The adventures continue...

Apparently, any notion of coming home after my 7-week global sojourn to a mellow chill-out period of rest and relaxation was simply not happening.

After the international section which went something like:

6/20 - 6/22: Tel-Aviv, Israel
6/24 - 6/26: Petra & Wadiram, Jordan
6/26 - 6/29: Eilat & Tel-Aviv , Israel
6/29 - 7/02: Jerusalem, Israel
7/02 - 7/06: Istanbul, Turkey
7/06 - 7/09: Aegean Sea Cruise
7/10 - 7/12: Tel-Aviv, Israel
7/12 - 7/26: Nepal
7/26 - 7/28: Amman, Jordan
7/28 - 7/31; Tel-Aviv, Israel
7/31: Home to the States

I continued on a domestic travel spree for another month:

8/01 - 8/07: DC After 3 years of renting out my Foggy Bottom apartment in the District, it was finally time to say goodbye and consolidate and simply life a bit...

8/08 - 8/10: NYC | All Points West Festival | Radiohead Part I: WAY too glad Diego convinced me to put the "apartment liquidation" on hold for the weekend to join he and Ari (2 of my 3 Panamaniacs I will be visiting in December/January) for the BEST of the four times I've now seen Radiohead.


8/11 - 8/18: DC
8/19 - 8/24: SF | Radiohead Part II: The band was the FIRST artist ever to perform in Golden Gate Park after sunset. Quite an unreal experience that, in spite of the sound completely crapping out twice, was well worth every minute.

8/24 - 8/27: LA | Radiohead Part III: Endless props to the Blumenhizzle for scoring us tickets to this show at the Hollywood Bowl, easily now one of my favorite music venues. The "1/2 bowl" shape allows the sound to reverberate off the very last row, ensuring perfect acoustic enjoyment for anyone from front row center to nosebleeds.

8/27 - 9/07: FL | The main man T-dawg's (aka Trevor's) bachelor party. We initially had plans to head down south to Key West but quickly diverted course northward after Hurricane Gustav came in and ransacked the entire southern coast of Florida. Luckily, we still had a blast camping out on Jupiter Beach.
9/07 : Return to SF...where, believe it or not, I have succeeded in staying put for the last month.

Finally getting an opportunity to...exhale...for the first time in three months has led to some deep intospection. I will not lie or try to downplay the experience I had abroad - it was incredible. I had so much original hesitation before leaving but, with each passing day of the trip, was further reaffirmed that leaving the confines of corporate America to embark on a personal journey of self-discovery was the greatest choice I could have made at the time.

Why was the trip SO good? Fair question. My good friends know I have a pension for exaggeration and will often describe every trip I go on as "beyond extraordinary," "life-altering," or "mind-expanding" but this was different. Yes, Israel, Turkey, and Jordan were phenomenal and I pay endless thanks to my hosts and friends who showed me endless amounts of fun: Shirlee, Matt, Deb (Gingit), Kfir, Orly, Sydney, Basia, Hila, Marina, and Yuvi. You guys always have a place to crash at whatever corner of the globe I may be at when we reconnect.

However, the undeniably greatest part of the trip was my first week in Nepal. I'd never been to a country before where I've come so face-to-face with some of the poorest people in the world. Some of the villagers we visited in our first week of the Dorjhana Foundation Healthcamp have never made more than 30 cents/day in their entire lifetimes. But, these people smiled and laughed, 20X more than the average American. Here in the States, we have EVERYTHING in such easy proximity to us. We drive our gas-guzzling vehicles an hour to work every day and then complain about the outlandish cost of a barrel. We fill our lives with meaningless towers of material crap that add complexity, confusion, and a compulsion to consistently need more...stuff.

But here...

in Nepal...

were some...
of the happiest...

people...

I have ever...
come across. It gave new meaning to the phrase "Money doesn't buy you happiness." I thank these beautiful Nepali people who taught me things about life, serenity and minimalism that I would have never learned in the US.

Coming back with this feeling and still holding it more than a month later, I have felt uncontrollably compelled to do something to pay these people back in the hopes to opens their minds and hearts like they did mine. In a conversation with my good friend and mentor Janet this past week, it hit me like a bolt of lightning: WWW.PHOTOSFORNEPAL.COM. I bought the domain name and am going to start this website to showcase and sell 40-50 of my favorite photos from the trip in various sizes (i.e. 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, etc.). Here's the catch 110% of the proceeds will back to the Dorjhana Foundation and organizations like to promote health and education in impoverished mountain villages like Khizi. "110% of the proceeds?" you're probably asking yourself? Yes, 110%. For every dollar of funds raised from the website, I will put in 10 cents of my own money as a way to encourage people to support this idea. I will keep you posted on when the site's built and open for fundraising!

At present, I find myself in SF reeling from a great week of change, involving some exciting new opportunity. It began with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year which entices me to do a few things: first, introduce you to these two videos if you haven't seen them yet.

The Great Schlep


Phone Atone


Second, I always try to pick a quote that will serve as a "mantra" of sorts throughout the next year. Here's what I'm using as my inspiration for '08/'09:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

And now, after a productive day at World Chi Recording Studios in downtown SF (5 new tracks about to blast through your speakers at mouthmatics.com), I'm off to New Orleans tomorrow to start a 6-month disaster recovery consulting engagement assisting the displaced residents from Hurricane Katrina move out of FEMA trailers and back into permanent housing.

Stoked!? Please...that's an understatement.

Home, home again...I like to be here when I can

"Hashish my friend?"
"Rickshaw?"
"You want to smoke brother?"
"Taxi?"
"You want to go Trekking?"

Welcome to my first 7 seconds in Thamelt, the tourist hub of downtown Kathmandu. It is impossible to walk for more then 3 seconds without someone offering you to sell you one of the above. Truthfully, I wish I could say that Kathmandu is an exciting metropolis bustling with life and energy; in reality, it is a discombobulating, dizzying mess of a city where the air quality, combined with the noise pollution, immense litter, and depressing poverty, make it very difficult for one to find peace of mind. Especially after an amazing week trekking into the Nepali mountains (I now feel compelled to share a few more of my favorite shots from that week)...




I find myself wanting out from the madness of Kathmandu.

Nevertheless, I tried to make the most of my time in Kathmandu. I took the first day to connect back with the real world after not having Internet for a week (amazing how much relaxation this added).

The next day, our mountain guide and now my good friend, Lakpa, took me rock climbing. We had plans to climb natural rock but the monsoon season brings rain almost every day to Nepal so we diverted our plans to an manmade wall that, while still outside, was covered by a roof and remained dry.


I then spent the next two days strolling around Thamelt, getting gifts for friends and family. I also took a day trip to Patan, a town about 1/2 hour outside of Kathmandu, particularly known for its rich cultural heritage.

Swastika next to Star of David: apparently, the swastika was an ancient Hindi symbol meaning good luck. Leave it to the Nazis to screw that one up.

The next day, it was time for some adventure. I embarked on a 2-day trek into the mountains again where I had one of the greatest, most adrenaline-filled experiences of my life: bungy jumping.



It was a 160m drop, the second highest in the world. As you can tell from the video, I sort of couldn't wait to jump. This was something I'd been anticipating for a long, long time and am glad I got to cross off the list of "Things to do before I die." Next up - base jumping. Here's the group of us - from Holland, Denmark, Nepal, US - that all bungied together.


The next day, four of us went canyoning, another extreme adventure sport I'd never done. While I wish I had some photos to offer, canyoning involves repelling down waterfalls so, for obvious reasons, I did not bring my camera. From there, we enjoyed a nice 3-hour ride back into Kathmandu, the majority of which I spent on the roof of the bus:


One of the guys on the bungy trip named Pippin owns and manages a bar/nightclub in Thamelt named Lhasa. After hearing some beatboxing at our night at the Last Resort, he invited me to come to Lhasa on Friday night and perform. Here is a (shotty picture, yet decent sounding) video of me doing a beatbox cover of The Beatles' "Come Together."



Unfortunately, on my last night in Nepal, I caught some nasty virus and, while I'll spare you the details, will simply say I was up the entire night before flying to Amman. I owe a very special thanks to Emily, my friend I was visiting in Amman, whose door I arrived to sick as a dog. She went out of her way to give me meds, allow me to relax, and help me back to health as soon as possible.

In spite of being sick and out of my element the entire time I was there, Amman was fun. Not feeling my best, we took it easy and went to see the Dark Knight the first night I arrived. Next day, we baked in the sun at the Dead Sea...


and then went to Mt. Nebo, where Moses apparently led the Jews after 40 years in the desert before, at the ripe old age of 120, saw the Promised Land before dying at this spot.



After 3 days in Amman, it was time to head to Tel-Aviv for my last 3 nights of the journey. I got to spend some quality time recording some music with Yuval, the guitarist for Coolooloosh. Much thanks to him for opening his home to me for the last part of my trip.


After three days of relaxation on Tel-Aviv beach, it was time to head home, where I find myself now...currently in Washington, DC still reeling from the adventurous 7 weeks that precede. Sometime in the coming weeks, I plan to blog about some interesting life revelations this trip afforded me, so until then...safe travels in your own journey.

Namasté: Livin' it Easy in the Mountains of Khizi

She’s a 73 year-old Nepali woman who has spent her entire life in the 100-person village of Khizi whose prescription for osteoarthritis I’ve just filled. I’m a white American male who has been fortunate enough to live such a privileged lifestyle filled with opportunity. But we share one thing in common: this will be the most unbelievable experience we both have this year.

BUT...before I get started with my trek into the Nepali mountains with the Dorjhana foundation to assist with their health camp…to begin proper, I need to get to my last day in Jerusalem.

I connect with Coolooloosh (www.coolooloosh.com), a great Israeli-based hip-hop/funk band at their show at Bezalel, where I opened for them with a ½-hour beatbox set:

1. Come Together
2. Boombastic > Ironman
3. Sh’ma Israel
4. Under the Bridge
5. Ulti-medley

Coolooloosh then rocked the crowd out for an hour and called me up for their second-to-last number. There was also a professional videographer so I should have some new footage for the site (shameless self-promotion here: www.mouthmatics.com).

Needless to say, the show was phenomenal. Special thanks to Hila for shooting the gig, Sydney for showing support and "coming to the rescue" as well as Coolooloosh for having me. Here are some photos during my opening set and then jamming with Rebel Sun of Coolooloosh:

Next day was “Travel Day” to go from Tel-Aviv to Amman, Amman to Doha, and then catch a red-eye from Doha to Kathmandu. So, there I am, sitting in Doha airport of Qatar (a country I haven’t thought about since I played the word game Geography and always followed IraQ with Qatar), exploiting their free Wi-Fi. I receive an e-mail from my friend Adam, aka "Blume," asking how the travels have been but then he writes the following:

"So, the reason I e-mailed: I have some kick-ass news and I want to tell you on the phone...mainly so I can get your full reaction to it. E-mailing will not do this justice. So, that said, when you DO get a chance to make a call, let me know. I promise it's good stuff I'm going to relay to you."

Now, when some people make comments like this, it may or may not be such pertinent info. When Blume says something like this, you can deduce it’s pretty critical. So, I boot up my laptop and Skype him. Over our choppy connection, I am able to make out the following:

“I did it man. I hit every one of my contacts in the music biz and was able to score us front center tickets to Radiohead at the Hollywood Bowl, August 25.”

Arguably, the best news I could have received in Doha International Freakin’ Airport! FRONT CENTER TO RADIOHEAD! Anyone who knows me knows Radiohead is my favorite live act on the planet. Blume, I don’t know how you did it (or how you somehow consistently do it) but, YOU, dear sir, are the man.

And then…

came Nepal.

Now, there are some countries you will visit in your travels where you enjoy yourself, you go see the tourist stuff, remark on the beautiful weather, and overall have a great time. But then…there are places you will visit that change you. They leave an impression on you that makes you a different person afterwards. As best as I can put it into words, here is my first week in Nepal:

Day 1: I arrive to Kathmandu at 8:10am. My buddy James picks me up at the airport and introduces me to Lakpa, our native Nepali friend and professional mountain guide. We pack up 7 huge boxes of medicine on the roof with our backpacks and then go pick up our three doctors and nurse for the next week: Drs. Sanjay, Santi, Bal, and Yoshuda. Our group of 7 is complete. The adventure begins.

To get to Khizi, the remote village where we will be setting up Health Camp on Days 3 and 4, you drive for one full day (about 10 hours) to Serze, a small town located at the very end of the dirt mountain road. You then hike for 1½ days. But, we’ll get to Khizi in a minute.

The 10-hour drive afforded us a great amount of time to get to know each other. We enjoyed a nice cultural exchange where James and I answered many of their questions on America as did they for us on Nepal. One of my favorite aspects of Nepali culture is that you greet all people - strangers, friends, foes alike - by clasping your hands together, looking your greeter in the eye, smiling and saying "Namasté." It made me think of all the times you pass someone in the States without even giving them so much as a look. The "Namasté" greeting, however, is a sign of respect and admiration that begins every conversation on the most positive of notes.

At the end of our long day of driving, we enjoyed a round of beers to close the night in Dohba. This is the town we will have to now leave from as the 17-km dirt road from Dohba to Serze is now too dangerous to drive on. Phenomenal.

Day 2: We now start our day of hiking into the beautiful Nepali mountains. Our start from Dohba will add another 3 hours onto our trek so we decide to make it over 1½ days since walking until 2:00am with headlamps didn’t seem like such a great idea to anyone. But the hike was so gorgeous I must say I didn’t even really mind walking 11 hours in one day! They only landscape I can say I’ve seen that is remotely similar is Hawaii, but even that isn’t doing this place justice. But since pictures tell a thousand words…

Misty Mountain Morning

Teaching the village children how to weed-whistleHappy Schoolchildren
Old Man and the Mountain

Day 3: We finish up the last 5 hours and finally arrive to the village of Khizi, where the adventure within the adventure begins. My friend James co-founded a non-profit organization 4 years ago called the Dorjhana Foundation (dorjhanafoundation.org). We set up a two-day health camp in this village where these poor, impoverished people are able to get the healthcare they need so badly. However, in that the closest hospital is a 2-day hike/drive away, we need to bring the hospital to them.

Patients waiting outside the health camp

Day 4: “This is unreal.”

I kept saying this to myself continuously, not only as I surveyed this breathtaking landscape but also as we were able to see roughly 500 patients with ailments ranging from clef pallets to epilepsy. But I realized on Day 4 that is actually realer than any reality I have ever known. I realize quickly I am no longer watching a Sally Struthers infomercial asking me to donate money from the comfort of my living room. I am here…in the cut. This is the cut.

In the morning, before we began seeing patients, we had a closing ceremony at the village school where the Dorjhana Foundation donated two microscopes, study slides, and a periodic table.

A big thank James for bringing me on the most incredible adventure of my life to date. We finished Day 4 by packing up the meds and heading to the monastery, where our guide Lakpa spent 5 years of his life, from 9-14. He began going on treks around these mountains then and eventually made his way out of the mountains and into the city where he is now an expert mountaineering guide who has summited Mount Everest twice. This has, in turn, sparked my interest in investing the 2 months of my life (as well as $50,000 in expenses!) to climb Everest. Lakpa, you are my hero and I look forward to summiting Everest with you.

Day 5-6: And so began our exit form the abyss. It took us about 7 hours to get to Serze as we took a different route and were going downhill most of the time. The roads were much better so we were able to drive back from Serze to Kathmandu. We made our drop-offs and then got back to Kathmandu where I find myself at present, still reeling from the journey that is now over.

From here, I have one more week in Kathmandu where I plan to let the adventures continue. Tomorrow, I go rock climbing with Lakpa, bungee jumping and possibly paragliding next week. So, that makes the remaining itinerary:

7/19 – 7/26: Nepal
7/26 – 7/28: Amman, Jordan
7/28 – 7/31: Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel

Can’t believe I only have less than two weeks left us of this adventure before heading back stateside! Till next time…

The Sea Life

It seems that every time I sit back at my laptop ready to bang out another one of these, I think "Wow...11 days since the last post - I should really do this more often as I have WAY to much to catch up on." Nevertheless, here goes...

After Jordan, I headed back to Tel-Aviv for what was definitely one of the best nights of the trip. I was partying on the rooftop of Hayarkon 48 where this sweet girl Erin asked what I do back in the States. I gave her my usual response:

"Well, the day job is business consulting...but my real passion is music."
"Oh really? What do you play?"
"Actually, I'm a beatboxer."

This prompted her to ask for a quick sample for she and her friends. Over the course of my "Come Together" cover, a couple more people surrounded us. Then, I was asked for another. I decided to debut my newest creation, a simultaneous verse/beat cover of "Under the Bridge" which then expanded the crowd to about 30 people. So, there I was, rockin' out on the rooftop overlooking Tel-Aviv for travelers from the US, Canada, Australia, and I realized what I love most about beatboxing: it's not about impressing people, or feeding any ego - for me, it's all about exposing people to something they've never been exposed to before (which is also, coincidentally, why I constantly drop my pants in public )...

Moving on...new friends moved the fun over to Namal (Israeli's port filled with restaurants, clubs, nightlife, etc.) where we partied the night away. Truthfully, I could not have asked for a better last night in Tel-Aviv before taking off for Turkey (much props to Erin for asking me what I do)...

TURKEY.
WAS.
EXCEPTIONAL.

I took off from Ben Gurion airport last Wednesday, 7/2 for Istanbul. I arrived, checked into my hotel, and then met Ayse and Maia, two friends from SF for dinner in Istanbul. The next day, we went out to breakfast on the Bosphorus and then checked out the Istanbul Modern, a very cool museum showcasing Turkish modern art. John, the fourth member of "Team Voltran" (to be explained later) arrived from Boston just in time for dinner. One of the best amenities of the hotel we were staying at, Hotel Sumahan, was that it offered a boat service across the service to the Sultanhamet and other vibrant nightspots. Here's me riding on the Bosphorus on one such occasion:


We spent the next three days touring around Istanbul, checking out everything from:

The Spice Bazaar...

to The Grand Bazaar to...

The just plain BIZARRE.

Other fun spots (though places we were surrounded by hundreds of other tourists) included the Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace (where this pic was taken).


I must hand it to Ayse, our native Turk, who played tour guide for us and really showed us a phenomenal time in her stomping grounds. It's nice to go somewhere without a Lonely Planet guide as you have a human guide able to tell you everything you need. Then, after four days around Istanbul, it was time for our much anticipated boat trip on the Aegean.

Now, I will try to put into words just how therapeutic, cathartic, and overall cleansing this boat trip was but I'm afraid it will do it no justice. We chartered the Southern Cross Timer for a 3-night expedition along the Aegean where, in all honesty, we just plain veged out. Our 2-person crew of Engin and Ahmed cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us every day offering us a fine sampling of some amazing Turkish specialties, from Cacik to Sojuk. We went swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, and rowboating. We read books, drank great wine, visited Cleopatra island (where Julius Ceaser imported sand from Egypt for her and Cleopatra); mostly, however, we marveled at how fortunate we were to be taking such an extraordinary adventure with company we were all enjoying so much. Yesterday, our faithful boat pulled back into the harbor at Bodrum, where we said goodbye to our amazing crew and I caught my flight back to Istanbul and then back to Tel-Aviv. (Reader's note: I let the much more photographically-ambitious Maia take most shots on the boat while I laid back and relaxed; hence, boat photos will be coming in a few weeks. However, if you're so inclined, Maia's already posted most on her Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maiacybelle)

And now, I find myself at a coffeeshop in Jerusalem gearing up for the two-week adventure around Nepal that begins on Saturday. I was able to hook up with Coolooloosh, a band that I met when they played in San Francisco last winter. Turns out they would like me to open up with a 1/2 hour beatbox set for their concert tomorrow! So, if anyone who happens to be reading this is in Israel at present, come on out to Bezalel in Jerusalem tomorrow at 1:00pm and get ready to rock your socks off!

L'Chaim!

Tel-Aviv Fisherman at Sunset


Treasury from Above - Petra, Jordan


Wadi Rum Sunset


Sunset at Petra with Bedouin friends


Ranya - the cutest Petra saleswoman...ever.

You wanted photos...you got photos!


Abed jamming though sunset - Petra, Jordan


Arab Children - Jerusalem


Haggling in the Arab Market - Jerusalem


Chillin' with Smohammed - our guide in Wadi Rum


Playing Matkot on Tel-Aviv