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!