7th of December

You Cannot Hide From Who You Are


mountainbw

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!

8th of July

Into the Unknown


For the past 3 years or so I have been having this idea in the back of my mind of trying something else than the comfortable life of being employed 9-17, having a steady income, and 6 weeks of annual vacation (yes – the luxury of being a dane!). Back in the end of 2009 I decided to conduct an experiment – to travel on my own for three months (Russia, Nepal and India), to see how I would enjoy traveling for an extended time period. And I have to say that I absolutely loved it!
Photograph by Julian Bialowas
Photograph by Julian Bialowas

So now the decision have finally been made. I want to live the dream! So I will be traveling for an undefined time period. Just go, and roam until either I get enough (is that even possible?), or run out of cash.
So I let my company know that I will resign employment per 31st of August. I will stop renting my room with Dorthe and Dennis (two lovely people, whom I will miss a lot!), and whatever few belongings I have not either sold or donated to charity
will be stored away with friends and family. The journey starts in Nepal with 2 months of hiking with my tiny guide and friend – Ratna (first time ever that I bought a one way ticket that far).

Initial plan is to travel Nepal in September and October, and then go to Bangladesh in November to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr with my crazy friend Zubayer.
After that I am pretty sure I will go to India for a while as I never travelled much in north india – and after that I have no plans – but I hear that there is supposed to be a lot of countries in Asia 🙂

Needless to say – I am pretty excited!

“Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.”
– Christopher McCandless

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