delhi, baby

Indian soap operas are hilarious. If you took a sip of light beer every time there was an extreme close-up, you’d be drunk in like 10 seconds.

If you know me, you likely know that I have come to India for work recently. I’ll be spending a month here and I just finished week one. It’s been a fascinating experience.

The flight was nonstop from Chicago to Delhi. We almost flew over the north pole; we went way far north. It was cool.

I left on Sunday night and I arrived on Monday night. It wasn’t a 24 hour flight, of course; it took 12 or so hours to fly that far and during that time, the earth rotated, like it always does! (damn earth), plus we landed in a place that the sun hits sooner as it rises, so when Chicago is starting a workday, India has already finished that workday.

The moment I stepped out of the airport, it was quite hot, and very humid. It is the rainy season here; I’ve also heard it called monsoon season.

You pre-pay for a taxi at the airport; it was weird. I get into this rickety box with lots of sweat on the shag carpet seats, and we dive into the abyss that is Indian traffic.

Indian traffic is like particles flowing across a surface. They all move really fast and constantly appear as if they’re going to collide violently, and sometimes they do. When the road narrows it’s like sand in an hourglass, or people pushing to exit a crowded theater on fire. Lanes mean nothing. Drivers see one pavement, both sides of the road are fair game. Driving into oncoming traffic is normal. People are inside the traffic all the time.

Basically it works like this: people in America treat the road like a system of rules that must be followed. People in India treat the road like the people in America treat a hallway; you do whatever the hell it is you wanna do. People are roughly on a side… roughly.

southernization

Here are the points that I take from this article...

1. Lincoln is Republican. He frees the slaves and pisses-off the south. The south votes Democratic for several decades.
2. Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act in 1964. This ends state-sponsored segregation and pisses-off the south. The south says "Hey, maybe Republicans ain't so bad."
3. Since 1964, the south has steadily grown to be more Republican in the House and Senate.
4. Now the Republican party gets over half of it's support in national elections from the south and they are becoming a regional party, just as the Democratic party was after Lincoln.

It appears that both parties have experienced southernization in their history.

robot toothpaste

i am at a farm. i went out to feed the cows and goats yesterday and stepped in some really old dog poop. it upset me. i could tell it was really old because it was LOUD. to feed the goats, i cut the ropes on 2 bails of hay and threw it over the fence in chunks. a crowd began to form. i was "bombing" the goats with their own food, which was fun.

kilimanjaro, days 6 and 7

I summited Kilimanjaro at 7:30 am the morning of July 3rd, 2008, day 6 on the mountain. I reached Uhuru peak, 5895 meters above sea level, the highest point in Africa. After summiting, the rest of the day was spent hiking part way down the mountain, 15 hours of hiking that day. Then, the day afterward we finished with another 6 hours. When we reached the park gate at the base of the mountain, we all had a beer to celebrate. It was good.

kilimanjaro, day 5

It is 2:19 pm on July 2nd here in Tanzania. We just hiked 5 hours to kibo hut at 4,700 meters (over 15,000 ft) way about the cloud line. We will hike all night tonight and summit in the morning. Over 1000 meters to go. Hopefully my next post will say that we've made it and are on our way down.

kilimanjaro, night 2

I am about to sleep on night 2. Gets down to freezing at night. Very hot in the day. Like the moon? Started the trek at 1950 meters. Now at 3600 meters. Summit is at 5895 meters. A cloud ran into us today head on. Breathtaking up here.

kilimanjaro, day 1

It is 6 am here. We are driving around the mountain to the Kenyan side to start our ascent. Feeling good.

dar es salaam, tanzania

I made it to Tanzania by way of Qatar. It is 6 am, Friday, June 27th in Dar es Salaam now. The group and I are about to get on a plane to central Tanzania and then will take a bus to the base of the mountain. I don't know what connectivity I will have there, so I may not be able to post for a while. Lots of stories to tell still.

plan de l'aiguille

Yesterday my friends and I started hiking in the Alps next to Chamonix, France. We had already visited the Aiguille du Midi via a very fast cable car. It takes you up more vertical distance than any other cable car in the world (from 1,000 meters to 3,842 meters; which is about 3,200 feet to 12,600 feet) a 2,800 meter ascent (over 9,000 feet). This is the closest you can get to Mont Blanc without climbing up to its summit. About halfway up the cable car way, a hiking trail crosses the cable car path. That is the trail that we decided to take yesterday.

While we were ascending on our own, using our feet, we could look back and see some beautiful views of Chamonix, where we started.

We started at 1,000 meters and got to 2,300 meters at our highest altitude (3,200 feet to 7,200 feet). This was an ascent of over 1,300 meters (over 4,200 feet) by foot. Frankly, it was steep.

Flies and other various insects started to hang on to us as we were getting through the deep forest. Once we broke through the tree line, they decided to give up and stopped following. Some very rocky terrain ensued with large boulders and sometimes we were climbing up rocks to get to the next step. After reaching the Plan de l'Aiguille hut, at the peak of our hike, we were rewarded with some gorgeous views which included a giant glacier, Le Glacier des Boissons.

On our way down, we decided to take a detour and see the Cascade du Dard waterfall, which gave us a nice breeze.

It was the hardest hike yet, but was also the most rewarding. Now that we are back in Geneva, Switzerland, we will be getting a good night's rest and heading to Tanzania by way of Qatar tomorrow. Then the real hiking begins, I know.

2 am, chamonix

I know I have been remiss not to post in so long. The long and short of it is that I have been very busy, barely able to make time for myself, but in that time I have prepared for the Kilimanjaro trip and been pretty much slammed at work.

Two days ago, I left that work to do something I have never done, and that is to go far far away from the places I knew. Not like the Bahamas where I went when I was a teenager, but really far... like France. So today I'm in France. Here's how I got here.

Some of my friends and family (you) know that I have been raising money for VSO, a charity organization based in the UK, and will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in about a week as part of that involvement. Their AIDS education efforts in eastern Africa are being aided by the money that I raised.

My friends and I decided to participate in this VSO thing together, so we raised money together over the past several months, and donated a lot. We also trained for the climb quite a bit. As we were planning, we said to ourselves "Selves, wouldn't it be sweet to stop in France on the way to Tanzania and hike in the Alps?" to which we replied "Duh. Yes." and we booked our flights. So here's what the trip looks like...

The blue lines are in the air. The red lines are on the ground. Basically it is... Chicago to London, Geneva, then Chamonix (France), hike in the Alps, return to Geneva, Geneva to Doha (Quatar), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), then Kilimanjaro, climb up, climb down, safari... return to Dar, Doha, London, Chicago.

It is a three week trip. I am currently 2 hours into day 3 (since it is a little past 2 am right now), our first night in Chamonix, France. I will try to update more during the trip. Goodnight.