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My nose bleeded a bit in the morning and I was told that this may be a sign of high altitude sickness. But in general, I feel pretty good after a good night sleep. Today was another acclimatisation day so we headed up to Nangajang (5,000m) for a few hours.
It was a very cloudy and windy day so the view wasn't perfect but was good to get this benchmark under the belt.
Back in the lodge, we met two people from the States trekking on their own - they've been travelling together around India since mid-March. Ted is an American-born Taiwanese who spent 5 years travelling around the world (Iran, Afghanistan, Panama, Uganda, Kazakhatan, Norway, Tibet, Mongolia, Japan, North Korea, Greenland etc; you name it, he's been there) and speaks 7 languages; Nicole is an American of Polish descent from Boston. We had some very interesting conversations about different cultures in different countries, how from small things such as how optimistic local people come across you could tell if the country is going places, food (of course!) etc. On food I came across a magazine article about instant noodles an quizes Ted which were the top 10 consuming countries and amazingly he had them ALL right, based on his knowledge fron travelling!
Ted, Nicole and I latet played a card game called "rummy (spelling?), which is apparently an American card game. I actually played pretty well, beating them a few times after understanding it.
Later on after dinner, we chatted to a Columbian guy who came alone to climbe mountains. Although he didn't climbe Everest due to the high costs, he said he pretty much climbed all of the tall ones in this region: Lohtse, Nuptse, Island Peak, Ama Dablam etc. Ted also mentioned that Nicole and him bumped into a Russian guy who just climbed whatever mountains in front of him.
At first, I thought these people are a little "strange". Sure, it's cool to be able to climbe to the top of tall mountains. But what's the point of climbing every one they see?
But then later it struck me. It may be the same when some people asked us why this trekking trip rather than going to a nice city break or a beach? Well, we all somehow want a challenge in life, some wants to travel to every corner of the world, some wants to be the richest person, some wants to make world peace a reality, some wants to be on the top of tall mountains and some just wants to take the holiday to do something completely different from their normal life (and something that they never thought would do).
We all are the same, after all. The difference is what really drives each individual. You only live one life, what do YOU want to do?
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