Trekking to Everest Base Camp was the only thing I had booked and planned for on this big trip before I left California. It was a magnificent 2 week trek full of challenges and experiences that pushed my limits. During my time on the mountain I set a lot of personal records: I went without any internet for 11 days, went without meat for 2 weeks, without a shower for 11 days, slept at 5164m (16,942ft) above sea level and reached 5364m (17,598ft) above sea level. I also walked the most I had ever walked and saw some of the most majestic mountains and valleys on earth, as I limped my way to and back from Everest Base Camp.

Read More

I spent a total of 5 days in Kathmandu, before and after my Everest Base Camp Trek. It was the first place I went on my trip that was vastly different from home in terms of infrastructure and average wealth, and it really put into perspective how rich the US, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore were in comparison. Here’s a photo journal of my experiences in Kathmandu:

Read More

I spent about 10 days in Singapore. I was told that was quite a long time to spend as a tourist in Singapore, since the country is really small and you can feel like you’ve seen the city after about 4 days. However I was looking for something different there, I needed to slow down a bit and recenter myself after having been on the road for about a month and a half. I needed to find a slice of home away from home and rest there for a while and I found that in Singapore.

Read More

I’m spoiled to be from a place where I get a mosquito bite maybe once every 3-4 years, but now that I’m in a tropical area and will be traveling around in countries with some possibility of catching a nasty mosquito transmitted disease like dungue, I’m pretty careful of these suckers. So when I suddenly got 5 huge mosquito bites in Singapore, and started to feel sick afterwards, I got pretty worried.

Read More

A photo journal of a walk I took around the Marina Bay area in Singapore. I got out at ~5am one morning, so I could see the busy metropolitan city during quieter hours and catch the sunrise over the city.

Read More

Some snapshots of my nighttime Singapore adventures. I got pretty lucky with the timing of my Singapore trip. I managed to catch a couple celebrations here completely by chance, including the 100th anniversary of the Marina Bay Barrage. I was also staying in Singapore’s Little India, which was extremely festive because I happened to be staying there during the lead up to Diwali.

Read More

I spent just a little over a week in Australia, which is not a lot of time to explore this huge country. I didn’t have much time here because I need to get to Nepal by November and I wanted to visit Singapore and slow down a bit there before I go do my 16 day long Everest Trek in Nepal.

I didn’t want to rush and try to see too much, so I gave myself 4 full days in Sydney, and 3 full days at Uluru (in the middle of the Australian outback). With this itinerary I figured I would have just enough time to explore and enjoy each place at my own pace with some wiggle room for improvisation.

Read More

Food is expensive, especially in the countries I’ve been to thus far: New Zealand and Australia, and it’s not much different than food from the U.S. So to save on expenses I’ve cooked about 90% of my meals, only buying food on travel days. I’ve whipped together some pretty decent meals and I feel like my cooking has improved drastically already (out of necessity so I’m not eating instant noodles for over a month), but I’ve also created some pretty ‘interesting dishes’ when I was strapped for ingredients or did want to spend too much on groceries.

So from normal to weird, here are some of the meals I’ve cooked on the road so far:

Read More