Ikigai

After 12 long days of hiking, I made it to Everest Basecamp and back with a solid group of fellow travellers. While I am still unpacking all my feels about the trek, I’d sum it up by saying that it was just unreal - it was incredibly fun, memorable, and breathtaking (often times, literally).

It started with a nerve wracking flight on a small 20 seater plane that took me and 13 fellow travellers through the mountains. Then day after day from that point on, we hiked between 3 to 9 hours a day. In total, we ended up walking over 45 hours, 137 km and gained 6,116 meters in elevation. We’d shoot the shit, take a ton of pictures and play silly road trip games while we walked til our feet were sore. By the end of the trek, we had a pile of inside jokes and learnt a few new card games. And not surprisingly, I was described by my new friends as the most competitive (but fun-loving) person.

I found the trek pretty darn challenging. As we were approaching Everest Basecamp, I had gotten a really bad headache and I became really nauseous and lightheaded due to the altitude. Fortunately, our main guide was close by at the worst of it and he quickly arranged to have one of our porters carry my daypack and walk with me (as I altitude-drunkenly stumbled around). Like magic, the effects of the altitude wore off once we descended. It didn’t stop me from making it up to the infamous rock though:

I have to say - this trip definitely awoken in me a deep desire to see more mountains and climb more things. I am hoping to summit Mount Kilimanjaro next (and already made a few tentative plans to do it with a few pals!)

I am so glad I did the trek with an organized tour. Through the tour group, I was able to meet so many like-minded travellers who had a ton of countries under their belt and also liked being outdoors and/or physically active. There were a pair of girls from Australia who were only 26 years old and travelled to well over 60 countries already! And for this one guy, Nepal was the 75th country that he had visited. Hearing people’s travel stories has added so many countries to my wishlist.

I am currently reading The Ikigai Journey: A Practical Guide to Finding Happiness and Purpose the Japanese Way by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. In one of the chapters, the author recommends making a list of impossible ventures that weren’t impossible. A good chunk of my list comes from just these past 3+ months of travelling:

1. I began to learn Spanish

2. I learnt to surf

3. I did my first open water swim in the sea and didn’t drown

4. I got my PADI open water and deep diver certifications

5. And I made it to Everest Basecamp!

As I am wrapping up the final weeks of my trip, I’ve been reflecting more and more on what my ikigai is:

Ikigai is a Japanese word that has no exact translation, but is summarized in English as "the meaning of life" or "the thing that makes you get out of bed."

The word is made by joining iki, meaning “life” or “being alive”, and gai, meaning “what is worthwhile and has value”. So, the literal translation would be “that which makes life worth living”.

I can’t say that I know what my ikigai is but I definitely feel more alive than before. And the path to figuring it out feels a whole lot less foggy - unlike this very foggy day we had last week: