town and setting me up with a place to stay. From there John will tour me around the city and take me sightseeing and talk about some of the background of the country, the tourism business and his company, and then I am off on a short trek through the company. The first trek will be a short trek in the Annapurna Region called Poon Hill. This is a majestic five day trek to an elevation of 10,000 ft that offers a brilliant 360 degree view of the Himalayan massifs including Dhulagiri range and Annapurna range sunrise in the valley.

View of Annapurna's from Poon Hill. Not too shabby.
 

So definitely more to post about my meetings with John and FIHP. They are hosting me for the duration of my time with them so I will most likely have lots to write about after a pretty fantastic start to my journey's.

Stay tuned.
Until then ... last post from Canada!

A.

18 days

Things are starting to come together. I arrived in Toronto to check on the status of my passport update to find out that my photos were denied!! So just fast-tracked another application and should have the updated passport by the 24th! Talk about cutting it close. Fingers crossed that this all works out.

It never ceases to amaze me the connection we have to each other and to the world. Just by reaching out by word of mouth I have been able to collect valuable information about friends and friends of friends who have travelled to this tiny corner of the world. I am speaking with the mother of a man who is from my hometown who moved to Kathmandu five years ago to study philosophy at the U of Kathmandu and has since become a monk and has devoted his life to being in Nepal and continuing his studies. I will be meeting him at some point during my travels and hopefully be connected through him to some powerful volunteer opportunities.

Most recently my friend Kate, owner and operator of Eco-librium Adventures http://www.eco-libriumadventures.com/, caught wind of my journey and has been in contact with a company over there whose operational philosophy is similar to that of her company and she has asked me to be a representative on her behalf and meet the folks on the ground and get a sneek peak at their operation. Eco-Librium Adventures is an eco-tour company dedicated to bringing new worlds and cultures to you in a sustainable and harmonious manner. The philosophy behind Eco-librium Sustainable Adventures is that responsible tourism experiences can and should help bring balance into the world.  Should be interesting ... more to follow.

I have reconnected as well with a good family friend Cathy Anne who has spent a lot of time in Nepal mountaineering and trekking over the last 20 years. I was fortunate enough 8 or 9 years ago to meet Dawa, a sherpa from Nepal, who was staying with her family in Canmore and working over here for the summer to supplement his income as a sherpa with the hopes of one day opening a teahouse in Nepal. According to a recent conversation, he has been able to do this and operates his teahouse along the Everest Base Camp trek in Lhasa I believe. The connection to Nepal for Cathy-Anne is a deep one and I look forward to more conversations and guidance from her. She also has another friend who is porter who she recommended I hire while I trek the Annapurna Circuit as this is service provides much needed work for the locals.

So things are unfolding ... I have no direct itinerary just a basic sense of what I want to get up too while I am in Nepal. More details to follow as this journey begins ... 18 days to go.

One month to go.

So the countdown is officially one month away.

There's a fine fine line.

A friend just introduced me to this ... I believe its from the musical Avenue Q

There's a fine, fine line between a lover and a friend;
There's a fine, fine line between reality and pretend;
And you never know 'til you reach the top if it was worth the uphill climb.

There's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of time.

There's a fine, fine line between a fairy tale and a lie;
And there's a fine, fine line between "You're wonderful" and "Goodbye."
I guess if someone doesn't love you back it isn't such a crime,
But there's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of your time.

And I don't have the time to waste on you anymore.
I don't think that you even know what you're looking for.
For my own sanity, I've got to close the door
And walk away...
Oh...

There's a fine, fine line between together and not
And there's a fine, fine line between what you wanted and what you got.
You gotta go after the things you want while you're still in your prime...

There's a fine, fine line between love
And a waste of time.
 

Intentions

This trip represents necessity. For me it is not about seeing and doing, it's more about feeling and being. I want to be amongst the unfamiliar. I need to experience the fear and solitude that being alone presents you with. One can believe that the last few months have been isolating and have left me feeling very alone. I feel this tremendous need to strip away everything and everyone. Not forever, but for now. I need to stand on my own two feet with the intention of allowing me the time to be still, to be present and to refocus myself in a new direction. Everything has been familiar, sedentary and way too predictable for me.

In preparation, aside of reading and dreaming ... I have begun to de-clutter myself and mostly my possessions. Things that represent the past that I can no longer find the strength to hold on to. These things take up space and I don't know why I find myself clinging to these things. Well, I guess I know but I need to let everything go. I feel a tremendous desire to purge and purge I will.

Nepal is an intensely spiritual place and I hope to be able to tap into that while I am there. I have three solid months to figure out how to do that. It is my hope that I can volunteer and give back to the country that I will be visiting. I am asking a lot of this place in terms of healing so in return I feel as though I should be working towards that. Nothing is free in this life. To be able to give one must be able to receive. I am willing to give, to serve and to experience life on the other side of the world and in return I want to be able to give the best parts of me while I am there. When I find out what that is ... I will post it.

September 30th

So it has been decided. Hastily mind you but my decision to head to Nepal was an easy one. Since I can remember, the Himalayas were a mountain range that I had one day dreamed of seeing live and in person. The bare bones plan is I have purchased a one way ticket to Kathmandu ... and well the rest is yet to be determined.

Why start a blog? Good question. Never really read anyone's blog before, never blogged myself but I enjoy writing and want to be able to share this with people, especially friends and family. Recently life served me up a slice of  ''I don't want to be with you anymore'' pie and the foundation of five years of my life crumbled beneath me. I have been an empty vessel ever since and I need to find a way to rebuild, recharge and refocus myself into living intentionally and mending a horribly shattered and broken heart.

September 30th ... 37 days away.