two drifters

[wakeupjessie]

April 25, 2015 Seven months ago, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal near its capital Kathmandu. Experts had warned that the country was vulnerable to a large earthquake any time in its future, and as fate would have it, we were there on the particular day when it happened. In such a short amount of time the whole world changed for us backpackers turned disaster victims turned refugees. The same can be said for thousands of people throughout Nepal that day.

[thetwodrifters]

Kathmandu in Color

This is how I best remember the city: vibrant, colorful and bursting with life. It’s a heavy feeling knowing that these may very well be the last few photos of the city in its usual everyday for quite a while. I can’t help but hope that somewhere deep under the rubble lies this version of Kathmandu patiently waiting to be revived. (April 2015)

[thetwodrifters]

Sitio Madlum, San Miguel, Bulacan

[thetwodrifters]

Ateneo de Manila

[thetwodrifters]

Kota Kinabalu seafood night market 

[thetwodrifters]

Life in the hostel and camping grounds of the Danum Valley Field Center, Borneo, Malaysia

[thetwodrifters]

Danum Valley Field Center, Borneo

We woke up and started walking from our camping grounds early in the morning while it was still dark outside. We had met a young Australian couple in the dining area the night before who invited us to watch the sunrise with them in the viewing deck. As far as we knew at the time, the two of them and the three of us were the only guests in the whole reserve. Having another party to share the amazement of actually being in this far-flung uninhabited place so close to wilderness was comforting. It didn't take long 'till we were exchanging stories from our experiences. I told them that on the way to the field center that afternoon we saw two packs of pygmy elephants eating by the side of the road. I was so giddy to actually see elephants in the wild; not in a zoo, nor fenced-off, nor hovered around by a trainer. In return, you could sense the thrill in their voices when they told us of the rhinoceros hornbill they spotted and the pack of red leaf monkeys they encountered by the river. Our stories all seemed to echo the same line of thought: "Is this even real? Are we actually here?" We met them that next morning outside the dining hall. We boarded a pickup truck that brought us to the viewing deck a little farther from the center. As we climbed the platform I could hear the morning stirrings of the forest: birds chirping, crickets steadily humming. A thick fog had settled among the trees of the forest looking like a sea of white below us. The fog was caught in the trees and the hills, and it made the sunlight peaking beneath the clouds glow throughout the forest. The view below made us all move around the platform silently, as if the whole scene would disappear if it knew it had an audience. I can't explain it, but the jungle looked so full of life at that moment. Like a living breathing creature. All we could do was stare.

After the sunrise, all five of us were cruising at the back of the pickup on the way to the dining hall. We talked about life back home: about jobs, university, and what we'd be doing when we got back from our travels. I kept quiet for most of the time while the rest of them talked on. I still seemed to not have adjusted to being in such a beautiful expanse of nature. The trees were tall and looming on either side of the dirt road we were on. The wind was blowing my hair back and I was trying hard not to slide off the edge of the truck. It was a cold morning, but the bearable kind. I look at the canopy of trees above us in awe and disbelief. Is this even real? Are we actually here?

[thetwodrifters]

Kinabalu Mountain Lodge, Kota Kinabalu

[thetwodrifters]

Gunung Kinabalu (Mount Kinabalu), Sabah, Malaysia

The early morning hike up to the peak was difficult to say the least. All bundled up in our jackets and gloves we scrambled in the dark up the rock face with only our headlamps and the rope to guide us. As we neared the top, our steps became heavier and our breaths became more shallow. The altitude made it all the more difficult to forge on. During those moments of rest we looked back down on the dim rock that we've been hiking upon and see the chain of lights from the headlamps of the other climbers all wanting to reach the peak like us. The only thing that kept us going was knowing that we had to make it to the summit in time for the sunrise. 

After what seemed like forever, with all the strength we had left in us, we finally made it up to Low's Peak with a height of 4,095 meters above sea level. We were so high up that the clouds began to look like the ground below us. We were so high up that the cold became close to unbearable without any wind barriers. While the sun rising from behind the rockies was quite a sight to behold, what was more majestic was looking down on the smooth expanse of rock that was finally becoming illuminated by the light of the sun. It felt like we were on another planet with just great towers and crags of contoured granite all around us. Nothing can compare to the feeling of basking in the early morning sun after having reached the summit and looking around at the beautiful product of natural phenomena that happened 10 million years ago. While at the summit we saw people we've met at base camp or while trekking up the mountain the day before. We all congratulated each other for making it all the way to the top. The camaraderie that comes with mountaineering has always been the added comfort that makes the struggle and the pain of climbing a mountain worth it. Being on the majestic peak of Kinabalu with fellow international climbers reassured us that we're not the only ones crazy enough to put our minds and body through this, and that indeed, the view at the top is worth all of it.

[thetwodrifters]

Weird and/or Interesting Things That Happened In Our Vietnam Trip:

1. Getting scammed by a fruit vendor selling pineapples. This, we learned, was apparently a popular modus in the area.

2. Spending two nights in transit aboard sleeper buses with tiny cramped chair-bed half-breeds.

3. The hoard of noisy and energetic Vietnamese that entered the sleeper bus at night and woke all of us on board.

4. Seeing an assortment of things being carried on motorbikes: slaughtered pigs, a baby on a high chair, etc.

5. Waiting for a bus to bring us to either Hanoi or Ninh Binh City on the wrong side of the provincial road and out of desperation (we didn't know we were on the wrong side yet), attempting to hitch hike from there.

6. This shop of stuffed toys in Hanoi's Old Quarter:

7. Sharing a few beers and laughs with our newfound European friends in a "bar" in our little mountain town of Ta Van (our big group of young internationals were the only guests there).

8. Eating a three to four-dish meal under 10 minutes because we thought we were late for the bus from Sa Pa back to Hanoi. Turns out we weren't, and would now have to deal with a rocky bus ride down the mountain on bursting stomachs.

9. Going to the Van Long nature reserve in Ninh Binh expecting it to be a lively park full of monkeys and birds (based on Trip Advisor) but instead it was a rickety river boat ride past marshland in the quietest parts of the area. What happened to our 45,000 dong?

10. Arriving at the bus station early in the morning and having to wait by this "cafe" on the road with friendly Vietnamese taxi and motorbike drivers at 3 am.

[thetwodrifters]

Temple of Literature, Hanoi, Vietnam

[thetwodrifters]

Journal sketch from the Sa Pa leg of our trip

[thetwodrifters]

Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu), Hanoi

[thetwodrifters]

Exploring the streets of Hanoi's Old Quarter means seeing a ton of motorcycles, walking fruit and vegetable vendors, roadside eateries with tiny stools, and old French colonial architecture.

[thetwodrifters]

Manalmon, Bulacan

[thetwodrifters]

Intramuros, Manila