We went to a foreign disease specialist here in the SF area and she said that all the drugs we could use to quickly end giardia likely would destroy the livers of our children for life and that it wouldn't help my wife and I either and because the giardia in India and Nepal and Thailand is different than the varieties here in the U.S. that it should automatically slough off within 6 months. By the time I got home I was seeing black spots before my eyes from starving no matter what I ate and I looked a little like someone in a World War II prison camp I was so thin. But, I recovered within 6 months like the foreign disease specialist said I would. However, what I didn't know was that the giardia protozoa attacks the linings of your intestines and prefers to eat gluten sugars from wheat more than anything else. So, it begins to make your intestines more allergic to gluten as a way of getting the gluten sugar so you don't get it. Another problem long term is that it can make you hypothyroid which also means your thyroid glands don't work right. Another problem I was told by my Aryuvedic Nurse practitioner is that this sequence leads to an auto-immune disease in some people.
So, going to 3rd world countries on vacation or on business changes the ways your intestines function for life it seems whether or not you have symptoms. Symptoms of giardia are sort of like a more severe version of Montezuma's revenge if you have ever gotten this in Mexico where your bowels are uncontrollable along with severe intestinal cramping at first.
So, as you travel the world now to 3rd world countries it is good to know that even if you don't eat any of the wrong foods or drink any of the wrong water, just the dust where there aren't enough toilets can give you giardia from breathing it. Even when I was over there many westerners wore hospital masks to try to protect themselves when during large gatherings with no toilets there might be human feces in fields of one deposit every square foot. This is something you might still see at large gatherings where there are 100,000 or more people and maybe 10 toilets or less or no toilets at all. This sort of thing also pollutes the ground water obviously, and so you either cannot drink it at all or you have to boil it for 5 minutes or longer or put some kind of disinfecting tablets in the water if you are going to drink it because there is nothing else available.
For example, in Thailand, when we went to Koi Samed Island to snorkel on a boat we noticed as we left that the bottles of water people were filling with a garden hose and as a result my two boys 10 and 14 got sick coming back from that island trip from Bangkok,Thailand in Early December 1985.
Also, this is now 33 years ago so a lot has changed especially in places like India where the standard of living has risen a lot there since I was there. And government has seriously changed in Nepal. So, it's important to understand where you are going to be safe. Physical safety generally is less of a problem in Asia generally than in the U.S. some places. People are much more religious or have a high sense of honor various places more than here in the U.S. where people are sort of more wild in some ways and areas.
For example, in South Korea and Japan you are generally going to be much much safer than almost anywhere in the U.S.
Note: So, if these kinds of plane tickets are still available you are more likely to see them around large universities where professors and students do research at sites all over the world now and then. I bought my tickets then at Global Travel II in Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco and these tickets likely were created for researchers from all the San Francisco large universities like Berkeley, San Francisco State University and others. It cost us then in October 1985 about 6000 dollars for 5 open ended tickets that were good for 6 months in all these places of Narito airport, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Katmandu, Nepal. Then by land we traveled from Katmandu, Nepal by bus to Gaya and Bodhgaya, India to be initiated by the Dalai Lama and 500,000 other Tibetan Buddhists there in Bodhgaya into the Kalchakra Tantra initiation for 4 days. Then we traveled with our friends Geshe Lobsang Gyatso and his Darjeeling Translator to Varanasi, India to see the burning Ghat by Train. Then we took the train to see the Taj Mahal near to New Delhi. Then we took the train to New Delhi and then finally to Dharamshala, India up 6000 feet into the Himalayas to where the Dalai Lama lives which was then occupied by at least 10,000 Tibetan Refugees there. Now, there likely are more living there than then. Then we went to Mendi and then Rewalsar, India (Tsopema in Tibetan) where Padmasambhava had created a lake with a siddhi and melted his feetprints into a rock there. My Vasques Cascade boots fit perfectly these footprints by the way as I am 6 foot 5 inches and then wore a size 14 boot. Then I was taken to see Lama Wangdor and had tea with him with my family. Then later Lama Wangdor came to Mount Shasta to give about 100 of my friends and myself and family a Dzogchen Initiation in California.
From there we returned to Dharamshala, India and eventually to New Delhi by Bus and Train and took a bus from New Delhi to
Pokhara travel guideWeb results
Pokhara - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokhara
Pokhara (Nepali: पोखरा) is a metropolis, and is the largest city of Nepal in terms of area, and the second largest city in terms of population. A collective city was ...Pokhara travel - Lonely Planet
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/nepal/pokhara
Explore Pokhara holidays and discover the best time and places to visit. | Pokhara ticks all the right boxes, with spectacular scenery, adventure activities, and ...
Then we went to Kathmandu by Bus:
Search Results
Web results
Kathmandu Outdoor Store | Shop Adventure & Outdoor Gear Today!
https://www.kathmanduoutdoor.com/
Kathmandu is your online outdoor and camping store, shop online now and choose from our wide range of Outdoor Supplies, Clothing & Equipment for ...Kathmandu - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathmandu
Kathmandu is the capital city of Nepal. It is the largest metropolis in Nepal, with a population of 1.5 million in the city proper, and 3 million in its urban ...
Area code(s): 01
Province: Province No. 3
Country: Nepal
HDI: 0.710 High
Kathmandu travel - Lonely Planet
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/nepal/kathmandu
Explore Kathmandu holidays and discover the best time and places to visit. | For many, stepping off a plane into Kathmandu is a pupil-dilating experience, a riot ...
Then we stayed at the Snow Lion Inn next to the Bodhanath stupa:
Search Results
Web results
Boudhanath - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudhanath
Buddha स्तुप is a stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. Located about 11 km (6.8 mi) from the center and northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu, the stupa's massive ...Boudhanath Stupa – Kathmandu, Nepal - Atlas Obscura
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/boudhanath-stupa
One of the largest Buddhist stupas in the world keeps an eye out in every direction.Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu - TripAdvisor
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293890-d1963559-Reviews-Boudha...
Boudhanath - Wikitravel
https://wikitravel.org/en/Boudhanath
Boudhanath (also known as Boudha, pronounced 'Bo-da') is located 7 km East/
Then we did a 50 mile trek from the nearest dirt road a bus goes to over suspension bridges
as a family along a river into Helambu. So, we were then 25 miles and at 10,000 feet near the
Nepal, China Border then in Helambu near Langtang. A friend of mine climbed Langtang while
my family were nearby in the Helambu region. We stayed with Sherpa families who had
copper plates and wooden Buddhas in their homes and a hole in the center of their roofs
for the smoke to go out. They didn't usually heat their homes even when it was snowing
but rather built cooking fires in the middle of their living rooms which traveled up and out a hole
in the roof so that the rafters were sooty from doing this for 20 to 50 years in each home.
We ate curried potatoes and momos (dumplings with either meat or potatoes inside) mostly
with a little candy and tea mostly while there traveling. The views were spectacular and it snowed
while we were trekking. One of the hotels had an impeller on the river so they had electric
lights but most places had no electricity so oil lamps were what lit everything mostly then.
It was like being (outside of time) in some ways then because there were no phones, no radios
no contact with the outside world at all, and porters carried aluminum roofing over suspension
bridges that blew them in the wind. So, with backpacks we crossed 20 or 30 suspension bridges
with thousands of feet of exposure often in high winds where if you didn't hold onto the sides o
of the bridges you would be blown off. If you were injured up there, there was no ambulance
no helicopter, no communication to save you at all then. Basically, If you were too heavy to
have someone carry you out (even with a broken ankle) you could easily die up there then.
When we got our trekking permit there were many pictures of dead people who died of exposure
on the walls in Katmandu trying to tell people that if anything happened you likely would die
if any thing at all happened to you out there because there were no hospitals out there at all.
It's changed now I hear where there are helicopter landing pads more for emergencies in the wilds
now. But, there likely isn't any cell reception most places. So, if you don't have a satellite phone
you aren't going to be able to call a helicopter to come get you in an emergency.
Also, right now it is monsoon season which is why they can't build roads most places in the Himalayas
because of torrential tropical rain that comes down in torrents through the Himalayas this time of year.
Also, right now it is monsoon season which is why they can't build roads most places in the Himalayas
because of torrential tropical rain that comes down in torrents through the Himalayas this time of year.
No comments:
Post a Comment