I'm a man part IV

The strange places we find ourselves in sometimes... Imagine my surprise to find myself hurtling myself out of a very small plane at 13,000 feet (just under 4 km) with an old man attached to my back.

That's pretty much what's going through my head in this picture.





A most unusual feeling.





UPDATE: A couple of pics from the preparation

"Please waive all your rights"


"people who intend to jump out of a plane"


"warning- parachute landing area"


"I look friggin' good in a yellow jumpsuit"

I'm a man part III (Grand Canyon)

I had the day off today, so I took a trip down into the Grand Canyon.
To save some time I took a helicopter there. Las Vegas looks strange from the air.



On the way we passed the Hoover Dam. Did you know that by building this dam, they created the largest man made lake in the wester hemisphere?


The Grand Canyon really is grand.



I think I look good against a grand backdrop.

A man (part 2)

This weekend, I decided to take up Chairman Mao’s challenge to my manlyhood and get up on the wall. The great wall of China, that is. The wall is actually broken and there are many sections scattered around Beijing. The section called Badaling is the most popular destination, and one of the best places to pick up a Starbuck’s coffee. However, the section much further away called Simatai is known to be a more rewarding. Snaking over a mountain-range, it’s both steeper and more visually impressive. When I arrived, I was very happy to see that it is true how they describe the sight: “a dragon in the sky descending into a lake”. Indeed.

On the way there, we stopped at a road-side restaurant. Not only was the food excellent, but so was the whole experience of sitting in the middle of a forest, eating fish we’d just seen captured out of a pool and a cucumber I had picked myself. Not to mention chatting with my party of co-weekenders who included such incumbents as Satomi and Nick, as well as friends and colleagues of Nick’s. If we’d decided to just stay there the whole day and never see the wall, I would have been very happy.

I’m glad we did do the trek across the wall. as now i can say that I’m feeling not only happy, but also quite moved by the whole experience. At one point at a particularly high section of the wall, the view was particularly awesome. It gave me a deep experience of awe. The mountains seemed to go on forever, hidden in mist (pollution?) in the very distance, but green and lush. And across this view spans the great wall in a way that defies any prior conception I’ve had of man-made buildings.

And of course, since walking this bit of wall was more similar to climbing a mountain than strolling across a crowdy square, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm glad I could now look Mao in the eyes if I ever met him.

(Warning: what follows is a self-indulgent piece of half-baked philosphy and/or flow-0f-consciousness amateur psychology. Here be dragons)

Speaking of pre-conceptions… I’m surprised to learn how empty my head is of pre-conceptions when it comes to nature and life outside of a medium-sized city. As a kid I had the amazing privilege of seeing the grand nature of Iceland with my grand-parents. But it seems I was much more interested in the comics I brought with me on these trips and my strange stories me and my uncle used to tell each other. Sitting in the middle of a forest and watching a newly caught fish splatter around on the ground is an entirely new experience to me. I have no internal language to describe what’s going on.

END OF DRAGON TERRITORY

The way down was way easier than the way up. Although much scarier. We took the cable cars down, flying over rather high altitudes but getting some really cool views of the landscape and a different perspective of the wall.

I'm a man!

I've just come down for mount kinabalu. Whereas Bako park was wonderfully pleasant, this was maybe the most exhausting thing I have ever done. You climb up to 3.2km on the first night. This is madness- you're really supposed to only climb up 1km every day, then sleep the night to let your body adapt to the change in altitude. If you don't let yourself acclamatise, you risk altitude sickness which can be lethal.
Then I woke up at 3am, had a quick egg sandwich and started to climb to the top at 4.08km. While the first day had just been tiring, you were now fighting lack of oxygen and temperatures quickly descending towards freezing.
There were times I thought I just wouldn't be able to make it. My throat got all thick and I felt like I had a temperature. At times I had to stop after every 20 meters just to catch my breath. But boy did I feel great when I finally made it to the top, and my camera actually had enough battery for FIVE photos.



Unfortunately I've still not been able to find anywhere here in KK where they allow you to plug in your harddrive and upload some photos. However, in about three hours I'm getting on a flight to Bangkok and I know the hotel there has wireless internet, so maybe you'll finally get some photos as well.