ITCHY FEET

I haven’t really posted here for a while – to be honest I have been too caught up in
climbing, and after returning to Kathmandu, hanging out with friends and walking the streets photographing for my little book project “Colors of Kathmandu”

Today I leave Nepal, after almost 40 wonderful days here. There are so many impressions from this trip to Nepal – I hope I will manage to materialize them soon, and share them here!

All I can say for now is that this has been an amazing trip. I prepared for this adventure for a year. I managed to loose 15kgs of body weight finally getting under 100kg as part of the preparations. First time I visited Nepal in 2009 I was 128kg heavy, next time (in 2011) 115kg. Now I am slightly less than 100kg. I think it is safe to say that the quest for the mountains has been good for my health!

Summiting Imjse Tse, 6189m was an amazing experience. Preparing for something for that long, and making the dream become a reality was nothing short of amazing. It is by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, and it motivates me and gives me the confidence to prepare for further adventures (next trip to Nepal is already in the making).

When I left for this trip, some part of me was struggling coming to terms with my way of life – maybe it is time to settle down, maybe it is time to live a “normal” life?

I think if it is one thing I have learned from this trip, it is you cannot hide from who you are. There is a reason that I keep coming back to this part of the world.
There is a reason that I keep hitting the streets with my camera. There is a reason that I keep seeking out adventure. It is simply just who I am.

I have realized that when I do what I love, I put out a lot of positive energy, and “good stuff” just happens in return. New opportunities arises. I meet new like-minded people. New projects appear. A fellow nomad and photographer friend Flemming Bo Jensen – who also is a great writer, wrote something on his blog a while back, that I can really relate to. As he said – “I am not running away from something – I am running towards to something”! The last few years has been filled with me running towards my dreams.

I left England after living there for 4 amazing years – even though I was enjoying it immensely there. But I had dreamed for long to try to work for my dream company Miracle A/S in Denmark. After having fulfilled that dream – having a great time, learning a lot, working with some amazing people, I quit my job to pursue my dream of traveling the world, for an undefined period. It was an amazing journey! It ended up with me returning to Denmark to start my own company, which was a new adventure indeed. At the same time the preparation started for Imjse Tse.

Now having fulfilled the dream of Imjse Tse, I realize that stopping with pursuing my dreams, and settling into a life that society calls “normal” would be silly.
I don’t see the point of trying to be something that I am not, and trying to want something that most people want. I realize that living a different lifestyle, is not always a dance on roses – but life will always be a bumpy ride no matter how you live it. I think the best we can do is to go for what we want, and own up to the consequences. And I have never been more ready to do that, than I am right now.

Of course I realize that doing crazy and sometimes dangerous things worries the people that I care about. And for that I am truly sorry – and I appreciate their effort to try and understand me. And thereby on a finishing note – thank you for all the support from my friends and family – it means the world to me!

So long Nepal, and thank you for all the daal bhat. Hope to see you again come May!

Namaste!

Life has been hectic today! I arrived in Kathmandu after a 23 hours tiring flight (12 hours of transit in Doha, is a real killer!!)

Today I metup with the fantastic people from Peak Promotion and I learned that we are leaving for Lukla tomorrow at 6:30 AM – not the 6th of November as I had thought. So everything had to be finalized in one day in sted of 4 days – meaning that today I managed to get a haircut, a nepali phone number, handle all the financial stuff, get copies of documents, purchase a bit of gear, get a one hour massage by a blind person (I am a returning happy customer at seing hand, Kathmandu – can only recommend their massages!!), bought all the medicine, and met up with my guide and planned the equipment. And finished the evening with a nice dinner with a friend here, and of course got to eat a slace of the amazing zuricake!!

Now my guide is such a nice person! (As are pretty much all the Nepalis I’ve met the three times I have been here are). I feel in very safe hands, seing as he has previously climbed Mt. Everest 5 times. Imjse Tse, is just a small speed bump for this guy :p :p

The hospitality I have received from Peak Promotion, the company I employed for this climb, has been amazing! From a nice reception in the airport, to a huuuuge 2×3 meter banner at the guest house with the following writting on it:

“Hearty welcome to Mr. Michael Birkmose, Island Peak Climb 2012″. I was soo overwhelmed!! This is truely Nepal rockstar style!

Now these Peak Promotion guys are so cool and organized – they are even going to have a online blog with the trek along the way. So yeah – you will be able to follow this silly danish viking online here:

http://www.peakpromotionnepal.com/cybercast/island_peak/

Did I mention that I am kinda super excited???

Life has been rather hectic during the past two months – but in the good way
April 5th I returned to Denmark from Thailand and 7+ months on the road, to embark on a new adventure. Boxing and exercising in Thailand was a great experience, but I will write a seperate post about that

The day after returning I rushed off to Norway to spend some quality time with the lovely woman Michelle Ortiz!

After a happy reunion and some days packed with fun together with the Filipina mafia (aka the au pair gang), I rushed off back to Denmark to start work for my first client – no time for resting.

Yeah my first client – you heard right I started my own company – Pragma IT at your service! My dream is to work focused for periods as an independent IT consultant, put aside some cash and then at other times pursue other adventures in life. The next adventure is definitively going to be climbing Imja Tse, 6189m in Nepal (also known as Island Peak). So besides being busy with work I try to spend a fair bit of time training for this expedition (hoping to be able to go in November this year)

Plugging back into society has gone rather seamlessly actually. I spend the first month sleeping on Dorthe and Dennise’s sofa – bless their souls and their hospitality. As of May 1st I have been living in a lovely little room in the middle of Copenhagen just a few minutes walk from the Queens palace – I don’t think I will ever get the opportunity to stay this central anywhere in the world again The place is perfect for me. We are six people living here – 2 Greeks, 1 Swedish, 1 Polish, 1 Bangladeshi and myself being the only dane here. Very nice people, and it makes everyday life a little more fun when you have interesting people from different cultures around you

And the best part about my room – it has a bed loft! Sure you might think I am 16 again, but I love it! Sue me

Besides being busy getting plugged back into society, working on the business, and training for Nepal – there has still been time for a few adventures – including a few trips to Norway to visit Michelle, and an epic trip to Russia together with Dorthe and Dennis (with a few days being spend in Estonia as well) to see Peter wed the wonderful woman Constanta, from Moldova. That trip involved me falling a sleep at the statue of Lenin at 3 am, but thats a story for another time

I spend a month in Norway with the wonderful Michelle Ortiz. The month was spend relaxing, enjoying the snow, eating great food and in general having a lovely time!

Now don’t get me wrong. Norway is a great country! Very nice people, fantastic nature, a calm and safe place. A nice change in scenery after the craziness of Asia. But this is not what caught my attention during the past month. It was hanging out with the Filipinos that really moved me

Michelle herself is Filipino, and she has a lot of friends in Norway that are also Filipino (I call them the Filipino mafia ). So naturally I got to spend a lot of time with… you guessed it: Filipinos

And to cut a long story short: They rock! I have yet to see a Filipino that does not smile and laugh all the time. These people has to be the most happy people I have ever met in my life! Always so full of joy and laughter. These guys knows how to enjoy life!

And I don’t think its just me that has been lucky and ended up hanging out with some particular happy Filipinos. During my past 4 months of traveling, naturally I met a lot of other travelers, and we talked about our previous adventures. And I have met several people that all told the same story: When they went to the Philippines they where so surprised about how happy these people are!

And my amazement doesn’t stop here. Not only are they a smiling, laughing, happy bunch of people – also they show so much hospitality Let’s just say that I was not very often hungry in Norway

So here is me saying thank you to Michelle for a lovely month, thank you to Norway for providing the venue and thank you to the Filipino mafia for all your hospitality, laughter and giggle A special thanks to Angel Salinas for her imitation of British accent: Priceless

And do notice all the smileys in this blog post – smiling is contagious

With flight tickets as cheap as they are – the world is really becoming a small place! So ya… I decided to surprise my family and pop by Denmark for a week – a slight detour from my India adventure

Also, I think I am becoming a softie on my old days – as there is a very special woman in my life – Michelle from the Philipines, who lives in Norway currently. Being away from her for 4 months made me miss her terribly, so what happened is that I decided to fly home to Europe and spend christmas with her and her sister, who lives here in Denmark.

We spend christmas with her sister and her brother in law, at his familys place. They have never met me before, and it was nice being reminded that it is not only in Asia that hospitality exists. Danes can be extremely hospitable as well – particular once you break the ice with them. Initially danish people can be rather cold on the surface, and typically it is the outsider that has to take the initiative to start conversation and break the ice (however this was not the case with Michelles brother in laws family!). I felt like I had known them for years already! Completely down to earth and very easy going people – who knows how to cook very well

After christmas I showed up at my fathers doorstep the 27th of December without him having any idea of me being in Denmark – he was quite surprised to see me Michelle and I are currently relaxing at my fathers place, enjoying great Danish food (“Stegt flæsk rocks!”). Tomorrow we head off to Norway to celebrate New Years in Oslo, along with the filipina mafia (a huge bunch of filipina au pairs ). I think it will be quite a sight, a giant danish guy – sourounded by tiny filipinas After new years, my plan is to spend the month of January in Norway with Michelle, after which I am heading off to Thailand for two months.

Now Thailand is going to be a bit crazy – I will spend two months in a Muay Thai training camp, practising thaiboxing – but I think that is a topic for another post

So here is a very merry christmas and a happy new years to all of you!