Well, it was very ambitious for me to leap right into a regular schedule in this time zone. It has felt like a slap-happy all-nighter today, which started with a good sugar high and now I’m dragging dumbbells with my eyelids. I’m doing a tremendous brain dump of my experiences over the past month trekking in Nepal while it’s fresh in my memory. I’m still caught between the overload of the experience and the adjustment back to American life. It still feel like there’s a steep hill for me to climb and that I’d like to crawl into my tent soon, only after a cup of hot lemon first. But I’ve already lived the dream of waking up in a warm bed, stepping onto a carpeted floor and walking nearby to the indoor bathroom to take a shower. It’s still very strange seeing traffic lights, and seeing cars stopping at traffic lights and staying neatly within their lanes. Which part of that is the dream? This is a serious concern because I’m not sure my mind is fully established in reality yet.

One night is not enough for us to shift our sleep schedules back to the UTC -7 time zone. Just a day or so ago we were on UTC +7 in Bangkok, Thailand, and 10 hours is a formidable offset. Fortunately, the two boys get an extra day off from school and they’ll get started tomorrow. However, we also have to get used to being back in cool, dry climate of Northern Utah. Remember, as we left Bangkok it was muggy and hot. But it’s kind of a nice reminder of the beautiful mountains in Nepal as the baby mountains here are capped with fresh powder snow. Of course I’m back on the clock here at SherpaTrek headquarters, diligently documenting the details of the last month for the benefit of the website. I’ll continue to post blog entries here every day and I’ll be adding a lot of static content to the main page. With the help of my scribbled notes, all of our photos, and the hours of video, I’ll have lots of reminders to look back on.

There’s no way to dodge the torture of the flight from Taipei to Los Angeles. The flight is always full, they have the seats in the 747 configured to even cramp the legs of the shorter Asian passengers, and it’s mercilessly long. I can put at least a little positive perspective though since I didn’t have a computer box at my feet this time and the flight duration was about 2 hours shorter than the westward flight. Yes, it was like going to the dentist to get a root canal (on about 6 teeth at the same time). I just lowered my standards of comfort and crawled into my mental cave. It also helped that the long international flight on China Airlines offers a mini entertainment system for each seat with “Fantasy Sky.” They have a lot of movies, music and games, so that can kill another good portion of the time, but ultimately you have to come out of your cave and personally deal with the tedium for many hours. I know I’ve been complaining a lot the last couple (few) days (weeks) but I’m getting pretty cranky from our travels. Beyond all of the luxuries we’ve been enjoying lately, the ultimate pleasure will be just having my own space and regrouping for a new outlook on life. Perhaps after some reflection my new paradigm will become apparent, but I’m sure this experience has had an effect on me. One thing I noticed when we landed in Los Angeles was how happy I was to be in a familiar place and how precious the American way of life is to me. Making our approach into LAX I could already see the superior infrastructure and the relative sanity and courteous driving on the freeways. The American people seem to be more open and easy-going, and rather than struggling with my broken English and hand signals they can understand my subtle mumbling. The customs official asked where I had traveled, to which I answered, “Trekking in Nepal.” He was confused and asked, “Didn’t you get there by plane?” I had to elaborate, “Trekking: hiking and camping, not Trucking.” Through it all though I am reminded how big the world is, how many people there are in it, and all of the different views there are on how to live life.

This is the day where we stuff all of our dirty clothes in a sealed bag labeled “Biohazard”, pack into a bus and fly out of Kathmandu. We had a wonderful evening with Pema, and our cook from the trek, Kater, dazzled us with a curry recipe I wish he had used out in the Khumbu. Our route now brings us from Kathmandu to Bangkok for another overnight at the Amari Hotel. This time we don’t have enough time to venture out to the city, but we’re still feeding our cravings for American fast food at the KFC in the airport. The hotel is yet another step up in luxury and comfort for us, and there’s even a free wireless net connection in the lobby, so there’s no exhausting day-hike down and up the hill anymore to get on the net. Bangkok is extremely hot and muggy compared to where we came from. We do notice, though, that the air is much cleaner than Kathmandu, which is like one big brown paper bag of huffing noxious fumes. The airport is very modern and clean compared to what we’ve seen. Anyway, I could go on about the luxuries, but hopefully you get the idea. Nepal suffers from shoddy infrastructure and anarchy on the roadways. From what we’ve seen and heard the government and social structure holds back any chances for upgrading and for enabling an effective economy. One of Pema’s other Western friends has set up a small business in Kathmandu to provide some jobs, paying the outrageous wage of US $4 per hour, but they’re finding that the government bureacracy is so warped that she can’t make it work. We’re seeing a lot of hare-brained commerce and economic policies that are really holding the place back.