Cause: Arrogance...Effects: No laughter, no smiles, just pain, suffering and anguish.

This blog post is about the closest I’ve come to death. No, this isn’t some new age junk about how I’m closer to death because I’m one day older…on my trip earlier this week, I was convinced I might die.

Let’s start from the top.

A lot of you don’t directly know Jon but you probably recognize him as the “Chinese” kid in a lot of my travel photos. I met Jon 5 years ago through a friend while we were studying in Hong Kong. Despite him wearing a suit and sunglasses in a club, I agreed to go to Shanghai with him for the inaugural F1 race and we’ve been travel buddies since. Over the years, there have been plenty of highlights (Trans-Siberian, helicopter ride over Angkor Wat, sitting on a tiger, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro) and almost no low points…the only instances being Day 2 of our Patagonia hike and possibly Day 1 of the same trip when my poor Spanish led us to a Argentinean army base instead of the border crossing for Chile.

After college, we decided to embark on a 3-part hiking trip.

1. Inca Trail to Machu Picchu – Peru

2. Patagonia in Chile and Argentina

3. Mt. Kilimanjaro – Tanzania

Amazingly enough, we somehow managed to do all 3 hikes within an 18 month span. After we finished the Kili hike, I thought my hiking days were over…but to my surprise I found myself a few hundred kilometers from Ladakh, India late last week.
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To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t even heard about the place until June when I read a Wall Street Journal article describing the hiking in the region. I sent a copy of the link to Jon with something like “We should totally do this” in the subject line. However, I made the mistake of not including a smiley face or LOL and next thing I knew…Jon was running hard with this trip and we were on our way to North India. As I sat in my freezing tent last week gasping for air and trying to figure out if the sharp pain my chest was a blood clot, I tried to figure out where things went wrong.

Arrogant Action #1: Assuming I’m a hiker

My friend Beth once told me “Just because you do interesting stuff, doesn’t mean you’re actually an interesting person” Harsh but valid. In the same sense, just because I’ve gone on 3 big hiking trips, doesn’t mean I’m a real hiker. Let’s be honest…the Inca Trail is a relative joke…college girlfriends who want a bonding experience muster enough strength to do it. While Kilimanjaro is legit, my old associate Mike probably said it best “congratulations, you walked up a 19,000 ft hill” plus a lot of celebrities hike Kili for charity…so yes, it’s legit but nothing TOO hardcore. Ladakh is more for serious hikers…in my 5 days, we encountered TWO hikers…according to our guide, lots of Swiss and Germans come out to hike here because they like challenges. Plus, they live in mountain areas, so they’re naturally oudoorsy. Also, after prepping for the Inca Trail, I’ve kind of slacked off with training and actually work out less and less for each subsequent hike which also didn’t help my cause.

Arrogant Action #2: Spending 20 hours above 4800 meters (15.750 feet) during Kilimanjaro doesn’t mean you can handle staying above 4800 meters for a week

The hike we chose was between 4800 (15,750 feet) and 5300 meters (17,400 feet) Jon and I made the classic mistake of not giving ourselves plenty of time to acclimatize. Yes, we’ve seen what happens to people who make this mistake on our prior trips but I’ve kind of become a junkie and resorted to relying on Diamox a bit too much. While it helps with altitude sickness it can’t cure the fact that there is not much oxygen at 5300 meters. My resting heart beat in Ladakh was 120 beats/min…when I went to the bathroom, it’d jump up to 140-150….which basically meant my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest anytime I moved.

Normally on our hikes, we like to stop every 1 hour…if it’s a hard section, maybe every 30 minutes. During this trip, there were times when I couldn’t even make it 50 feet without a break. While climbing to an overpass, I could see the top and my guide would tell me we only had 2 minutes until we hit the top…didn’t matter…I stopped for a break. Penelope Cruz could have been waiting for me at the top…I could care less…I needed to breathe.

Our guide summed it best “When my boss told me that two Americans wanted to hike in Ladakh at the end of the season without getting used to the altitude, I thought it was a joke…next thing I know, there is money in our account…that’s when we realized you weren’t kidding”

Apparently, the tour operator could only convince 1 of his 21 guides to even take us on this trip…the rest of them thought we were idiots for trying such a hard hike without proper prep. Our guide told us on Day 4 that he only agreed to it because he wanted to see how long we’d last.

Arrogant Action #3: End of season? Not a problem, we can handle it

Ladakah is in the middle of the Himalayas. If you recall, the Himalayas have snow. While it was cool to hike in sand during the morning and end up in a snowfield by the afternoon…this meant it was very cold. Hiking in Ladakh is only open from early June to the start of October. Jon and I knew this yet we thought it would be perfectly okay to start our hike on September 28^th. By the time we finished our hike on October 2^nd, our guide told us that the trail was shutting down because the water sources were all freezing over for the summer. During the day, it’d be in the mid-40s while the temperature during the night would drop into the low teens...which basically meant I had to decide if I wanted to change my clothes. You know how it's cold when you wake up in the morning while in bed? Yeah, I have a hard enough time getting into the shower at home...you really think I'm going to undress and change clothes when it's actually freezing outside?

Despite being a really hard hike, I really did enjoy my hike to Ladakh. It was tough but a good way to see a different part of India. That being said, at the end of my trip, I gave my guide my hiking boots….I’m done with hiking. No more sleeping in tents, waking up to a freezing morning, not showering for several days…I didn’t mind this in the past but I know where this path leads…I don’t want to be the guy who hangs out at REI on the weekends debating on which camping gear to buy for his next big trip.

Speaking of traveling, I think I’m done with it for a while. Over the last 5 years, I’ve seen over 20 countries…honestly, I’m tired. I know I’m not done with traveling forever, just for the next few years. If any of you like, I have 2 trips for next year, after that….my passport will be MIA. If you’re interested in either trip…tell me.

Motorcyling through Laos – April/May 2010

North Korea – August/September 2010

Oh and as always, here is a link to the photos from my trip…

http://community.webshots.com/user/vijay008100

Something did happen on this trip that I never thought I would happen, I actually caught myself saying “I wish I were in Hyderabad”….this longing was short-lived. When I came back, Harsha and I went to casino night at the Marriot…during a game of Blackjack, the house busted and the dealer did the only rationale thing possible…he took our money before we told him how things worked….why must you make it so hard for me to love you Hyderabad?