Days Drifting along in Thakhek

Today, I am writing from this relaxing climbing camp about 10 kilometers outside of Thakhek, Laos. This camp is about another 2 km off the main road, set in a natural mountain cul-de-sac ringed with limestone cliffs and mini-peaks. It is a stunning setting, as you can see from the below picture looking back to the camp from the main road. The cliff walls are so steep that the sun rises about 2 hours later and darkness sets in an hour before the sun retruns to the horizon at dusk. The camp has a mix of tents, dorms and bungalows - very glad that we opted for the latter since we are going to be here for a couple of weeks. After so much time traveling, we moved right in to our bungalow and sprawled/organized - perhaps practicing for when we have a proper home sometime down the road.

For those that might not know, a climbing camp is usually set up near some excellent rock climbing. My experience is that they tend to be run by Germans, for whatever reason. This means they are always run pretty well, which is important since they are self contained -- a resort for climbers. International climbers abound, with a mix of accents and languages reflecting the draw of exotic climbing. This particular camp, called Green Climbers Home, is run by a German couple that embarked on a round the world trip in 2010 and ended up posting up in this magical cul-de-sac. The climbing is literally on top of the camp, with walks to specific climbs as short as 15 seconds.

Right now, it looks like it will be several days, possibly as many as 13 or 14, before I ride in/on an internal combustion engine. This got me thinking about our travels and also our normal life in San Francisco. In both, it was exceedingly rare to go even one day without the use of a car, bus, subway, plane, tuk tuk, boat or truck. If we make it the full two weeks, this might be the longest period in my life. The only similar stretches that might be close are our 11 days on the John Muir Trail last year and my independent study way back when I studied abroad in the northeast of Brasil. For these two weeks, if we need to get someplace, it will be via our feet or rented bikes. With the short walks to the crag, and the lovely biking by rice fields and those cliffs, that is a nice situation for us.

It is wonderful to slow down. And, staying in one place is good for a couple of reasons: personal financial and climate costs. On the personal financial front, it is a pretty accurate rule of thumb to think of any time you are moving, either in the air, over the ground or across water - you paid for that pleasure. Movement = money. So, in stopping our movement for a couple of weeks, we can bank some cash. Always a good thing.

For climate, another general rule of thumb is that transport = carbon. All those modes of transport I mentioned above use petroleum. That is really what an internal combustion engine is, a device for transferring the energy from burning carbon based inputs to turn wheels or turbines. So, if we are not using any engines for a couple of weeks, we can ease off a little on our carbon debt. These travels have been amazing, but they have not been climate friendly. We have taken dozens of flights, which is the most carbon intensive mode of transport, and covered thousands and thousands of miles via buses and the overland truck through Africa. We have tried to be as low impact as possible, but the reality is that travel means covering distances and in 2013 that means negatively contributing to climate change.

Beyond those obvious and quantifiable impacts of our slow down, there is likely a third, more amorphous benefit. Staying in one place and getting to do something we both love almost daily, that has to be good for our mental and physical biorhythms. Daily life made of of eating well, climbing, running, yoga, reading and sleeping puts us in a good place to think, wihtout getting sidetracked by the daily grind of logsitics.

Our revealed preferences from this year have been movement, movement, movement. We love seeing new parts of the world and get restless a bit too easily. Now, with the carrot of excellent climbing, we are slowing it down.

 

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