Mount Everest Virtual Adventure

I gave myself two weeks to complete the 63 kilometer virtual trek from Lukla, Nepal to the top of the world at the summit of Mount Everest. I have been going on long walks every day, and I reached my goal in just one week!

I've never been particularly interested in trying to climb the real Mount Everest. It's too expensive and far too dangerous. I may like to consider myself an adventurer, but only to a certain extent! This is about as close as I intend to come to ever trying to summit the world's tallest peak.

Still, I would love to attempt the fairly doable trek to Base Camp in Nepal. It takes a few weeks, but it's a (relatively) easy hike with plenty of amenities along the way. Thousands of tourists make the trek each year. It would be a real adventure, but nothing that I can't handle. This virtual adventure made me quite interested in learning more about Nepal, Tibet, and the Himalayan region.

Day 1: I started my journey, trekking the first few Kilometers outside of Lukla on the way to Namche Bazar, where the journey to Base Camp traditionally begins.

Day 3: The Trail was a popular one. As I walked through a small gate in a narrow mountain pass, a great Himalayan valley opened up before me.

Day 4: My last view before Street View ended was that of the harsh Himalayan sun burning low in the sky against a frozen and oxygen-starved landscape.

What I learned on my virtual trek to Mount Everest:

• Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth, straddles the Tibet (China) -Nepal border and stands an incredible 29,032 ft above sea level.
• The Tibetan name for Everest is Chomolungma, meaning ‘Goddess Mother of the World’. The Nepali name for Everest is Sagarmatha, meaning ‘Goddess of the Sky’. The mountain is considered sacred in Tibetan Buddhism and amongst the Sherpa people.
• The first ascent of Mount Everest was successfully completed in 1953, when New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay reached the summit.

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay

• Sherpa isn't a job description. It's the name of the ethnic group that lives in the Himalayan Mountains near Mount Everest.
• Summiting the mountain costs nearly $30,000 USD and takes over ten months of climbing and acclimatizing to the extreme altitude.
• Thousands of people have summitted Everest, but it's extremely dangerous, with a fatality rate of around 4% annually.
• Everest Base Camp has WiFi service!
• Past 26,246 ft is known as the "Death Zone", where the body expends far more oxygen than breathing can take in. There is only 33% as much oxygen at the summit of Everest than at sea level, and climbers can only stay at the peak for a few minutes, even with the aid of supplemental bottled oxygen.

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." - Sir Edmund Hillary

COVID-19 Update #12 - New Year, New Wave, New Lockdown

Previous update: https://michaeldesrosiers.blogspot.com/2020/07/covid-19-update-11-good-news-bad-news.html

We had been doing so very well, but unfortunately the good times can't last forever. After a run of nearly six months without a single case of COVID-19, Thailand is starting to experience its second wave. Just a few days before Christmas, some workers at a very popular seafood market snuck across the border from Myanmar, avoiding government-mandated quarantine and bringing the virus back into what had been a COVID-free country. The workers spread the virus to the drivers, who traveled across Thailand delivering seafood to nearly every province. Within days the country was up to over one-thousand new infections, and we have had our first three deaths in many months.

https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2020/12/651497/alarm-thai-seafood-market-covid-cases-top-1000

I really thought I was done writing these updates. Sadly, I'm not. The Thai government, who responded so well during our first outbreak months ago, has already sprung into action. As of January 2nd, the country is entering a sort of semi-lockdown. Restaurants, bars, public places, and gyms are closing down. So far, shops are still open, alcohol is still able to be bought and sold at stores, and there is no mandatory stay-at-home order or curfew (though all that could likely change in the next few days). Hopefully the government has acted quickly enough this time that we can get the numbers back down to zero. The past few months have been great, but maybe we got a bit complacent. 

https://www.thaienquirer.com/22198/bangkok-introduces-new-measures-to-combat-covid/

But I have total faith in the Thai government and the people of Thailand! We beat this virus once, and we can do it again!

As of today, we've entered a partial lockdown. There are rumors of a full lockdown coming in the next day or two, and when the government leaks "rumors", they are almost certainly true. I'm so annoyed that I had just paid for 4 months of a gym membership the day before the gyms were closed! Oh well, at least I've got my walks to go on.

2021 in 2021: My Fitness Goal (Virtual Adventures and Getting Fit)

New Year, New Goals: A Post to Keep Me Accountable

It's a new year, and time to get back in shape. I'm so happy to have found a really cool way to motivate myself to keep moving.

Today's my first day back at the gym! I have a membership at a nearby hotel's fitness center which I was using a lot before the first COVID-19 lockdown. Yesterday, I paid for a few months of membership, and I'm determined to use this year to get fit and lose the lockdown weight that I put on last year! 

To help myself stay motivated, I'm going to continue with the virtual adventures that I got into at the end of the year. I had so much fun crossing the English Channel and trekking up Mount Fuji that I've signed up for a few adventures to start the year.

My Big Goal: 2021 Kilometers in 2021

They had a big promotion where if you sign up for three virtual adventures you can get the 2021 Virtual Challenge for free! That is where you set your own distance goal to challenge yourself. I've decided to try to walk and jog 2021 kilometers over the course of the year. I will wear my smart watch every day and try to record the distances that I walk. I have also upped the goal from 10,000 daily steps to 12,000. If that's attainable, I'll try to up it again later in the year! I will count all of the exercise that I do towards this big goal.

Via di Francesco (The Way of St. Francis) Virtual Pilgrimage

Along the way, I'll take part in a few virtual adventures. One which I am particularly excited about is the Way of St. Francis, an ancient 312 mile pilgrimage which follows the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi from Florence to the Vatican. My fiancée will be joining me, so we have decided to only log the exercises that we do together towards this big goal. Since we only have a day or two to exercise together each week, we are giving ourselves a whole year to complete the journey.

Mount Everest Virtual Adventure

In the meantime, I'll take on a few virtual adventures on my own to help push me towards my fitness goals. The first one that I've signed up for is the 40 mile trek through Nepal up Mount Everest! Since it's fairly short (a little shorter than the Mount Fuji trek), I've decided to give myself a two-week deadline to reach this goal. As usual, I'll report back soon about the cool things that I learn along the way!

2020 Year-in-Review

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic really derailed a lot of my plans this year. My travels, of course, were put on hold. I had planned to visit a new country or two, but after returning to Thailand from the USA (by way of Xiamen, China), I got stuck in Thailand when the pandemic broke out.

I had planned two trips to visit my family, in summer and at Christmastime, but sadly I had to cancel both of those trips as well.

Finally, my wedding was postponed a year until December 2021 in the hopes that the borders will be opened and my family will be able to attend.

While there have been a lot of disappointments this year due to the pandemic, I've also had a lot of great adventures and experiences! It's been a long year, but I've done a lot since 2019.

🌎🌍🌏

I visited my first Sikh Gurdwara, receiving a warm welcome and the shared sacred Parshad meal. This was a new experience for me, and a very special one at that! The Sikh Gurdwara in Bangkok is the second-biggest in the world outside of India, and is located in the city's historic and extremely colorful Little India neighborhood.

I went on several walking tours with my weekend walking group at the beginning of the year. We explored Chinatown, various abandoned temples, Rattanakosin Island, and more.

In March, I went on an incredible trek at the "Greenland Trail" in Nakhon Nayok Province, which is underwater for most of the year. It's one of the most beautiful parts of Thailand that I've seen!

And I finally got to visit the famous "Dragon Tower" which I had been meaning to see for years.

And then... COVID-19.

Even though Thailand was the second country after China to see an infection, things didn't get serious here until April. At that time, the government issued a very strict lockdown order, a curfew, a month-long alcohol ban, a mask mandate, and mandatory contact tracing. I received an emergency visa extension (which I'm still on to this day) and subsequently quarantined myself at a hotel for a fortnight over Easter.

April, May, and most of June were uneventful. I stayed inside, as did nearly everyone. 

The most we could do was take a staycation or two.

By mid-June, however, Thailand was COVID-19 free (thanks to everyone staying wearing masks and staying indoors as they were supposed to), and in late June we here in Thailand began venturing out once again.

My first time outside of my neighborhood felt like a really, really big deal, even if it was a fairly quiet getaway to a meditation retreat in a neighboring province.

The great thing was that there were (and still are) no tourists here in Thailand! It's great for those of us who are living here (though sadly bad for the Thai economy, which relies heavily on the tourism industry). Most of the normally crowded sites are nearly empty, tour companies are having to cater more to locals and expats, and everyone treats us foreigners with more respect now that they know with certainty that we live here and aren't just backpackers.

I visited Bangkok's newest huge landmark, the Big Buddha of Wat Paknam.

And a few days later, I got to join a super special trip via kayak on the city's historic canals! Normally, there is too much traffic on the waterways (they don't call Bangkok the "Venice of the Orient" for nothing!) but a friend and tour guide got a special permit to lead a group on a private tour of one of the city's oldest and most storied canals!

Later, I flew down to Phuket Island with my fiancée to join her boss as he lit 10,000 firecrackers in a Buddhist ritual at a famous temple. It was my first time out of Bangkok in a long time. Even though it was just a day trip (a very exhausting day trip!), it was so nice to be traveling again!

When my walking tours started back up, I signed up for as many as I could! We visited Koh Kret, the Mon island in the Chaophraya River, took a train journey to the famous "Crocodile Head Market", and explored the "Mystery Caves" of Ratchaburi Province.

Later on, we took a day trip to see the Great Stone Buddha and the Bamboo Bridge Market in Suphanburi Province.

I went exploring quite a lot on my own as well. I set out on foot on my days off to discover the secrets of Bangkok's Old Town, which up until now I had really failed to explore. One day, I visited the Devasathan, the center of Thai Hinduism and the headquarters of the kingdom's elusive sect of royal court Brahmains.

In August, after having been stuck in the city for months, my fiancée and I decided to take full advantage of the cheap travel deals due to lack of tourists and spend a week in Krabi Province in the south of Thailand.

We toured Koh Poda, the Hong Islands, and Railay Bay, and ended the week with a kayaking trip to see the province's rare bioluminescent plankton and the most incredible sunset that I've ever seen in my life.

About a month later, we went out to explore Bang Kachao, the "Green Lung of Bangkok", where life is more laid-back and you can ride a bicycle amongst the mangroves.

In October, we took the train south to Prachuap Khiri Khan Province where we explored an incredible mountaintop temple and went camping for the first time in Thailand (a new hobby of ours!).

We took a one-day round-trip with some friends to Sattahip Beach for a picnic

And even though Songkran Festival had been cancelled in April due to COVID, the Loi Krathong Festival in November was just as special and beautiful as always.

One day, I took one of the biggest adventures of my life and embarked with some friends on an epic 80 kilometer bike ride from Bangkok to Nakhon Pathom Province to see the Giant Chedi's annual temple fair. Getting there was hard, but the return journey nearly killed my poor legs!

I was very lucky to have the chance to volunteer at at sea turtle sanctuary one weekend, where I picked up trash and learned a lot about the various species of turtles that live in Thailand's coastal waters.

Just before Christmas, Thailand reported its first case of COVID-19 since the summer. I suppose our second wave is beginning. Provinces have begun panicking and locking down. I guess our good times of no tourists and no COVID are at an end. 

We cancelled a trip we had planned to spend the winter in the far north, instead opting for a much closer-to-home adventure. Pinky and I packed up our camping gear and headed out to Namtok Samlan National Park (not too far out of the city) for camping, hiking, cooking, and enjoying the cool winter weather. 

We spent Christmas week camping at the park, and it felt so good to get out in the fresh air away from the awful traffic, noise, and pollution of the big city.

Just at the end of the year, I discovered a new hobby that I wish I had known about during our first COVID-10 lockdown: virtual adventures. So far, I've joined two, a crossing of the English Channel and the trek up Mount Fuji. As I get outside to walk or jog, I can log my distances into an app. It shows me where I would be (virtually, of course) along the journey. As I exercise, I receive virtual postcards full of amazing photos and information about the journey that I'm on, and at the end, I receive a beautiful medal.

I've already signed up for a few new virtual adventures for 2021, since I'm sure that travel is still out at least for the first half of the year. It's a great way for me to stay fit while still feeling like I'm traveling.

Food

As for food, it's been a pretty exciting year as well!

I had the opportunity to dine at Bangkok's secretive North Korean restaurant, which is actually run and operated by the North Korean government. I hope that Capital One didn't flag my card when it saw a charge from Pyongyang...

I tried the world's worst and strangest ice cream flavor.

With nonexistent tourist numbers, we were finally able to dine at Jay Fai, Bangkok's world-famous Michelin-starred street food restaurant!

I tried the original Pad Thai at the Ghost Gate.

Holidays and Festivals

Chinese New Year

Maka Bucha Day

Valentine's Day

Easter and Songkran Festival

4th of July

Halloween

Loi Krathong

Thanksgiving

Christmas

More Christmas

Happy New Year from Michael, Pinky, and Cricket!

The year has been strange, but we have to keep moving forward, right? The news of the COVID-19 vaccination is really an incredible accomplishment for science and humanity! Hopefully, there can be some sort of vaccination passport which will allow us to travel without quarantine.

My 2021 Goals:

• Visit 1 new country that I've never been to before
• Trek Mount Fuji (Japan)
• Trek Mount Kinabalu (Malaysia)
• Visit my family in the USA and travel to a national park
• Go camping on Doi Inthanon, Thailand's tallest mountain
• Jog/walk 2021 kilometers
• Complete more virtual adventures

Sending my love to you all.

- Michael

1 January 2021

BONUS VIDEO!

Here's a collection of the adventures that I had in 2020. It may not have been the most exciting year, but it's one I'll never forget.