Packing List for Everest Base Camp Trek 12:54 AM

To read all posts on my Everest Base Camp trek, click here for the complete series.

Some of my trekking stuff on my hotel bed in Kathmandu.

So--what to pack for the standard 12-day Everest Base Camp trek?

It's a pretty long list, but when you assemble everything into one bag, you'd realize eventually that everything on that list is quite essential. Be ready to carry everything on your back for 12 days--or if you're like me, hire a porter to carry 15 kilos of your stuff while you bring a day pack for all your essentials.

The key to staying comfortable all throughout the trek is to wear your clothes in layers.  For bitingly cold weather, expect to have 4-5 layers on you.  But in lower levels where it's hot and you get to work up a bit of a sweat, you must be able to easily strip off your fleece or outer layers.

My trek agency Himalayan Planet Adventures helped me a lot by sending a list of suggested clothing and equipment to bring, but I've also added some items which I think are useful. Unless indicated otherwise, all the stuff listed here are items I really brought with me on the trail.

Note: Some of the stuff here can be bought last-minute in Thamel, Kathmandu before your trek--such as the headlamp, trekking poles and even fleece jackets and such. You can even restock on toiletries and other sundries in Kathmandu, Lukla or Namche Bazaar. Will discuss this more in my very last post on this Everest Base Camp trek series.


Trekking Clothes

Head

• cap / sun hat - Ideal for the first few days and the last days of the trek when you're at lower altitude levels and it isn't so cold. I forgot to bring one, which was quite silly of me. 
• wool/fleece hat - to keep your head and your ears warm as you ascend to higher, colder terrain
• face scarf - I wish I had brought one! You will need it to keep out dust and the cold wind. Plus, it will help keep your nose (and any other unprotected part of your face) from being sunburned. 
• neck scarf
• sunglasses

Upper Body

• 2-3 quick-dry long-sleeved tops - Use 2 for the entire trek and keep an extra one for indoor use
• 1 sweater - I used this for indoors
• 2 fleece jackets - I used one for outdoors and one for indoors. Again, always have a complete, clean set of clothes to change into when you reach the teahouse. 
• 1 waterproof shell jacket - I used a North Face tri-climate waterproof shell jacket which can be detached or separated from its inner fleece jacket layer. For trekking in humid monsoon weather, just remove the fleece jacket and wear the outershell waterproof one.
• 1 down jacket - My trek agency provided me with one, although I ended up not using it, since it was too warm to wear it in May/June. But bring one for the colder trekking months.
• thermal underwear or base layer - You can buy those pricey base layers from Columbia or North Face, but my Uniqlo and Debenhams thermal wear kept me wonderfully warm

Lower Body

• 1 pair of lightweight thermal leggings - These may be too hot to wear under your hiking pants on the first few days but will be useful as you head nearer to Everest Base Camp.
• 2 pairs of trekking pants - Have a lightweight one for most days and another one that's waterproof (outer shell pants)
• 1 pair of fleece pants - For indoor use and for sleeping.  I cannot stress enough the importance of having 1 clean pair of pants to change into when you reach the teahouse after a hard day's trek. 
• disposable underwear - This one is really more for the females.  I know this isn't the most eco-friendly suggestion, but admit it--women feel a greater need to stay hygienic, especially when it comes to the sensitive nether regions. And because of the cold weather, you won't be able to launder your regular undies with soap and water since these won't dry in time. I wasn't really keen on wearing the same undies for two to three nights in a row (sorry, that's just roughing it way too much, at least for me), so I brought 10 pieces of disposable underwear with me, plus some regular undies. Every day, it felt great to change into clean underwear. I didn't see any other website that recommended bringing disposable underwear; I only saw several packs in my local Watson's store, and thought it would be a great idea to bring these on the trek. They're cheap, hygienic, lightweight, biodegradable, and disposable. Hurray! 

Hands

• 1 pair of fleece gloves
• 1 pair of waterproof gloves (although I never got to use them)

Feet

• hiking boots - Your hiking boots are the most important thing in this trek, so do not forget to bring them. Invest on a good pair, or bring your reliable old ones. Do not assume you can buy boots in Kathmandu before the trek, as you may have a hard time looking for a pair that will suit you. I used mid-cut waterproof Columbia hiking boots which had great traction.
• slippers / sandals / sneakers - For indoor use. Although I would recommend bringing slippers/sandals instead of sneakers to let your feet breathe a bit.
• 3 pairs of warm trekking socks - For the colder months, bring more than 3 pairs. Use a clean pair when you sleep, so that your feet remain warm.

Trekking Gear

• headlamp - very useful especially when you need to make your way to the toilet in the middle of the night when all lights are out
• trekking poles - your lifesaver in the most difficult parts of the terrain, whether going up or down
• day pack and/or back pack w/ pack cover - If you are hiring a porter to carry majority of your things, just carry a day pack with you that contains the essentials.  Your porter will not necessarily be with you all the time on the trail (as he may be going way ahead of you sometimes), so place in your day pack the things you need, like a water bottle, sun screen, money, camera, waterproof jacket, etc. Himalayan Planet Adventures provided me a duffel bag where I stuffed all the things I only needed at the end of the day.  And then my porter Dhan Kumar just carried the duffel bag.
• 1-liter water bottle
• extra batteries
• sleeping bag with liner - Himalayan Planet Adventures lent me one but I didn't really need it apparently for the monsoon season. The thick blankets inside my teahouse room sufficed. But bring a sleeping bag for the colder months, and ensure that it can keep you warm in subzero weather.

Documents (keep all your documents protected in a ziploc bag; otherwise they will get wet!)

Clockwise, from L-R: My copy of Lonely Planet Nepal, a handy
journal and pen, a map of the Everest region, and my Kindle Touch
(I NEVER go anywhere without my Kindle). Naba of Himalayan
Planet Adventures gave me the map before I left for the trek.
I really love this map!

• passport w/ Nepal visa
• Trekkers' Information Management System (TIMS) card - I've discussed in this blog post more about the TIMS card, how much it costs and how to get one. If you've hired an agency, they will arrange to get this for you.
• Sagarmatha Park entrance permit - Same as the TIMS card above. Check my blog post on how much it costs and how to get one.
• map of Everest region (optional but pretty good to have)
• extra copies of your passport photo (for your Nepal visa and TIMS card)
• copy of your travel insurance policy
• international flight e-ticket and domestic flight tickets (in case you need them as reference)
• money - keep 'em safe and dry

Toiletries & Personal Hygiene Items

• personal medical kit - should contain the following: Diamox to counter altitude sickness (even if you don't plan on taking it, just have some on standby in case you do need it!); pain relief medicine for headache/migraine; medicine for diarrhea; oral rehydration salts (optional but good to have); medicine for cold, cough, fever and flu; multivitamins; bandaids, bandages, other medicine you may need
• water purification tablets / Steripen - I brought water purification tablets with me as an extra precaution but I opted to buy mineral water on the trail, even though this would cost me more. It all depends on each trekker's comfort level.  My personal reasoning is this: I spent so much money for this trek. And if I happen not to make it to Base Camp because my drinking water was not 100% sterilized and I've managed to contract diarrhea, I have only myself to blame.
• standard bath toiletries, toothbrush & toothpaste
• 1 to 2 large packs of baby wipes / anti-bacterial wipes - your ultimate best friend on the trek especially on those days when you can't take a bath
• toilet paper & tissue paper
• quick-dry bath towel and face towel - Don't bring the regular heavy bath towel, unless you want to deal with a soggy towel all throughout the trek. Those lightweight, quick-drying ones are the best.
• sunblock - The higher you ascend, the more exposed you are to the sun, even if it's abysmally cold and the sun doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight. Avoid being sunburned. 
• hand sanitizer / isopropyl alcohol - Sometimes there is no running water and soap in the teahouses for proper handwashing. You need to sanitize your hands to avoid diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems.
• lip balm and face moisturizer - Really important. The cold will really dry up your face and lips.
• small comb and mirror 
• deodorant

Other Travel Items

• camera w/ charger and spare battery - It would be very tragic if you forgot this. 
• books to read - Rather than carry a bunch of books, bring an e-book reader! I always travel with my Kindle and I get a lot of reading done in the airports, on the plane, and in the teahouses. 
• guide book - Optional but still nice to have. I brought my printed copy of Lonely Planet Nepal as well as a Kindle version. That's how I roll.
• small journal and pen - Even if you're not the type to write, a notebook will be handy to jot down your day-to-day notes or even your expenses on the trail.
• energy bars / trail mix / chocolate - The stuff you need to keep yourself happy and energized on the trek
• playing cards 
• ziploc bags
• medium or large clear plastic bags - Preferably the ones that are sold in rolls (10-20 plastic bags per roll). Compartmentalize all your stuff and place them into medium or large plastic bags. Have one plastic bag contain all your clean indoor teahouse clothes. Have one bag with your towel and bath toiletries, another for your dirty clothes, and another for your toiletries, etc.  At the end of each trekking day, you're quite exhausted and one of the last things you want to do is to keep rooting around in your bag, looking for all the stuff you need. Whenever I reach the teahouse, I'd easily be able to pull up whichever plastic bag I needed. This method saves me time, and I avoid having all my dirty and clean clothes mixed up. Biodegradable plastic bags are sold widely in groceries and supermarkets.

Inside my nice, spacious room at the Namche Bazaar teahouse. I get a big bed--hooray. I'm usually a neat person, but
the trek left me so tired every day, that I'd end up placing my stuff everywhere! Sorry for the mess. 

* * *

If you want the same Everest Base Camp trek experience I had, visit Himalayan Planet Adventures and go for the 16-day Everest Base Camp trek package.

1001 books in one device 11:14 PM

Right now, my printed copy of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die is about as useful as a doorstopper.

It's too heavy, so I keep it on my office desk wedged in between other books. It's pretty to look at, but even as a reference book, I don't get to use it much (weirdly enough).

So I was pleased as punch when I was browsing ManyBooks.net during the Christmas holidays, looking for free e-books for my Kindle--and I came across this massive collection of e-books from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list.

The best things in life are indeed free.

This blogger (I love you, whoever you are) has painstakingly compiled and linked all available e-book editions of public domain books from the pre-1700s to the 1900s. Naturally, majority of them are Kindle-formatted. I tried not to be too eager, and just downloaded a few (only just for starters)--those which I haven't gotten around to buying such as Aldous Huxley's Crome Yellow and Herman Hesse's Siddharta. This list is just crazy beautiful, and it gives people like me the chance to access books that aren't necessarily on top of one's 'Books to Buy' list, like, uh, Gargantua and Pantagruel, for example.

Books printed in the 21st century aren't available yet due to copyright concerns, but that's alright. Amazon sells Kindle e-books at a good rate of $10-12 if these are hot off the press or are bestselling ones. And then there are those random sales that are held for around 2 hours only; I find myself scouring the Amazon site and even Twitter for sale announcements on a daily basis so as not to miss out on anything good. I managed to get Neil Gaiman's Tenth Anniversary edition of American Gods for less than $4, as well as new titles by up and coming authors for FREE.

The trouble with Kindle, I suppose, is that my list of books to read is now longer than ever. I haven't even managed to touch the ones I bought at The Strand in New York last August 2011...!    

 

Egypt in 2011 3:23 PM

I want to go to Egypt so badly, it hurts. I mean literally.

My eyes have been aching from too much scouring on the web for the most affordable package tours to Egypt. My chest actually hurts every time I have this panicky feeling that my plans won't push through. That's just the worrywart in me, but yes, I DO plan to go to Egypt next year. I always believe that if I want it bad enough, I'll get it--and I don't intend to disappoint myself.

Ever since I got to see both Rome and Cambodia (two of my other dream 'ruins' destinations) in the early part of 2010, I've had a more positive outlook when it comes to traveling. Never think a place is too far, too impossible, too expensive to visit. If you want to see it, then just find a way to do it. Really.

I'm not one of the privileged few who can just fly off to wherever. I actually have to save for trips. None of that nonsensical Eat Pray Love, Under the Tuscan Sun stuff. Realistically speaking, it's only the rich, dissatisfied, slightly neurotic people who can actually afford to go on spontaneous trips to the other side of the world. The rest of us are left to make calculations on Excel, projecting how much we can save per month in order to go on that dream vacation.

So this is me doing those said calculations and planning a trip to the lost kingdom of pharaohs on May 2011. I'm very, very, very excited. The trip isn't cheap, but I know it's going to be worth every peso saved. My best bud Ryan and I have been planning this for quite some time (actually, it's more of me doing the research for all the tour costs, and he'll just shell out the money for his half of the expenses), but that's alright, because I'm the control freak and he just basically goes along with my lovingly crafted itinerary that reeks of obsessive compulsive-ness.

So the plan is to spend 8-10 days in Egypt and see the cities of Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, plus go on a day trip to the majestic Abu Simbel temple.


Oh my God, I can't even begin to describe how badly I want to see Abu Simbel and those monolithic statues of Ramses II. All those times I've watched documentaries on TV on historic Egypt while I was growing up really fed my desire to see the place. My brother Ramfis (Ramses, Ramfis--the similarities of the names are not coincidental; my parents wanted it) is even more of a geeky historic buff than I am, and he would love to see this place as well.

My top priority sights to see in Egypt are Abu Simbel, the pyramids of Giza, the Valley of the Kings (see photo below) and the Nile. And after I see those, I know I'll cry, because I've been waiting to see these places all my life. I don't know why I feel a strange sense of urgency to visit Egypt, but I know I don't want to wait for a few more years just to see it.

So, yes, I'll see you next year, Egypt!




Photo credits: Abu Simbel photo by Getty Images. Photos of the Pyramids and the Valley of the Kings are by National Geographic.

Europe in 2 Weeks: Florence (part 2) 12:11 AM

I came to Florence to see art, and art I did see. Truckfuls of it.

Because the city is so small, one can actually see most--or at least the highlights--of Florence in a day. As much as I would have wanted to stay for at least 3 days, I couldn't, so I had to make the most of my full day in this city. Armed with my Rick Steves travel guide and quite infected by the la dolce vita attitude of my opera-singing hotel host earlier at breakfast, I stepped out into the cobblestoned streets and was psyched to have some sensory overload on Renaissance art.

While some people may scoff at the idea of touting a travel guide and looking like a real tourist, I find it even more stupid to wander about aimlessly without a plan especially when you don't have the luxury of, say, a whole month's stay. With Rick Steves and Google Maps plus online booking of my tickets to the museums, I was able to carefully plan my route around Florence and still have extra time to go wandering about for the rest of the day. Cheers to obsessive-compulsive planning!

Here, in chronological order, are the highlights of my 'Renaissance' Walk:

1. The Uffizi Gallery. Of course it had to be the first thing on the agenda. I'm no art historian or curator, but I love art enough to know what the Uffizi holds and how badly I wanted to see them all. Because the lines at the Uffizi are reputed to be ridiculously long (people wait in line for 4-5 hours in high season), I wasted no time and booked myself a ticket to the Gallery while I was still in Manila. The funny thing about museums in Italy is that when you book online, you have to choose a certain time slot. The Italians are fussy about not letting in too many people at the same time, so they prefer to have only 20 people per time slot entering the museum.

So I got myself the 8:30 am slot (the Uffizi opens at 8 am), and this was a good strategy, I believe, because I was there early enough to avoid the hordes of students on field trip and those tourist groups that are annoyingly ubiquitous and ruin basically the peace and quiet of a museum.

Taking photos isn't allowed inside the museum, so I took some pictures while I was outside.

I'm finally here!!

a part of the Uffizi was being restored

street performer decked out like one of the many statues flanking the Gallery

Spent a good two hours inside the Uffizi, which had the finest collection of Botticellis ever. There was also a sprinkling of da Vincis and Michaelangelos and Raphaels, which made me rather dizzy. The museum was overwhelming--not in size, but in the wealth of paintings that it boasted. Giotto's Madonna was there, and so was da Vinci's Annunciation, and Titian's Venus of Urbino. When I got to the room full of Botticellis, all I could do was sit and stare at his Birth of Venus and La Primavera.

The whole experience was unsettling. Everything was just reeking of beauty and culture, and this was the kind of art I've only seen before in art books. And Botticelli's Venus was staring back at me, looking like she was amused by my gawking but was trying to hide it behind her serene smile.


2. The Duomo and the Baptistery. Stumbled out of the Gallery, dazed and experiencing an Uffizi hangover of sorts. Next on the agenda was the ever-famous cathedral, the cultural symbol of Florence. The Duomo, after all, is the main reason why I wanted to go to Florence. All roads in the city seemed to lead to it, so it was very easy to find.

The area surrounding the Duomo is always packed with tourists. Tourists, tourists everywhere. It was such an infamously popular spot. I stood in one area for a full 20 minutes perhaps, just taking loads of pictures before deciding to circle the perimeter of the pink-green-and-white marbled church. I saw artists selling their works on the street, people having their coffee leisurely al fresco in the surrounding cafes, and individuals strolling about like they weren't in a hurry to reach their destination. It was a sweet life indeed for the people of Florence--and it was all almost ridiculously unreal and far from the madding crowd that was Manila.

The church itself is pure eye candy; you can honestly stare at it for a long time. Well, at least I did. Didn't get tired looking at it. I was afraid that if I didn't gaze at it long enough, I'd forget some of the small details, or at least the memory of having this wave of happiness wash over me, because I was really and truly in Florence with the Duomo just several meters away from me. It was the same feeling I had when I was looking up at the Colosseum and at the Sistine Chapel. Maybe it was some form of I'm-surrounded-by-so-much-history-and-it's-all-so-beautiful orgasm (for lack of a better word). There must be an exact scientific name for this state of euphoria in the presence of art and history that I was in, but I just didn't know it.

the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (or the Duomo, for short)

the Duomo's interior artwork

crowds and crowds of tourists around the Duomo all day

Right next to the Duomo is the Baptistery, the oldest and very much revered building in the city. It wasn't difficult looking for the 'Gates of Paradise' by Ghiberti. Just look for the bronze panels with the biggest crowd of tourists hanging about, and you know you're in the right place.

Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise. The original panels are safely stored inside the Duomo museum though.

3. Michaelangelo's 'David'. Grabbed a pizza in a nearby pizzeria-slash-cafe and decided to eat it while heading towards the Galleria dell'Accademia. The air was cold, and the pizza warm in my hands, so it was a good albeit hurried meal on the way to the museum.

Aside from the 'David', which is the real reason why people flock to the Accademia in the first place, there's really not much else to see there except Michaelangelo's unfinished 'Slaves'.

I entered the museum, walked down a short corridor, and rounded a corner, anticipating that I was going to go through more halls to get to David. I didn't expect that that one corner would be it, that I would see him immediately. And so there he stood, high on his pedestal at the very far end of the hallway, literally--and without reference to his nether region--larger than life.

I was to have many heart-hammering-in-my-chest moments while I was in Europe, checking out all the sites and art I've dreamt of seeing my whole life. This was one of those heart-pounding moments. Just when you think you're ready to see 'David', the masterpiece, you realize you're as flabbergasted and slack-jawed as the tourist standing next to you.

The beauty of his position inside the museum was that people could circle him; we weren't limited to one view. I stood for a long time, just circling his slowly. I loved the expertly chiseled back, the veins on his arms, the tension of the muscles. When I couldn't stand anymore, I sat down in a corner, right next to a young man sketching David on his drawing pad. I watched the guy draw for a bit, and envied him for the luxury of time he had. Then I complimented his drawing, and so did a few others who came up to him. He thanked me and the others effusively.

The nice thing about being in an art-soaked city like Florence is that everyone is so appreciative about everything related to art. There could be a chalk artist sketching on the sidewalk an exact copy of a Madonna and Child painting, and people would be standing round, just watching and waiting for him to finish.

Strictly no photo-taking allowed while in the presence of David, but of course I just HAD to take a stolen shot. David is perfect, perfect, perfect.

4. Dante Alighieri. Who isn't fascinated by Dante? The Inferno? And most of all, the elusive Beatrice whom he loved?

Florence is so small you'll wind up in Via Dante Alighieri at some point whether you're looking for it or not. I was as pleased as punch to be in the very street the great poet used to live in. God, these Florentines are just so damn lucky to be walking past it everyday.

On the street where he lived. And now it's called Dante Alighieri Street.

Dante's Church, where Beatrice's tomb is located. Too bad Dante is buried in Ravenna; it would have been nice to see both their tombs side by side.

5. Gelato is an art form too! Even if it was the tail end of winter, I had to have some of that world-famous gelato. Besides, everyone else was strolling about, each licking a gelato cone, so I wasn't going to pass that up. There were so many gelato shops to choose from, I was pretty much dizzy with desire.

So...I prudently chose a small gelateria which had a bunch of people lining up, and I thought, okay, they must be serving extra yummy gelato. I went and stood in line and had the most awful, hand-wringing dilemma to face: which flavors to get?

The lady behind the counter was getting slightly impatient; I was practically cross-eyed from all that frantic canvassing of flavors, and because I didn't want to risk facing a crowd of angry gelato fans all lined up behind me, I stammered out in basic Italian that I would like a medium-sized cone with two flavors--coffee and chocolate. Ordinary flavors, yeah, but when I started on my gelato, I realized there was nothing ordinary about the coffee and chocolate I was licking. It was so good I almost forgot where I was heading.

Oh my God, that was the best gelato ever. I still dream about it sometimes. The gelatos I've had in Gelatissimo in Greenbelt 5 don't even come close to that simple treat I had in that rather nondescript gelateria in Florence.

my gelato leading the way

6. Here are more of the city's beautiful sights. I would have wanted to talk more about them, but I keep telling myself to be a little less long-winding.

Piazza della Republica, the old city center

This always reminds me of the movie 'A Room With a View.' :)

the Arno River

inside the very cold, very drafty Palazzo Vecchio


Ponte Vecchio


Piazza della Signoria

my favorite part of the Orsanmichele Church

Was pretty much able to wander about the city without feeling so hurried. It really does help sometimes to explore things on your own. Had enough time to go back to the hotel in the late afternoon, grab my luggage and head for Santa Maria Novella station. Apparently, to go back to Rome, I had to take the 5-minute train from SMN to Firenze Rifredi Station. And when I got there 30 minutes before the train's scheduled departure, it was announced that the train that was arriving to take me back to Rome would be 45 minutes late.



Rifredi's waiting area was outdoors, by the tracks. A real provincial train station. Inspite of my wool coat, thermals, and a scarf covering my neck and half of my face, I felt pretty chilled. Spent the next hour or so alternately reading about the Persian-Greek Wars and stomping about my bench to ward off the cold. Definitely not one of my favorite memories of Florence.

I made a mental note to myself that if (and I know I will) I was to go back to Florence, it would have to be some time in spring. And yes, it would have to be a week's stay. The city is just too beautiful.


Florence, March 22-23, 2010

Europe in 2 Weeks: Florence (part 1) 6:50 PM

When I was much, much younger, I came up with a list of places I wanted to see in my lifetime.

Being exacting, I had categories within that list. Under "Places With Lots of Ruins", I wrote down the following: Greece, Egypt, Rome, Peru's Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Great Wall of China, and Borobudur in Indonesia.

Of course, another category I had on my travel list was "Places With Lots of Art." Paris was there, and so was New York, and a bunch of other places. But the number one on that sublist was Florence, my own art Mecca. All the history and art lessons I had on the Renaissance kept mentioning Florence, Florence, Florence.

So of course I had to go.

Took my first European train ride from Rome to Florence. It was evening so I didn't get to see much of the countryside at that time. But riding the train was a novelty to me, so I was pretty damn excited to look for my platform, make sure I was in the right carriage car, and search for my seat. I opted to book for a 2nd class ticket, and then ride back to Rome on 1st class just to see the difference.

Well, you do really get what you pay for. The 2nd class compartments were pretty cramped, even for someone with a small frame like me. There were six to a compartment, and I silently thanked myself for booking a window seat online. It was a good thing that my compartment mates were the nice sort--an elderly Austrian couple (the man even helped me place my suitcase overhead), this carefree-looking Austrian girl, and two American (?) college boys who arrived last, out of breath. They almost missed the train, I guess.

When we were fairly settled in our seats, Austrian girl (who sat right across) surprised me by conversing at times with me in really fluent English while talking in her native Austrian German tongue to the elderly couple on her right. I assumed all three of them were Austrian, because the final destination of the train I was taking was Wien, Austria.

Took a picture of the train's destination list just to make sure I was on the right track to Florence:

Yup, Firenze SMN, that was my stop, alright.

The two boys were also headed for Florence, so at least I wasn't the only one going down at Florence's Santa Maria Novella Station at 10 o' clock in the evening. Tried to talk to them a bit, but it was hard, because one was too absorbed with writing something on his Moleskine and the other was reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I knew how engrossing the book was, because I had read it myself within the span of a day or two only, so I refrained from asking how he was finding it.

Throughout the 3-hour ride, I amused myself by alternately reading my own book, trying to discreetly take shots of my cramped environment (I'm still a tourist after all), and walking down the narrow corridor of the train car and peeking into other people's compartments.



By the time the train rolled into Santa Maria Novella station, my legs were raring to walk. I literally jumped out of the train when it halted and was greeted by the unexpected chilly night air of Florence.


A Room With No View

It was around 5 to 6 degrees that night. Way too cold for me. Because my hotel was just a 10-minute walk from the station, I opted not to take the bus or the ever-impractical cab ride, which would have been the equivalent of a good meal or two in Europe already. What was supposed to be a 10-minute walk became a 20-minute one, because I got lost in the city's narrow, winding streets, and it was also hard dragging my suitcase along the cobblestones.

I managed to find my hotel finally, and staggered up the stairs into the second floor, where the reception desk was. I checked in and found myself in a good-sized room that was charming enough. And then I hurriedly drew back the curtains to see what kind of view I had.

Oh.

Shucks.

All that greeted me were windows from the neighboring building. I totally forgot to reserve a room with a view of the Duomo.

Too tired to berate myself, I took a quick shower and slept early. I knew I was going to have a full day ahead of me.


Breakfast with a Song

Stepped into the breakfast room the next day, craving for a good old Filipino tapsilog breakfast that I was sure I was never going to have at that place. So I had to manage expectations and hope for a filling Continental breakfast at least.

The Hotel Giada where I was staying is family-run, so the breakfast area looked like a kitchen with a modest buffet area, a smattering of small breakfast tables and a--GASP--view of the Duomo. I almost dropped my cereal bowl when I turned around and saw a section of the big old church from the window.

And while I sat on my own table just looking up at the Duomo and munching on a hard roll, I suddenly heard the owner of the hotel. He entered the kitchen, singing something in Italian at the top of his voice and started preparing a fresh batch of brewed coffee. Never mind that there were a bunch of us having breakfast, still looking sleepy at 6:30 am. Either he was singing like nobody was there or he knew he was conducting an operatic performance in front of flabbergasted tourists. It was such an Italian thing for him to do, to sing without a care in the world, and I felt that I was really in Florence indeed.


(to be continued, because this blogger has just realized she has been too long-winding and nonsensical in this post, and would like to be more succinct in her next entry)

last quarter storm of book buying 10:52 PM

This is a long overdue post on the books I obtained in the last few months of 2009, with the first six books bought in Kinokuniya Bookstore in Bangkok back in September. Getting eight books in a span of 3 months isn't a lot by some people's standards, but then books don't come cheap these days, and I really am trying to curb my book-buying impulses.

And yes, the red book on the second row is indeed a book on sex.

So here goes, based on the order of books shown above:

1. Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien. When his second son, Michael, lost his toy dog during a family outing at the beach, J.R.R. Tolkien tried to console his son by writing a story about a dog who was transformed by a grumpy wizard into a toy dog as a form of punishment. Roverandom is a whimsical little story about the amazing adventures of Rover, the toy dog, who travels as far up as the Moon and down to the depths of the ocean in his attempt to find the one wizard who can change him back into his old self.

This is a book really meant for children, although adult fans of Tolkien would enjoy it simply because it was written by the great man himself. And the book is quintessential Tolkien--with dragons and wizards! Obviously a book worth buying even if one can finish it in a sitting. Interestingly enough, Roverandom never reached its final form before Tolkien's death. I don't think he ever meant to publish it--or if he did, he was too preoccupied with other matters for Roverandom to be on his priority list.


2. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. I'm a big fan of Byatt, so anything she writes, I automatically buy, because I'm sure to like it anyway.

Shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize, The Children's Book is a complex story that centers on a group of children belonging to three privileged families (the Wellwoods, the Fludds and the Cains) as they grow up during the post-Victorian era leading up to the Great War. It's a dense and slow-meandering read, but if you're used to Byatt, you'll actually enjoy her long and pretty much obscure references to Fabian socialism, pottery, poetry, children's fiction, and German puppetry. The best part of this book however is Byatt's life-long fascination with fairytales (I'm obsessed with this subgenre myself); the novel is chock-full of fairytale motifs like magical underground creatures, locked rooms, a boy looking for his shadow, fairies (of course!), children refusing to grow up, and magical advice from 'wise old man' Jungian archetypes. There are many references to Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm--and what particularly excited me was a scene from The Children's Book where in a German master puppeteer stages the story of 'Aschenputtel', the Grimms' bloody and disturbing version of 'Cinderella'.

When I was young, my first forays into children's literature were the Tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and stories from Arabian Nights. As a child, I was at first puzzled by the Disney movie versions of say, Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, because the movies didn't show Cinderella's stepsisters cutting off their toes and heels so that they could squeeze their bloody feet into the glass slippers--or the Little Mermaid wielding a knife, only to throw herself into the sea and turn into foam because she couldn't bear to kill the prince who married someone else.

Those were the fairytale stories I grew up with--heavy with morals and consequences, and meant to scare the living daylights out of you in a freakish yet enjoyable way. I never lost my fascination for strange magical creatures, fantasy adventures and whatnot--hence my enduring love for Tolkien and even Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling herself was into fairytales and came up with The Tales from Beedle the Bard). When I read Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces years later as an adult, I then fully understood why I was so in love with this genre. All the hero myths in this world, regardless of culture or religion, share the same story pattern: namely the call to adventure, the hero's departure into the unknown, the quest and all the entities that he encounters, and the return back home with added knowledge and powers. All the fairytales and sci-fi and adventure stories I've been reading all these years is essentially the same story--one big grand 'monomyth'--but with different hero-faces.

I've totally strayed away from talking about The Children's Book per se, but reading it was like a heady re-immersion into fairytales. Byatt's novel, though, also explores the disturbing side of writing children's literature. In an interview, Byatt said, "I started with the idea that writing children's books isn't good for the writers' own children. There are some dreadful stories. Christopher Robin at least lived. Kenneth Grahame's son put himself across a railway line and waited for the train. Then there's JM Barrie. One of the boys that Barrie adopted almost certainly drowned himself. This struck me as something that needed investigating. And the second thing was, I was interested in the structure of E Nesbit's family - how they all seemed to be Fabians and fairy-story writers."

Needless to say, I finished The Children's Book in less than a week even though it's one of the thickest books in my book collection.


3. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. I'm a Margaret Atwood late bloomer. I should have read her as early as 2002 or something but then again, I was reading other stuff back then. When I read her Booker Prize-winning The Blind Assassin a year ago, I was seriously miffed at myself for not reading her earlier. Saw a copy of Alias Grace in Bangkok's Kinokuniya and promptly bought it, because--well, I don't know if it's bad timing or what--but I could never see a copy in the local stores.

The premise is interesting, and here's the blurb from Amazon:

In 1843, a 16-year-old Canadian housemaid named Grace Marks was tried for the murder of her employer and his mistress. The sensationalistic trial made headlines throughout the world, and the jury delivered a guilty verdict. Yet opinion remained fiercely divided about Marks--was she a spurned woman who had taken out her rage on two innocent victims, or was she an unwilling victim herself, caught up in a crime she was too young to understand? Such doubts persuaded the judges to commute her sentence to life imprisonment, and Marks spent the next 30 years in an assortment of jails and asylums, where she was often exhibited as a star attraction. In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood reconstructs Marks's story in fictional form. Her portraits of 19th-century prison and asylum life are chilling in their detail. The author also introduces Dr. Simon Jordan, who listens to the prisoner's tale with a mixture of sympathy and disbelief. In his effort to uncover the truth, Jordan uses the tools of the then rudimentary science of psychology. But the last word belongs to the book's narrator--Grace herself.

Alias Grace is the next book I'm going to read once I'm done with my current one.


4. Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka. Who's afraid of Kafka? I am!!

Afraid of his imagination, that is. It runs pretty wild.

I read Kafka back in college, mostly with the intent of just being able to say I read the damn story of the man turned cockroach. Of course, as I got older and more mature (hehe), I re-read 'Metamorphosis' and 'The Trial', and learned to appreciate Kafka's signature nightmare style. Critics brand him as defeatist; I simply think he's terrifying. But because I like a little terror in stories, Kafka is the man for such things.

I'm so happy with the Penguin Classics deluxe edition that I bought--definitely worth all that Thai baht. The front and back covers are such eye candy:



5. The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays 1959-1987 by Joseph Campbell. I'm one to stick to perennial favorites. One can never go wrong with reading Joseph Campbell. THE expert on comparative mythology, Campbell has written what I consider mind-blowing ideas on universal truths manifested in different ways through myths and in different settings. The Power of Myth and The Hero With a Thousand Faces are his most popular and accessible works, but as I was scanning The Mythic Dimension's table of contents, I noticed that the book can also serve as another introductory overview into Campbell and his ideas on comparative mythology and religion.

I have a feeling that this book will not tell me anything mind-bogglingly new, because based on the chapter headings, The Mythic Dimension seems to be a summarized version of Campbell's massive 4-volume work The Masks of God (on Primitive Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Occidental Mythology, and Creative Mythology), which I've already read--laboriously, I might add, within a 3-year period.

The Masks of God isn't really for everyone--and I'm not being lit snobbish here. There were so many occasions I felt like crying over it because Campbell can get so stuffy and arcane sometimes. But there was no choice except to plough through it and when I was done, I felt like keeling over, exhausted and triumphant.

So I pretty much think it's safe for me to assume here that The Mythic Dimension may be a more appealing introduction into world mythology. Joseph Campbell is such a nerdy choice for reading, but I truly think everyone should at least read him once.


6. Position of the Day: Sex Every Day in Every Way by Nerve.com. Obviously, I bought this for the novelty of it. It's hilarious! 366 positions: one for each day of the year plus an extra in case it's a leap year! A lot of the positions seem pretty unrealistic, so I think the book's just meant to be a laugh trip the whole year round. I mean there was one position involving what looked like monkey bars, and having sex in a playground just seems so...well, wrong.


7. The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution. When Andy, who recommended it to me, started describing The Ancestor's Tale as "something like Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales with different characters having their own tales to tell, only it's a reverse journey back to the origin of life and the ones telling the tales are animals which share a common ancestry with us."

Oh my God.

I told Andy I wanted to get it. I think he had me at 'Canterbury Tales'.

I'm a big fan of layered narrative (or stories within a story within a story) such as The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights, Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, and my favorite, A.S. Byatt's Possession.

Well, The Ancestor's Tale, being a nonfiction science book, isn't layered narrative fiction, that's for sure, but it cleverly uses that stylistic form to a certain extent. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explains the whole grand story of evolution by taking the reader on a reverse journey of sorts from present-day humans back to the very microbial beginnings of life billions of years ago. Along the way, Dawkins lets the reader 'meet' various species--the other characters in this story who, at specific geological moments in time (or rendezvous points, as Dawkins calls these), have been proven to share a common ancestry with us humans. So for example, when we retrace our steps from present to past to discover our human ancestors, the first species we meet back in time at Rendezvous 1 are the chimpanzees--the closest and most recent species who share a common ancestor with us humans. And what Dawkins means by 'most recent' is that this first rendezvous takes place millions of years ago. It is but a blip in the evolutionary process which spans 4 billions years.

The next meeting point, or Rendezvous 2, shows us the most recent common ancestor of gorillas on one hand and that of 'humans + chimpanzees' on the other. And in the next rendezvous, we meet the common ancestor of both the orangutan and 'gorillas + humans + chimpanzees.' This journey back in time goes on and on until we hit Rendezvous 40, or as Dawkins explains it, the point where we reach the origin of life itself, the grand ancestor which humans and other species have descended from.

It sounds wild, I know.

I started reading The Ancestor's Tale on New Year's Eve and currently am at Rendezvous 1. It's slow reading because I'm still getting used to all the scientific terms, but I did appreciate Dawkins' lengthy introduction in which he explains his reverse narrative method. I'm actually dreading reaching a particular rendezvous that may force me to reckon with the idea that I, Human, share a common ancestry with The Frog. Urk.

I'm not going into an entire religion vs. science debate over this. I believe in God and I believe in the evolution of life. I believe that humans and all the other species in this world were fearfully and beautifully made, that we all continue to evolve, and that this whole grand masterplan of putting everything into place within billions and billions of years could not have been done by any other being except God Himself. To me, religion and science co-exist, and that's that. I'm sure other people maintain their own views on matters such as these, and they are free to do so.


8. Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. I read this in the school library when I was kid, and I realized some twenty years after that I never got to buy my own copy. I was so happy when Ryan bought it in Kinokuniya Singapore and gave it to me as a gift last Christmas 2009.

I don't feel like I've aged at all every time I read a Roald Dahl book. And the writers that you encounter in childhood are the ones that you're likely to grow old with.

I miss blogging! 9:18 PM

Back in Manila after 7 days in Bangkok. Had a majorly good time in the land of smiles and spicy food. Was there for training on UNICEF's web content management system, RedDot. The only description I can think of for RedDot is that it was simple and complicated at the same time. Harhar.

I'm going to cheat here and just list down what I liked best about those 7 days:

1. Staying in a fabulously cheap hotel located in the middle of the shopping district. Marge and I then had more money to burn. YAW-hoo!

2. Thai food, of course. I had tom yum every single day. And all sorts of spicy dishes.

3. Shopping. I've never been much of a shopper here in Manila. I don't buy clothes and shoes often, but Bangkok, with its dizzying array of stores and night market stalls, seems to bring out the shopaholic in everyone. Bought shoes, bags, a top, little souvenir stuff for the people back home, and loads of skin care products that one couldn't find in Manila.

4. KINOKUNIYA BOOKSTORE!!! Spent 3 hours in the Kino branch of Siam Paragon and combed all the bookshelves. The store, with all its titles and editions, was so beautiful, I almost wept. Spent more than I should have but at least I'm happy with my purchases. I made sure to buy only the books I haven't seen back home; nearly bought a copy of Joseph Heller's Closing Time, and then I remembered seeing one in Fully Booked.

I went back to Manila with 6 books plus 3 Foxtrot titles for Ryan, who was salivating on the other end of the line when I called to tell him I was standing in front of a stack of Foxtrot comic books.

More on my book purchases in another entry, because it deserves a separate blog post.

5. Riding the BTS Skytrain to and fro training and shopping. I love the city's Skytrain! It was fast, efficient, and the people were very nice and respectful in the way they went in and out the train. Wish I could say the same for Manila's MRT. The people here like barging into the MRT before they allow the other passengers to get out.

From the hotel to the training site, it takes me less than 20 minutes to ride the BTS to Siam, switch trains, get off at National Stadium, and walk a short distance to the training venue. No traffic at all, unless one takes a cab.

6. Thai massage. Had two wonderful massages while I was in BKK. Nothing abso-posi-lutely beats an authentic Thai massage. The kind of massage wherein you're twisted like a pretzel in all sorts of ways and your spine feels re-aligned afterwards. The spa was located right beside my hotel, which was perfect.

My masseuse was so good in making all the soreness and pain in my muscles go away, I simply had to know her name so I could request for her massage services the next time. She giggled and said in broken English, "Is hard to say name. Very long. So remember this number only." And she pointed to the number "70" which was embroidered on her spa uniform.

I couldn't believe my ears. Having one's identity reduced to a mere number just didn't seem right, even though the spa was very clean and pretty and treated both clients and staff very well.

7. Learning new things such as the cool stuff you can do in RedDot. RedDot can be pretty frustrating at times, but the training left Marge and me with huge desire to revamp our UNICEF Philippines website. Exciting times ahead!

8. Starbucks near my hotel and especially near the training site! I could take my pick of branches, actually. The coffee was more expensive than Starbucks Manila; my grande-sized nonfat Caffe Mocha with whip cost THB 120, which is equivalent to PHP 180. Highway robbery. But Starbucks in Thailand had those cool debit coffee cards where you can load some baht and then use it to charge your coffee purchases. It was so convenient. We don't have that in the Philippines.

The only downside to Starbucks in Thailand was that they supposedly charge you an extra THB 15 for the chocolate sauce on top of your Caffe Mocha. How weird is that?? I had a bit of an argument with the baristas on several occasions and insisted that the chocolate sauce was part of the Caffe Mocha recipe to begin with--and I know for a fact that if an ingredient is really part of the recipe, one shouldn't be charged extra for it. Heck, I know my Starbucks coffee, thank you very much. The baristas eventually gave in to my argument. I wasn't being a bully; I just knew my points were valid.

9. Khao San Road. It was Marge's birthday last Saturday, and she wanted to usher in her birthday by hanging out and drinking in Khao San. And oh my God did we drink. Went out with Belle and some of our regional colleagues and drank a whole lot of SangSom, the local whiskey mixed with Coke. It was sweet and lethal. Khao San was so alive with music, bright lights, people having fun and getting wasted, vendors selling all sorts of things from street food to dreadlock wigs to rubber lizards (what the hell), and flowing liquor. It was a real blast hanging out with the group. We were so noisy, yelling out a countdown to Marge's birthday Times-Square-on-New-Year's-Eve style. And then total strangers were coming up to Marge, hugging her and wishing her a happy birthday. I'm pretty sure she had one.

10. The best thing about this trip? Meeting new people in other UNICEF country offices and ending up being good friends with them! I mean, after 5 days of training, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, how can you not?

I miss my training mates already: sweet, giggly Tsolmon from Mongolia, Prayi (I hope I got the spelling of her name right) from Korea, Cindy from China (one of the nicest girls ever), and Joseph of Fiji, who totally cracks me up because he likes to confuse Tsolmon by deliberately giving her the wrong instructions (and I end up correcting them). Joseph and I more or less have the same technical competencies, so it was good to share best practices on that level. And then there's Dike of Indonesia, of course, whom I've met before in a previous workshop/training, so it was nice to see a familiar face. We call each other by our last names, laugh hysterically, and just basically hang out in class and after training hours.

Nat and Kritsada from the Bangkok regional office were great companions, especially Nat, who took me to lunch several times and offered to accompany me to Starbucks for my after-lunch coffee. She and Kritsada were also so kind in helping me plan Marge's birthday cake surprise. We had a delicious ice-cream cake from Swensen's delivered to our training venue last Friday afternoon, and surprised Marge by switching off the training room lights, carrying in the cake, with everyone singing 'Happy Birthday' while she blew out the candles.

Valerie, our RedDot trainor based in UNICEF NY headquarters, is definitely one of the sweetest, most engaging persons ever, and learning RedDot would have been absolutely boring if she wasn't the one handling it. Some aspects of the training were basic to me, but a considerable number of participants (there were 27 of us in total) encountered a bit of struggle in mastering the stuff--and Valerie was so funny and patient handling all of us.

It also felt nice to be asked for help by the others in Photoshop; I mean, I only knew basic to intermediate stuff in Photoshop and am no expert, but it was a good feeling to share what knowledge I had to others who had zero experience with Adobe Photoshop.

And when Valerie asked me last-minute to present to the whole group (with my regional boss looking on and asking technical questions, gulp) the web analytics tool that UNICEF uses, I was a little alarmed and flabbergasted. First of all, it was a big shock to find out that none of the country offices in our region were using Urchin (the web analytics tool) except for the Philippines. Secondly, I was also relatively new to Urchin, and just learned my way around it, generating the reports I needed and making my data analyses from there. So it was pretty funny for me, standing in front of the "class" and teaching them how to draw up web data reports by going on the Philippines' Urchin live system, to use filters, to make the proper analysis, etc--because I was no expert myself. I'm just glad Valerie and I did well in answering the others' questions (and there were some hard ones, really) about Urchin.

I went to Bangkok with the original intent of learning from the trainor, and ended up doing a bit of trainor work as well, which was a nice experience.

The other participants were from all sorts of places like Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Malaysia. The beautiful thing about working in the UN system is that you become exposed to various cultures and you learn to appreciate the uniqueness of each one. I wish more people could experience the kind of training and exposure I'm having, and I wish UNICEF would still continue giving me such wonderful learning opportunities.

Bangkok, you haven't seen the last of me, I hope!

book finds last week 1:06 AM

Every Friday, fresh batches of previously owned books are delivered in boxes to the Books For Less stall inside my office building. I wait patiently until late afternoon when I know the nice woman manning the stall is already done stacking the books--and I drop by the place to visit and browse.

Normally, I don't buy previously owned books (as I've mentioned in a previous post) and I prefer them brand new, but if you're addicted to books like me and you pass by this stall every day when you take your lunch, it's kinda hard not to resist buying anything.

So here's what I got on Friday last week:

1. The Stranger by Albert Camus. It's Camus, it's a Vintage paperback edition, and a brand new copy costs more than Php 400. I got this one for Php 128. What's not to like?

2. There's a Wocket in My Pocket! (Dr. Seuss' Book of Ridiculous Rhymes) by Dr. Seuss. I got hooked into Dr. Seuss' books at the age of 3 and that's how I learned to read, according to my mother. Twenty-six years and over a thousand read books later, I'm still in love with Dr. Seuss, especially Green Eggs and Ham--a copy of which I keep on my desk. So when I saw this cute, pocket-sized Wocket in My Pocket board book edition with the jaw-dropping price of Php 50, well, I bought it right away. 'Ate' (I forgot her name), who mans the book stall, thought I was buying it for one of my goddaughters, and I sheepishly admitted it was for me.


So now, Wocket in My Pocket is on my office desk as well. Dr. Rien, a colleague at work, once laughingly commented that my books occupy more than half of my work table (which in reality, do not), and I take that as a compliment. While others may choose to stack their desks with paper and folders and thick reports, I choose to file these documents properly into cabinets and allot space for my books. The books are all neatly shelved and stacked in one corner, which to me, serves as a homey, living space which I can stay in when I get tired of thinking and working at a furious pace in front of the computer.

But if my books are starting to pile up, I'm wondering if the office will allow me to install some shelves in my work area...