It's important to realize that this is who I was in India after having been there with my family traveling since December 11th 1985 when we first flew to Narito Airport in 1st Class on a JAL Boeing 748 then. So, this is not me now because this is 40 years ago this month. Then I was 37 years old and was raising my three older children (my son from my first marriage and two step kids from my then wife's first marriage. We were both 37 then and soon she will turn 78 this month and we haven't been together since 1994.
The kids grew up and got their College degrees, one is a lawyer in Oregon, One is a retried Fire Captain from Calfire here in California and one taught English in South Korea where he met his wife and has a son now about 12 years old and they live in Portland, Oregon.
So, everything literally has changed since then and though I'm still alive I'm not a young man anymore treking through the Himalayas in the snow with my family across suspension bridges like I was then.
What is most interesting to me is how all three children and all 5 of us then have been world Travelers ever since this amazing! 4 almost 5 months in Asia especially in India and Nepal, but also Thailand and Japan.
Begin quotes beginning February 15th 1986:
We met Geshela (Geshe Lobsang Gyatso) at the Venus Hotel (in New Delhi). (I looked it up and it still seems to be there in 2026). He had been there for 24 hours. He was very happy to see us. We told him we would have breakfast with him tomorrow. HE is like a magic father. For the good of all sentient life everywhere our lives seem to be entertwined now and for the duration. It seems to be out of our hands on many levels. Now that he is the Lama I must be Padmasambhava the Spaceman the worker of clear magic and miracles if it be the will of sentient life everywhere I move. Life is teaching me how to move in health and harmony with life here and I'm grateful. I will get well now and walk in Padma's pure land while here on earth! Praise be to the Buddhas!
Note: I had gotten Giardia and was very thin then and ill from the protozoa in my intestines. However, I didn't get completely well from it until maybe the following December after seeing a foreign disease specialist in the United States. She said we shouldn't take medicines for it when we returned to San Francisco because it would destroy the livers of our children and possibly our own and that we should let the giardia slough off over 6 months as it cannot live in the U.S. because we have different kinds of giardia here than in Asia. However, because I was still young I could still trek 50 miles in the Himalayas later after we returened to Nepal with my family up to 10,000 feet elevation end note.
February 16th sunday
Riding the bus back to Karmandu feels good to be going back near our plane home. 2 months in India is a long time with no linear people to count on. A few friends but most just want your money.
Saturday March 8th 1986
IN Shermontag, Helambu, Nepal in the Himalayas far from the neares road of any kind across many suspension bridges with back packs trekking. Beautiful place. Nice people. Our guide Tensing brought us to Yangri Lodge here. Saw Dorje Lakpa today 23,240 feet elevation and several other peaks 16,000 to 25,000 feet in elevation. We are at 8,600 feet here at Shermontang, a Sherpa village. Yesterday we walked from from Tarkey gyan, another Sherpa Village. We stayed at Tensing's aunts place there. Her name is tshetin and she had a little boy 3 years old named Uta. I met a young Tibetan woman named Kapi who sold us chocolate and Tibetan trinkets. Also, I wrote a letter to a California friend for Kapi a plainclothes monk with wife and daughter and who just finished a 4 month retreat. Yangri Lodge is owned by Tensings uncle and his son Tashi which means good luck or fortunistic
One took us into the high jungle 9000 feet today. Windy and I ate our last snow today in the Himalayas. Wood carvings and open fires in every sherpa house. Stainless steel plates and the rage in Sherpa land. because they don't break. Diet apples, rice and dahl and potatoes with a little hard candy once in a while and Salt tea with Butter sometimes called Tibetan Butter Tea.
Sunday March 9th 1986
Still at Shermontang which means garden place. we've walked about 30 miles so far from the last dirt road the bus made it too. On the second 3rd we walked up the river to Malemchi pul then we walked up the river to Malechi Khola. the next night we Kiul a new lodge with open windows. It was raining so we had to nail plastic on the windows with a wooden hammer. Cow poop on the floor to dry and thicken is the daily rule (sort of like adobe) to dry. The Lodge had electricity generator by an impeller wheel on the river. so we had 12 volt electricity and lights in our rooms we could turn on or off. Our night of the 2nd at Malemchi pul was very pleasant
end quotes:
following written Sunday February 20th 2026
this is just a sample of what it was like to travel in the Himalayas before it became so smoky and foggy more of the time. My friend who was in Kathmandu a couple of years ago for a few months said that you cannot see the Himalayas from Kathmandu most of the time now because of all the smog from fires etc.
When we were there it was still clear most of the time. However, because of feces in the dust of animals and people then on all the dirt roads that hadn't been paved yet gave everyone I knew who went there then Giardia from the dust of cars driving by.
end note: Would I recommend going there now?
I think you have to be prepared for anything literally when you get there. IF you are from Europe or the U.S. or Canada or New Zealand or Australia, India and Nepal were and are maybe a lot like going back 1000 years ago out in the country.
Here's an example, my friends two years ago went and his girlfriend got bitten by a pack of wild dogs and she had to undergo rabies treatment like long needles into her abdomen. In Nepal my friend almost lost his girlfriend to Giardia and Covid Combined. They were there in India and Nepal for 3 or 4 months from about now (February to around April or May) before they returned. They both got their health back but at my present age I won't go over there anymore because I don't want to die there.
9 months of giardia and returning to the U.S. seeing black spots before my eyes and so thin I looked like I had just gotten out of a concentration camp was enough for me at age 37 (though I would have liked to return by my 40s or 50s I was too busy getting my kids through High School and College to do that.Also, I went through a divorce in 1994 starting around November of 1994 and that doesn't help you financially either.
However, now the thing I have to be concerned about the most is my health not other things.
So, Life is Good! Mostly because I remarried in 1995 someone I can be happy with the rest of my life.
Which is Good!
So, if you need someone good in your life you need to pray for God to bring them into your life!
By God's Grace
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