Agatha Christie

Hi Readers,

I've had plenty of free time in Africa, such as sleepless nights due to jet lag, boring nights on Kilimanjaro, or traveling on the bus (as I am doing right now, back to Nairobi). During this free time, I've been writing blog posts, watching videos of Andrew Ng teaching machine learning, or more commonly, reading all the Agatha Christie books that I could store on my phone. During this trip so far, I've read 7 of her books: And Then There Were None, 4:50 From Paddington, Black Coffee, A Caribbean Mystery, Pockets Full of Rye, After The Funeral, and Dead Man's Folly.

Let me start of by saying that Agatha Christie is a phenomenal author. For me, she's done for detective stories what Isaac Asimov did for sci-fi novels. I find myself unable to put down her books whenever I start reading them.

She is also amazingly good at throwing red herrings into her stories. I don't think there's been a single story where I've been able to deduce (or even guess) the murderer correctly. With a single sentence (for example, "she touched the flowers with a satisfied smile"), suddenly that person is a suspect and the flowers probably have something to do with the murder...or not. And then at the end of the story, the twist is always unpredictable (maybe she is allergic to those flowers or something, I don't know...I just made up that story).

But the most fascinating aspects of the stories is how the storyline challenges what we've been taught about storytelling while growing up. The most unpredictable factors in these stories are almost always what was left unsaid, rather than what was said. A murder can be committed for a great reward at the end, or for a pittance, or for no reason at all. The background setting, which we usually gloss over, is now massively important. The narrator is now used for deception and misinformation. It make one feel very off-balance while reading one of her books.

But that's probably why there's always such a huge sense of relief and satisfaction when you finish one of her stories. Because the deception and lies are finally over and resolved satisfactorily. And you can finally go to sleep now...at 5am.

-FCDH

PS the bus is approaching Nairobi and the sky is a very angry and dark purple color over the city. There's lightning everywhere too. Looks like another African thunderstorm!

Mt. Kilimanjaro

Hi Readers,

Today (December 27, 2012) marks the successful ascent of Uhuru peak on Mt. Kilimanjaro by my friend GS and I. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, at around 5950m, and located in northern Tanzania.

We first took a bus from Nairobi to Moshi, where many trips to Kilimanjaro depart. On the way, I saw a wild giraffe munching on a tree! GS didn't believe me, but I think he's just jealous. The land border crossing between Kenya and Tanzania was very interesting. The bus first stopped on the Kenyan side, where you lined up to get your passport stamped by Kenya. Then you walk across the border to the Tanzanian side, where you line up to get your passport stamped again, before getting back on the bus. The border looked so porous that I think you could've just walked across without a passport if you wanted. Certainly nothing like the land border between Canada and the US that I had seen before.

Kilimanjaro requires that you hire a guide and maybe porters as well. These aren't cheap; any type of trip up Kilimanjaro is at least a thousand dollars per person. We booked our trip quite cheaply, with a company called Mar tours. The team turned out to be a guide, an assistant guide, a cook, and 6 porters...just to serve the two of us. If there was ever a thing called luxurious mountain climbing, Kilimanjaro would be where you would find it.

As there are many number of routes that climbers can take to ascend Kilimanjaro, we decided to take one of the longest routes, called the Lemosho route, over 7 days. As the longest route had the most amount of time for acclimatization to the tremendous altitude, we figured this would give the highest possibility of a successful summit. As a challenging addition, we decided to take the most difficult and dangerous route for summit day, called the Western Breach route. This route is infamous for a rockfall that killed three American climbers in 2006.

Long story short, the first five days were not very eventful. It involved us traveling from camp to camp, all the while moving higher and higher in elevation. Each day we were served three meals in a mess tent, and an afternoon tea as well. The meals were the best things about the trip. I definitely didn't get tired of the food this time, unlike Pico de Orizaba, when I was ready to throw up the protein bars after 2 days.

By the end of the fifth day, we were at a campsite called Arrow Glacier campsite, at around 4600m. It was directly next to the steep slope that made up the Western Breach, and during that day we had the pleasure/horror of hearing endless rockfalls echoing across the slope. I thought for sure that we were going to die from one of these when it was our turn to go on the slope.

For the final summit climb today, we woke up at 1am and were ready to go by 2am. As we began going up the slope, GS and I both agreed that this is probably the most dangerous climb that we've ever done. The slope was very steep and covered in snow, and everybody lacked crampons (since somehow every guidebook says Kili does not need them). Worse, one of the guides even lacked a hiking pole, so eventually when the going got tough enough, I had to lend him one of mine. The guides also lost the trail numerous times, so we had to scramble over ice-covered boulders right next to hundred-foot cliffs to get back on trail. I was surprisingly calm, despite the fact that a small slip anywhere in the first 2 hours would mean serious injury at the minimum.

I was undeniably relieved when we finally crested the crater rim. Another exhausting zigzag up the crater walls and soon we were taking the obligatory summit pictures (along with hordes of tourists that had come up the easier way). I had brought along 3 flags to pose with: Canada, Taiwan, and the LGBT rainbow flag. I heard audible gasps from the assembled crowd when I pulled out the rainbow flag and posed with it, although I'm not sure of the reason why.

We were supposed to spend an additional day on the mountain after attaining summit. However, because we made such good time down the mountain, and also because the weather was crap (it had rained every single day we we on the mountain), the guides encouraged us to make it all the way to the park gates so we can spend the night in real beds. What followed was a 6 hour non-stop sprint down the mountain from the peak.My legs are currently hurting more than they did after the marathon. But it's all over and we survived!

Tomorrow we are returning to Nairobi. So ends our brief mountainous tryst in Tanzania!

-FCDH

First Impressions of Africa

Hi Readers,

It is currently 3:30 am local time, and I just settled down into my hotel bed in Nairobi, Kenya. The past 40 something hours have been a whirlwind of flights, and airport terminals.  I started the journey in San Jose, and passed through LA, Frankfurt, and Addis Ababa (AA) before finally arriving in Kenya. The most interesting part of the trip so far must be the 17 hr layover that we had in Ethiopia.

We arrived to the AA airport at 6am, and since our next flight wasn't until 11pm, we decided to go out into the city to explore. Ethiopian Airlines graciously provided us with a transit stay at their hotel in downtown AA. We pretty much hit 4 birds with one stone: all 3 meals for the day were free, we didn't have to pay for the transit visa, we got a free bus ride to and from the airport, and we got a free hotel room where we napped off some jet lag.

After some napping, we went out to the Merkato marketplace in AA, which is the largest open air market in Africa. We were accosted by a guide masquerading as a friendly student eager to practice his English, who took us to the market and showed us around.

My impression of my first afternoon in Africa was mixed.  On the one hand, the smells everywhere in the city were quite horrible. Vehicles spewed jet black smoke, and the smell hanging in the air was always a mix of smoke and garbage. The people looked at me weirdly, and I heard a lot of "China!" and "ni hao ma" everywhere I went. Some kids even broke into Gangnam style as I passed them. On the bright side, the city felt very organically vibrant. The market sold a wide variety of things. People were selling animals like donkeys and chickens, furniture, construction materials like steel rods, and more traditional stuff like food and clothing.

The stay in Ethiopia was interesting but quite exhausting. By the time we finally arrived at the Nairobi airport, I was ready to drop and sleep anywhere I could. Surprisingly, the process of obtaining a Kenyan visa upon arrival was very easy and quite straightforward. We also managed to find our luggage successfully (a miracle in my mind, given that we had 3 layovers over 40 hours and that our bag had somehow arrived to Kenya on an earlier flight than us).

I can't help but be thankful that everything had worked out so well!

Cheers,
FCDH

Pico de Orizaba

Hi Readers,

During Thanksgiving break, I went on a trip to Mexico with my friend GS, with the primary focus being a summit of Pico de Orizaba (5,636 m / 18,491 ft), a volcanic mountain which is the 3rd tallest mountain in North America (after Denali / Mt. McKinley in Alaska, and Mt. Logan in Canada). Here is the full story of the journey to and from the mountain, in case it is helpful for those who will go.

From Mexico City, we first took the metro to the San Lazaro station, and walked to the TAPO bus station right next door. From there, we took the Estrella Roja bus to Puebla city's CAPU bus station, before transferring to a Valles bus to Tlachichuca.

Once in Tlachichuca, it took us awhile to find Senor Reyes place because we took the wrong exit out of the bus station and apparently nobody in town knew where the PEMEX gas station was. Make sure to exit the bus station by going through the building it is stopped at (and not out the road it drove in on), turn left out the front door, make a left at the first street you come to, and make a right at the first street after that. Senor Reyes place will be on the left hand of this street. We found Senor Reyes place too cold at night, so be sure you wear layers or just sleep in a sleeping bag.

The next morning we woke up early to prepare for the trip. You can put your valuables that you don't want to take in a plastic bag and give it to Senor Reyes for safekeeping ; non-valuables can be put in the luggage storage area. The ride up the mountain is done in an enclosed flatbed truck, which leaves at around 11am. It is easy to get carsick in this truck, so make sure you prep for that if that is a problem. Halfway up the mountain the truck will stop for pictures and bathroom break. Around 1pm the truck will arrive at Piedra Grande.

We felt good enough to hike up to the lower alpine camp right away and set up a camp there. Many people just stay at Piedra until summit day, but just a word of warning: the scree trail up from Piedra can be confusing even during the day. Constantly look for small flags and/or cairns (small rock piles) to guide you up the correct way. The lower alpine camp is around an hour and a half from Piedra, and the upper alpine is located a further 45 mins further, at the base of the labyrinth. We weren't really able to sleep either of the nights that we stayed at the mountain, and we didn't have Diamox so we don't know if it helps at all. Upon returning, I amused my friends with stories of hallucinations during these 2 nights without sleep.

We spent the second day around the labyrinth area to acclimatize, and the morning of the third day (2am) we did the alpine start. This was much earlier than we needed to leave at, but we wanted a relaxing climb. We wasted a lot of time at the labyrinth trying to find the correct path that required as little rock scrambling as possible after putting on crampons. In the dark it was quite hard, and by the time we reached the glacier it was about 5:30.

As naive as we are, we thought that we would be able to reach the top by sunrise. Once you start climbing, it doesn't take long to realize how long the actual climb will be. The glacier seems quite endless and the lack of oxygen becomes quite apparent very quickly. We spent close to 4 hours on the glacier before we reached the summit. On this part, you should stick to the path shown by the flags and not try to head towards the summit that you see, because this is a false summit (and there are two more false summits if you head this way).

Reaching the summit was a great feeling. We had missed the sunrise and there were a lot of clouds, but the view was still amazing. It was a cool thought, that we were probably the tallest people anywhere on the North American continent at that moment (because it is not a typical time to climb Denali or Logan). We took the descent very slowly because there was another group behind us who were supposed to return on the same ride back down. Therefore by the time we got down to Piedra it was 3 already (the other group finally arrived at 6pm). One of the guys from the other group had peed his pants on the glacier because he was so tired.

After getting back to Mexico city, we spent another 4 days there, and saw places like Teotihuacan, Coyoacan, and the Museo Anthropologia. It was quite an amazing trip overall, even though the entire sleepless time on the mountain, I was cursing myself for coming. Chalk up another awesome life experience!

-FCDH