Firsts . . .

I want to tell you about my first trip overseas.

It was 11 years ago this month that I’d taken it. I’d been training for a Karate tournament called Soke Cup. It’s the World Cup tournament for that particular style of Karate I was doing that is held in Japan every three years. I’d been training for a long time, and had saved money for the trip, (I was going to go for a month. Compete for a week, and then stay at the “home Dojo” do some training.) However, things that had nothing to do with Karate were shifting and taking hold in the club I belonged too. (that’s another story) Finally, the pressure got to me and I quit. It was four months before the tournament, and not an easy decision to make, but one I felt I had to do.

There was money in the bank, a deposit already down at the travel agents, and I wanted – I needed a change. So, I went to the travel agent and told her I wanted to go SOMEWHERE. ANYWHERE really.

She handed me a tour book from a company called EXPLORE, and suggested I check out the tours in Australia. At the time I was 24, and had never been anywhere but Canada or the US. (Although I’d already traveled those pretty extensively) I took the book home and read it. The Australian tours didn’t interest me much because they were all three weeks, but most of that time was spent in a bus, going cross-country. However, I found one that was the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal.

To read more about my NEPAL trip, click on the LINK below.

Now, this is sorta sad, but I never knew a thing about Nepal. All I knew was that was where Mt.Everest was. The three-week tour in Nepal hooked me. It was a week of trekking, three days, whitewater rafting, and three days in an elephant safari. (Yes the have a jungle district in Nepal) With days in Kathmandu and various towns along the way.

This appealed to me. Adventure!

So I walked back into the travel office and said, “I want to go THERE.”

That was in August. So Sept and Oct were full of inoculations and shopping. My brother gave me a great early birthday present. (I’d be in Nepal on my 25th birthday.) He gave me his old backpack and a first aid kit. These were great cuz, well, my brother was a forest ranger at the time, and he had the best equipment! I’d been hiking before, in BC. But only day hikes. Never a big trekking type of thing, so I needed better stuff.

The time came, and I left. I was supposed to be gone for a month. One week in Singapore, and three weeks in Nepal. Not bad for my first time overseas ever, huh?

The week in Singapore was actually disappointing. I personally wanted adventure and culture shock, and I didn’t get it. The humidity was a shock, but other than that, it felt like any other big city. Ok, now let me tell you here, that at this point in time, I never knew what a Hostel was. I stayed in a big hotel, by myself, and wandered the city, bored. (I did like the Zoo though)

When I got on the plane to Nepal, it was just another part of the journey. I sat next to another Canadian girl and she invited me to share a cab with her and her boyfriend (who was already in Kathmandu). They would take me to Thamel, and help me find my hotel (Pre-booked by the tour company.)

My lord! Was I ever glad for her when I stepped off that plane. I’d wanted culture shock . . . and I got it.

I’m not going to bother telling you all about the three week part of my trip that was the tour. If you want to read about it, you can read it HERE. There’s some more pictures here too. That tour article is the very first thing I ever wrote in an effort to be a writer. In the back of my mind, I played with the idea of being a travel writer. Of course, the piece on Nepal was all I ever wrote until I was 31.

That article doesn’t tell you that I celebrated my 25th birthday in the mountains, or that they Sherpas baked me a cake (I have no idea how they did that over an open fire!) and gave me a traditional Budhist Blessing before we partied. It doesn’t tell you that I had a fling with one of my whitewater-rafting guides. Or that when we were in the Jungle district, my guide set me up with a man that owned a boarding school there. When the three-week tour ended, I said good-bye to all my new friends, and stayed behind when they went to the airport.

I stayed in Nepal for three and a half months. Most of it was at the school, teaching everything from English to Science (I’m not a teacher. They just wanted English people to teach the kids to help them learn to speak, and understand the language. I just read the lessons from their schoolbooks, and talked to them. Their real teachers were always there for any problems I couldn’t answer.)

This trip hooked me on backpacking. I went to Nepal not knowing anything about backpacking, or hostelling, or even that Nepal was in the middle of Asia. It opened my eyes up to a whole new world. The world we live in.

I plan to write about my time there. Not an erotica story, or even a travel story. Just the story of what I experienced and learned there. I learned so much, about myself, about the world, about what true happiness is. The saying “True happiness is not getting what you want, but wanting what you already have”, became very clear to me. And every time I find myself feeling a lot of pressure, or getting sucked into political bullshit, gossip or backstabbing . . . I pack up my backpack, and take off. I’ve been to some great places like Ireland, Scotland, Greece and Mexico, but I have to say the poor, rough places like Nepal and South Africa are the places that have touched my heart, and soothed my spirit.

One day, soon, I will write about my travels.