JUL-B-2
A LOW-TECH TAKEOFF
FOR A LONG
TREK OVER THE MOUNTAINS OF ASIA
July 17, 2002
I am getting ready to push off toward Dulles and a long connection of two Himalayan medical missions, first to Ladakh (two weeks) and second on trek to Lingshed (three weeks in the Tibetan plateau) I will return from this long continuous trip of two teams in successive destinations, and come back the night before the pre- dawn start of the Annapolis Ten Miler Race on August 25th.
I will then be in a real blitz, since, as you see from the attachments, I have a must- do completion set of deadlines for the last chance at the Ph.D. Thesis Proposal by the first week in September, to be accepted officially by the last day of September, and a final defense of said thesis, with five chapters, each due every other month in the intervening year, by the same time next year. It is now "Up or Out."
Meanwhile, I am on my way out- - after a shopping blitz that has produced no single system, despite a tantalizing array of PDA's that operate on "Blue Tooth" Wireless satellite connection to the Internet, and folding standard keyboards so that the PDA could replace the laptop, which has been "down" the entire two weeks, first getting a new keyboard (they decided not to replace the mother board a fourth time) and then a new set of glitches brought on by the repairs. I never could load audio books on the MP-3, Yepp, which will remain home, as will both Nikon NTT cameras which have been sent back to the factory for rehab.
I could not settle on a digital camera. The reason is that I was looking for a single memory card among the options of SD, MultiMedia Card, Smartmedia, Memory Stick, Compact Flash, etc, that would fit in all three-Digital camera, MP-3 and PDA. At the same time, my GPS works off the satellites that some of these wireless units would use, so I could go to a hand-held, essentially cell- phone like unit that would do all of these functions, making not only my notepads and tape recorders and film cameras obsolete, but also the cell phone, laptop, PDA, and digital camera itself part of the single unit. The bottom line, after working on the technologic frontier for several weeks to get it ready to carry into the backside of beyond- - it simply does not work.
So, I am packing up three full boxes of medicines (my only checked luggage) and in my carry- on I have several spare notepads, a dozen audiotapes, my laptop and its cord (since its seven hour batteries are good for thirty minutes each-and even then there will be glitches that develop) and my back- up flashless film cameras-no memory cards, no digital camera, no wireless satellite connections, Blue Tooth or otherwise.
So, come and join the primitive Trek Boer climbing over the Himalayas, leaving even the 4- cylinder two wheel drive diesel Mahindras and Tatas (Indian Jeep rip- offs) behind to climb along with scrawny pack stock carrying the medical kits, and my worn boots, checked into the Action Packer locked in Delhi, which should have met me for my last trip, now assured to be awaiting me for this trip, carrying me over the mightiest mountains on earth.
All really good things begin with a very inauspicious start, Nez Pas?
Cheers!
GWG