Stories from the Himalaya Trail

Photo credit: Giuseppe Mondi of Unsplash.com

Stories from the Himalaya Trail

Recently, I’ve been sharing stories that occurred while I was lost in the Himalayas years ago and I’ve got more that relate to the overall topic of this blog…TRIP. I don’t want to give away the whole story so you will get more of the day-to-day struggle that I went through before and after I was rescued. That’s where we will start off today.

After being found and brought to civilization, I met two young men from Sweden and began to trek with them for the time I had left. They were on what they called holiday before starting college. In Sweden they get a year to travel and find themselves a in real world way. Their names were Jon and Janos 22 and 21 respectively, tall, blonde, and full of energy. We hit it off right away and agreed that we would trek together for a while and then see how we were going to get back to Bhaktupur and ultimately, Kathmandu.

They had been through some harrowing experiences already in the six months on the road. In Pakistan, they were robbed and chased by some unsavory characters, rented a car that continuously broke down, caught dysentery, etc. Each of them exhibited strong tenacity and resilience in how they handled themselves which I found admirable given their ages. They spoke English so well and asked a lot of questions about America, and I had more than a few about Sweden too.

We were staying in a hostel in a small town on our way to Bhaktapur one evening.  It had a large room with a lot of wooden cots with thin mattresses. We laid our sleeping bags down and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, I was awakened by Janos thrashing around. At first, I thought he was having a nightmare, but I switched on my headlamp to check on him and could immediately determine he was having a seizure. I shouted at Jon to wake up and help me. I rolled him on his side to keep him from swallowing his tongue and help him breathe. He was shaking and jerking uncontrollably which was hard to hold down. 

After a few minutes, he calmed and became conscious once again. I gave him a drink of water and asked if he had medication for epilepsy. He said yes and guided me to where in his backpack I could find the small bottle. Years ago, I was married to a woman who was epileptic and I had learned a lot about them while we were together. I found that experience very useful during my life.  After a while we went back to sleep, but the next day Jon was quite angry that Janos had never told him about his illness. He was apologetic and saddened that he had put Jon and me through the experience. He had simply forgot to take the medication for a couple of days. 

Having an illness like epilepsy makes you strong in so many ways, learning to cope with it is hard. But he was a strong-willed young man and had come to grips with it quite well.

Remember to take a TRIP for a lifetime, not a trip of a lifetime.

Keith……