A darkly funny sculpture in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
Continue readingMonument to the International Community, Sarajevo
Travel
Trip reports, reflections, and information about places I’ve been during my quest to live an interesting life.
Sherpas are the real heroes
Please remember that, as we prepare to start reading stories in the mainstream media about the annual Mount Everest climbing season.
See this video below to understand why none of this sillyness would be possible without them:
It’s just a casual chat between two guys; about a rescue one participated in high on Everest. Interspersed with some AMAZING GoPro footage from Mount Everest. Gives you a true sense of the Himalaya.
But more important than the mountains, are the people. I think you will get that sense, after listening to these guys chat.
Love always to the Nepali people. Namaste.
This Hilarious Video Totally Nails European Backpacker Culture
It’s the coolest hostel in all of Europe.
A short little spoof from comedian Nick Kroll. It’s… pretty accurate.
Enjoy it while taking your morning espresso.
Funny Thailand Signs
One of the great charms of traveling in Asia is the charming broken English.
English signs, menus shirts, slogans, etc. are pretty common. English isn’t everywhere, but there’s been an effort made. The strange thing though, is that these English translations are littered with misspellings and poor grammar. They’re generally intelligible, though, with a little work.
Part of the fun and charm of traveling in Asia!
Below, I’ve compiled a gallery of some examples of bad English in Thailand, gathered from a recent thread on Twitter.
Continue readingThe Hitchhiker
Las Vegas, Nevada.
It was the final day of our climbing trip. Three weeks of uninterrupted time together: me y mi hermano Jose.
I had introduced Jose to bigger, more complex forms of climbing, while he had mentored me in Spanish, my second language. We had shared a soggy tent, shivered through a few cold January nights, spent half our budget on alcohol, eaten like dirtbags. Laughing, learning. We had made a strong memory.
But it was just about over.
We planned to end our trip with an exclamation point: climbing Birdland (5.7+) in Red Rock Canyon, a five-pitch route that would take us higher than anything we’d climbed previous. The route had been recommended to us by a free-solo climber we met in Joshua Tree.
Jose had been sad to trade Joshua Tree, where we passed almost three weeks, for Las Vegas.
I had pushed for Vegas. I wanted Jose to get a taste of real multipitch climbing. I wanted to get high — something you can’t really do in Joshua Tree.
In the end, I’d won. We drove to Vegas for a few days.
Our final day, we slept late and headed in to climb Birdland around noon. We stopped at the First Pullout in the Red Rock Loop Road, to look at some of the beautiful rock formations, and see if we could glimpse some of the sport climbing crags — shorter, bolted cliffs.
The rock at the Calico Hills in Red Rock Canyon is filled with swerving lines: undulating waves of red, white, and shades in between. Without hurry, Jose and I walked the trails off the pullout, breathing in cool, fresh air. Despite being so close to Las Vegas, a major city with plenty of pollution, Red Rock feels crisp.
Walking back to la camioneta (our truck), three people around a small folding table waved us over. “Free food?!” they yelled. Dead broke after three weeks of too many cervezas, we swerved right over.
Two of the group were ambassadors for Climbstuff.com. The third, a guy in his late twenties or early thirties, was looking for people to climb with. We chatted for a bit while we ate bananas and tortillas.
“Well,” I say, “we were going to go climb Birdland, if you want to tag along. Multipitch.”
His face lights up, he thinks about it for a sec, and he says: “Yeah, that would be great! You guys got wheels? Just let me grab my stuff.”
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